Kiko Kostadinov’s one-off London runway show was inspired by the designers’ Lakeland terrier, Dante

When news came that Kiko Kostadinov was to host a special show in its new Hackney headquarters – a co-ed, off-calendar display titled ‘Dante’ – one would be forgiven for assuming the Bulgarian designer and womenswear directors Laura and Deanna Fanning were referencing the author of epic purgatory masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.

‘Dante is our Lakeland terrier,’ Laura explained downstairs in the rust-carpeted, steel-walled flagship store, which sits below the office where the show took place. Around her, guests, artists, and musicians like Steve Lacy and Celeste mill around with glasses of natural wine and shortbread biscuits shaped like dog treats, while Kostadinov chats to friends cradling the furry four-year-old dog in his arms.

Kiko Kostadinov host one-off show in the brand’s London HQ

‘He’s kind of like our mascot,’ she continued. ‘He’s from the north of England, the Lake District, so we played on ideas of the countryside. We also thought about the textures that he likes and how they could materialise in a wardrobe. It’s really fun and light-hearted, and I feel like all the designers in the studio really connected to the collection.’

Opening the doors to Kiko Kostadinov’s gleaming new multistorey headquarters, the show marked something of a homecoming for the Bulgarian designer and Australian twin sisters. Kostadinov launched his technically experimental namesake brand in London in 2016 after graduating from Central Saint Martins, bringing the Fannings into the fold to head up its womenswear offering in 2018. The trio have channelled their creative energy into other cities in the years since, becoming anticipated fixtures of the Paris Fashion Week calendar while opening two retail spaces in Tokyo and Los Angeles. As Kiko Kostadinov prepares to mark ten years in 2026, the brand is now putting down roots in the city where it all began.

To celebrate the occasion, the designers presented mens- and womenswear together for the first time on Friday evening. As a glitchy techno score pulsed through the office space, an unconventional cast of characters appeared in looks that explored eccentric British countryside dress, twisting heritage shapes and fabrics through the brand’s unmistakably off-kilter codes. Taking the rolling landscapes of their canine muse as a starting point, men wore dog-walker uniforms shuffled up with formalwear, mixing sturdy cardigans, corduroy blousons, and tailoring cut in Japanese tweed. Debuting denim and twill pieces from a new collaboration with Levi’s, the looks, said the brand, captured the joy of mixing the practical with the refined.

Their women, meanwhile, were clad in figure-hugging looks that riffed on ideas of British formalism in other ways. Striking a balance of awkward sensuality, riding suits came with leather patch detailing, jacquard tops clung to the body in soft cashmere, and slip dresses appeared in elegant double-faced wools. The affirming presence of Dante appeared throughout, from tufted-knit materials inspired by terrier fur to his four-legged figure cast in brooches and pins, a set of which were left on seats for guests to take home. Made by their studio, shown in their studio, it was a clever and original collection from the heart, celebrating everything the three designers have achieved as they open the doors to the brand’s new home.

Like many good things, the building where they are able to make this new start came to them by a stroke of timing. ‘The landlord of our old space sold the building, so we had three months to find something else,’ says Fanning. ‘We were fortunate enough to find this place. We came together and really thought about what it could be, how we could bring our work to people in a way that we felt more connected.’

As such, the store is designed to ‘pervert’ the classic retail experience, blending exclusive releases with an evolving exhibition space and surreal fittings by long-time collaborator Ryan Trecartin, who also worked on the Tokyo and LA stores. This time, a frenetic 2016 film by Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, Stunt Tank, inspired pontoon-boat furniture and snaking chrome safety railings, while footage from the work plays in store for the opening this weekend.

While the brand is known for its intellectually charged collections, and the new HQ will no doubt offer more breathing room for its subversive ideas, the warm, human energy in the room last night was a reminder of the people, collaborators – and pets – behind it all. As Fanning states, they hope it will serve as a space to share their work in more personal ways. ‘We want to view it as a hybrid place, where we do events, have exhibitions, and customer appointments,’ she says. ‘We'll see the shape that it takes, but it’s exciting to meet the people who wear the clothes, to have that direct interaction with the customer. It makes everything feel more real.’

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