London Fashion Week’s autumn/winter 2026 edition kicked off with a surprise guest: none other than the King himself, who sat front row at Tolu Coker’s show at the NewGen Space at 180 Strand on Thursday afternoon. “I heard that rumour as well,” the British-Nigerian designer laughs, when asked a couple of days before the show about the murmurings that His Royal Highness would be making a special appearance.
In many ways, the presence of King Charles marks a full circle moment for Coker, who received mentorship via the Prince’s Trust when she first decided to set up her own brand back in 2018. “When you’ve got a dream of doing something, [you need to understand] what’s the reality, the logistics, the practicality of it,” she explains. “The Prince’s Trust was a big resource for that. I met a lot of people who now are entrepreneurs, people from working class backgrounds who just wanted to start a business.”
As a working-class designer creating luxury womenswear, Coker was also thinking about the idea of social mobility this season. One of her first jobs was as a sales assistant for the Louis Vuitton concession at Selfridges, when she was given her first luxury outfit to wear. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s like my first designer thing’, but it’s your uniform, right?” she recalls, noting that some of the tailoring is reflective of that suit you might have borrowed for a job interview. “The collection is a big commentary on social mobility and how our wardrobes mobilise with us.”
