KNWLS SS27 did not arrive as a polite anniversary preview. According to Vogue’s Liam Hess, Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault used spring/summer 2027 to look backward and sideways at once: toward Bettina Rheims’s landmark book Chambre Close—the French photographer’s images of women undressing in cheap, anonymous hotel rooms that also inspired their Central Saint Martins graduate show—and toward a sharper, zingier “twist on femininity” now that their Diesel chapter with Glenn Martens has closed. The invite itself telegraphed the mood: a grainy, vintage-toned photo of a model silhouetted against a window, holding a dramatic fan-like pleated skirt, light catching a faded floral print from behind—half flash, half revelation. For Cover Issue’s runway desk, KNWLS SS27 is London Fashion Week’s clearest proof that undress, when engineered with craft, can still feel like a point of view rather than a costume.
The designers will celebrate the brand’s tenth anniversary next year. Arsenault told Vogue at preview that they had been feeling nostalgic about where they started, and wanted to think about how they see things now versus then. Knowles added that the women in Rheims’s book appear in different stages of undress, translated quite literally into deconstruction and layering, with a palette pushed more “zingy.” That brief—nostalgia without soft focus—threads every look Hess flags.
Look one and the language of revealing and concealing
Opening look: a deconstructed lingerie ensemble—corseted camisole, sheer skirt falling from garter clips over cotton briefs. From there, Hess writes, the show became a showcase of what makes KNWLS expert at revealing and concealing the female form. A draped powder-blue jersey twisted around the body with flashes of lace-trimmed bra and briefs underneath. A dusty rose liquid satin slip with crossover jersey banding wrapping the waist and exposing the stomach suggested the disheveled glamour of someone stepping out of a boudoir half-dressed. One standout gown in blush pink and peach lace unfurled in concentric tiers, peeling away at the chest and trailing down the calf like the opening of Venus’s half shell.
Those are not random lingerie quotations. They are architectural: straps, clips, banding, and tiered lace as construction logic, not merely decoration. The Chambre Close reference stays visible without turning the runway into a hotel-room set piece—the clothes do the undressing.
Denim, Diesel residue, and a 1950s swing coat on acid
After a year working under Glenn Martens at Diesel, denim and leather were always going to carry extra voltage. Hess notes jeans slashed and rejoined mid-thigh, plus a 1950s-inspired swing coat cut from distressed dark brown leather with undulating sculptural lapels and puff shoulders—“on acid,” in Vogue’s phrasing. The Diesel gig ending, Hess adds, has given the pair more time to focus on their own label, and it shows: confident execution that nods to the brand’s past while breaking new ground.
Cross-file the leather drama against Featured Mulberry at Three and Alexander McQueen’s London homecoming: same city week, different registers of British craft. KNWLS sits closer to the body and the boudoir; Mulberry and McQueen hold the heritage and sculpture poles.
South London parquet, trip-hop, and crushed leather roses
Venue and soundtrack matter. Hess places the show in the sleek, parquet-floored performance hall of a south London school, with a killer trip-hop soundtrack by their regular fit model, musician October Logan. Fun staging, yes—but Vogue insists the impeccable craft impressed most. Skirts and bags featured crushed leather roses made from super-thin skived leather, hand-embroidered and pressed flat. Dresses of multiple jersey and silk lingerie pieces were sewn onto phantom tulle to create the illusion of garments falling off the body. That is the season’s lasting SEO hook for searchers typing “KNWLS leather roses” or “Chambre Close fashion”: not scandal, but skived leather and phantom tulle.
Also file beside Chopova Lowena’s bowling-alley lucky-spirit chaos: London Fashion Week SS27 needs both the lane shout and the school-hall hush of lingerie engineering.
How to read KNWLS SS27 without copying a look
• One undress cue, not five: a visible bra strap, a sheer panel, or a waist band that exposes midriff—pick a single Chambre Close signal.
• Zingy powder and dusty rose: powder blue jersey or dusty rose satin as the season’s wearable colour flash.
• Leather with sculpture, not just distress: lapel and shoulder shape matter as much as wash.
• Denim that has been cut and rejoined: a mid-thigh seam or slash reads Diesel-year without a full reconstruction.
• Stay sourced: attribute Chambre Close, look one, crushed roses, venue, October Logan, and the Diesel context to Vogue / Liam Hess.
Why KNWLS SS27 matters before the tenth anniversary
Ten years into the journey, Hess concludes, Knowles and Arsenault’s ability to articulate a new twist on femininity feels as relevant as ever. Search language to package: KNWLS SS27, Charlotte Knowles Alexandre Arsenault, Bettina Rheims Chambre Close, crushed leather roses, phantom tulle lingerie, south London Fashion Week, Diesel Glenn Martens influence. The durable takeaway for Cover Issue readers is craft under the undress—skived roses, tulle illusions, and a palette that went zingy without abandoning the brand’s body literacy.
Reading the invite as a thesis statement
Hess opens on the invite’s grainy silhouette for a reason: KNWLS has always trafficked in the charged space between display and privacy. A pleated skirt held like a fan, floral print lit from behind, the suggestion of a flash—these are Chambre Close codes translated into marketing before a single look walks. When Arsenault speaks of nostalgia as an exercise in seeing, and Knowles of literal undress through deconstruction, the collection’s logic becomes editorial as much as commercial. Spring/summer 2027 is not a costume party in a motel; it is a decade-aware recalibration of how lingerie architecture, jersey twist, and leather sculpture can still feel newly articulate on a London parquet floor.
That recalibration matters for readers who only catch the viral lingerie still. The durable news is craft density: skived roses pressed flat, phantom tulle holding multiple lingerie pieces in mid-fall, denim that remembers a Diesel year without becoming a denim capsule alone. KNWLS SS27 rewards slow looking—the same habit Cover Issue asks of Mulberry’s quieter London hero and McQueen’s sculptural homecoming.
For SEO packaging, keep the proper nouns tight: Charlotte Knowles, Alexandre Arsenault, Bettina Rheims, Chambre Close, October Logan, Glenn Martens, Diesel, crushed leather roses, phantom tulle. Attribute the narrative spine to Vogue. Ten years loom; this season already walks like a house that knows what it is for.
A school hall. Trip-hop. Lingerie that looks mid-fall and stays engineered. KNWLS SS27 proves nostalgia can cut like a new pattern when the decade turns.