KNWLS · SS27 · London21 September 2026

KNWLS SS27 Chambre Close at London Fashion Week: Charlotte Knowles

KNWLS showed its spring 2027 collection, Chambre Close, at London Fashion Week on 19 September. Bettina Rheims made the original Chambre Close with the novelist Serge Bramly, who wrote a fiction to run alongside her photographs. Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault took its subject, exposure, and turned it toward the wearer being in charge of it. Their notes describe the collection as "the act of coming undone." The label traded under Charlotte Knowles's own name until 2021, when the pair shortened it to KNWLS. In 2022 they were finalists for the LVMH Prize, the annual award for young designers run by the luxury group that owns Louis Vuitton and Dior.

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01KNWLS, THE LONDON LABEL OF CHARLOTTE KNOWLES AND ALEXANDRE ARSENAULT, SHOWED SPRING 2027 ON 19 SEPTEMBER. THE IDEA: CLOTHES COMING UNDONE, ON PURPOSE.

02THE SHOW WAS CALLED CHAMBRE CLOSE, FRENCH FOR CLOSED ROOM. THE NAME COMES FROM A BOOK BY THE FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER BETTINA RHEIMS.

03RHEIMS PUBLISHED IT IN 1992: COLOUR PICTURES OF WOMEN HALF UNDRESSED IN ROOMS WITH PATTERNED WALLPAPER. IT WAS HER FIRST SERIES IN COLOUR.

04KNWLS USUALLY MEANS LAYERS OF ENGINEERED JERSEY, SCULPTED LEATHER AND PRINTED MESH. HERE THE UNDERWEAR WAS STYLED AS IF SLIPPING OFF THE BODY.

05CORSET DRESSES WERE LEFT UNBUTTONED OVER Y-FRONTS, THE MEN'S BRIEFS.

06BRAS WERE FASTENED BACK TO FRONT, AND STRAPS WERE LEFT HANGING OFF THE SHOULDER. NOT A WARDROBE MALFUNCTION, A STYLING DECISION.

07JERSEY SETS WERE DRAPED EXTRA LOW, TO SHOW THE LACE TRIM OF A BANDEAU, A STRAPLESS BAND TOP, UNDERNEATH.

08AROUND ALL THAT CAME THE OUTER LAYERS: UTILITY OUTERWEAR, FLUID DENIM CUT TO GRAZE THE FLOOR, AND WEATHERED LEATHER.

09SOFT TAILORED SETS HAD RUFFLED POCKETS MADE TO LOOK LIKE CRUSHED ROSES. THE LABEL HAD TEASED THE SHOW WITH A PICTURE OF PRESSED ROSES.

10KNOWLES AND ARSENAULT MET AT LONDON'S CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS ART SCHOOL AND STARTED THE LABEL IN 2017.

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