London Fashion Week: KEBURIA SS27 Brings Menswear to its Runway for the First Time
The brand's decisive consumer breakthrough was not initially a dress or runway collection but the narrow, angular cat-eye sunglasses associated with Rihanna, Solange and later Bella and Gigi Hadid. Dazed described them in January 2018 as Keburia's “game-changer” and explicitly connected their success to the social-media-led fashion environment. This was strategically important: KEBURIA acquired an inexpensive, relative to ready-to-wear, photographically unmistakable hero product capable of circulating independently of runway coverage, a hard feat for a small self-taught designer. The iconic sunglasses remain an integral part of the brand’s archive, with similar showstoppers available on site for around $225, indicating that the accessory evolved from a viral moment into a continuing brand code.
The SS25 collection developed an explicit “doll” universe at Bucharest Fashion Week; on 24 February, KEBURIA made its official London Fashion Week debut with AW25 at the Hellenic Centre. Critics focused on bubble skirts, giant collars and cuffs, stacked berets, bows, military tailoring, lace and tulle, gloves transformed into bodily embellishment and a Victorian/porcelain-doll collision. 10 Magazine called the result a form of decorative deconstruction; Marie Claire compared the experience to falling down an Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole. Vogue Business subsequently identified KEBURIA's bubble skirts and cropped breeches as part of wider AW25 London trends.
Now, for the first time, KEBURIA presents menswear. Our personal favourite from the SS27 collection is the opening look, with a ‘HOPE YOU BURN PUTIN’ guitar case; a revealing contemporary example of designers using the runway as a communications system, signalling their political and moral alignments in a fashion market where consumers are more hyper-aware than ever of what their money is being used to fund. Unlike other politically flirtatious stunts from Fashion Weeks past, KEBURIA’s reads as authentic and from the heart.
KEBURIA has transcended the prison of a viral one-hit-wonder accessory through a founder whose personal narrative is tightly embedded in the brand. The clearest sign of maturity is that KEBURIA doesn’t depend on a single hero accessory for recognisability. AW25 demonstrated that volume, bubble forms, exaggerated tailoring, military and historical codes and surreal styling have become a legible house language, and this is condensed within SS27. The first appearance of menswear in SS27 suggests the brand now believes those codes can migrate across gender categories rather than remaining tied to womenswear alone. This observation aside, the brand is still as fun as ever, with key accessories such as oversized key charms, big red hoops and fringed bags reminiscent of cheerleader pom-poms displayed across the looks. KEBURIA has always enjoyed tearing up the rule book, and this collection is our opportunity to witness George Keburia challenge the viewer’s notions of masculinity and femininity, making comical visual commentary on the proportions expected of them today.
The menswear looks feature flirtatious unbuttoned blouses, deliciously short shorts and daring pastel pink dresses. At first glance, the menswear looks are simple, but on further inspection you see KEBURIA’s attention to detail, with delicate Western-style stitching across vests and jeans, and even its rendition of a clean white shirt couldn’t resist an odd collar and saxophone iconography. It’s amusing, disproportionate and feels like a direct rejection of the crushing soullessness that plagues mainstream menswear today.
Elsewhere, SS27 presents imagery of the British countryside woven into a custom-developed jacquard, then cut into pieces destined for somewhere far more theatrical. Equestrian shapes and Western details surface in collars and studs, alongside washed canvas, camouflage and metallic tweed. These are references to rural life, dressed for a night out. The collection feels like looking directly into a memory of ’90s Britain, where your grandfather would have paintings of horses on the living room wall above the fireplace. A pang of longing for familiarity runs through the collection. Crinkled suits with humorously large flower brooches and ’80s basketball-coach-esque styling continue the theme of taking part of your past with you somewhere new. Black, cream, khaki and tobacco are interrupted by red, turquoise and metallics. Across the collection, oversized pieces meet the barely there; utility comes covered in embellishment.
Overall, KEBURIA is best understood not as a minor Georgian label that happened to produce a viral pair of sunglasses, but as a founder-led independent designer business that successfully converted accessory virality into a broader, silhouette-driven identity and is now using London Fashion Week to reposition itself as an internationally legible fashion house while retaining the heart and soul of George Keburia.
Credits:
Styling: Isabel Bonner
Casting: Monika Domarke
Hair: Richard Phillipart
Make Up: Alice Dodds
Movement: Angelica Wolańska
Music: SALOME
Production: Arlene Faller
Lighting Design: Rockit
PR: Agency Eleven
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