Paul Costelloe brings the Sixties Beverly Hills Barbie to the runway at London Fashion Week
Irish designer Paul Costelloe transported spectators across the Atlantic for his spring/summer 2026 London Fashion Week show.
Costelloe, 80, is best known for having been appointed Diana, the Princess of Wales’ personal designer in 1983, and his style combines elegant and classic tailoring with blending contemporary design.
Usually drawing on a subdued palette of pastels or earth tones, this collection was a welcomed contrast to his previous ones, with tangerine and turquoise being focal colours of the collection.
The whole scene evoked Rodeo Drive circa 1963, Beverly Hills Barbie, and the iconic photography of Slim Aarons.
Today, the West Coast of America evokes images of oversized sunglasses, metallic manicures and unapologetic displays of conspicuous consumption – but Costelloe managed to impressively tap into this stereotype while staying true to his signature timeless style.
His signature tweeds were blown up and lightened, worn as swing coats and tiny skirt suits with matching handbags and platform shoes in Easter-egg shades.
Even the hair, piled into high bouffants, nodded to an idealised California of the Sixties rather than Carnaby Street.
Costelloe’s answer is to dress women as if they’re stepping off a pastel Cadillac into a Beverly Hills hotel lobby, but keep the tailoring light enough for a modern city summer.
It’s prim but the cut-outs manage to make it cool, not precious.
After months of muted minimalism, Costelloe’s technicolour Palm Springs-inspired show feels like a deliberate counter-act – one that suggests to be a pervading trend throughout fashion week.