Sinead Gorey brings Irish pub culture to London Fashion Week

An Irish pub – complete with pool tables, low lighting and bottles raised mid-walk – was not the most obvious setting for a London Fashion Week runway. But for autumn/winter 2026, Sinead Gorey made it the centrepiece.

Staged in The Crypt at St James’s Church in Clerkenwell, the underground venue was bathed in a dim red light, evoking the atmosphere of a Nineties Irish local.

Two pool tables lined the runway and a bar installation anchored the end of the catwalk, as a mash-up of Pixies, Joy Division and Pulp blasted through the space. Models occasionally paused to chalk a cue or take a swig from a bottle before continuing down the runway, blurring the line between performance and presentation.

For Gorey, whose work often draws on London nightlife subcultures, the pub represented both the beginning and end of a night out: “The pub,” she says, “honestly, nothing beats being wedged round a sticky table with your girls on a Friday, pint in hand, pretending you’re good at pool. Maybe it’s the half Irish thing, maybe it’s just in my DNA […] some people meditate, I go to the boozer.”

On the runway, exaggerated hourglass silhouettes dominated in Gorey’s signature corsets. Shoulders were broadened, waists sharply cinched and hips sculpted, creating a severe silhouette that seems to be dominating the runways.

Military jackets, braiding and structured tailoring reinforced the power-dressing.

Corsetry and bustled silhouettes were reworked in bonded Lycra, technical jersey and metallic finishes, fusing heritage femininity with contemporary fabrication.

Exposed zips, studs and hardware buckles cut through more romantic elements, while fishnet panels and second-skin layers added a utilitarian edge. Fringe and furry trims – recurring trends across the London schedule – injected texture and movement under the low lighting.

The palette echoed the setting: stout blacks, bitter browns and oxblood reds were punctuated by pool-table greens and flashes of chrome. Glossy finishes suggested lacquered tabletops; heavy shearling and structured outerwear nodded to the reality of cold pavements outside the pub doors.

A visible collaboration with Desperados ran throughout the show, with bottle caps repurposed into jewellery and hardware details. One model wore a belt designed to hold bottles, while another used a buckle-turned-bottle opener on the runway. At times the branding felt overt, but it aligned with Gorey’s unapologetically playful, irreverent aesthetic.

Footwear tapped into shared British and Irish nostalgia, with the classic Kickers Kick-Hi boots grounding many of the looks.

Founded in 2019 with support from the British Fashion Council, Gorey’s label has built a recognisable identity around contemporary technical partywear, attracting fans including Miley Cyrus and Cardi B. This season, however, felt like a refinement of that formula.

The sex appeal remained but the tailoring carried more authority. The exaggerated silhouettes suggested confidence rather than chaos, hinting at a maturing vision.

By reframing the Irish pub as a space of mythology rather than cliché, Gorey delivered a show that felt culturally specific yet broadly relatable.

Beneath the theatrics of pool cues and pints was a considered exploration of where tradition, rebellion and femininity meet.

If previous collections captured the chaos of the after-party, autumn/winter 2026 suggested Gorey understands that the stories shaping a night out often begin around a sticky table, under low lights, long before the club doors open.