LFW SS25: Bora Aksu

Bora Aksu’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection at London Fashion Week was a poetic tribute, a personal and emotive homage to his late mother, Birsen Aksu. Known for his mastery of feminine silhouettes and intricate craftsmanship, Aksu this season added a layer of deeply felt emotion, threading his mother’s life and style into each piece. The result was a collection that felt simultaneously like a celebration of life and a quiet elegy, rooted in his Turkish heritage and the elegant independence his mother embodied.

The runway opened with a sense of lushness and nostalgia, where voluminous shapes in diaphanous fabrics brought to life Birsen Aksu’s enduring elegance. Aksu’s hallmark demi-couture sensibilities were on full display, but this time they came with a personal touch—each garment seemed to hold a story, a memory. The palette ranged from soft sandy nudes and pale pinks to bold, saturated reds, yellows, and blues, reflecting the duality of lush femininity and understated drama. It was as if Aksu had opened a photo album of his mother’s life and translated its hues into fabric.

Aksu’s focus on vintage materials added a tactile sense of history, with his penchant for sourcing rare, limited-quantity fabrics giving the collection an air of exclusivity and reverence. The hand-embroidered fabrics in soft whites, combined with floral motifs reminiscent of mid-century patterns, transported the audience back to the 1960s—a time when Birsen, frustrated by the limitations of fashion in Turkey, began designing her own clothes. This spirit of self-expression was palpable in the cropped tailored jackets, layered skirts, and the soft, feminine detailing that laced through the collection.

What stood out was Aksu’s deft balancing act between strength and softness. Sharp tailoring contrasted with delicate lace shoulders and embroidered overlays, evoking both a sense of independence and gentleness, perhaps reflective of his mother’s life as both a paediatrician and a style icon in her own right. The collection’s flowing, romantic dresses, with their sheer layers and rich floral embroidery, spoke to a folk romanticism—timeless, yet modern in their execution. The collision of eras, much like the collision of emotions in the collection, was at the heart of Aksu’s message.

Beyond the aesthetic beauty, there was a palpable sense of love in the craftsmanship. The collection carried the weight of a son honouring his mother’s legacy, not only as a designer but as a woman who lived with grace and strength. The duality of innocence and subversion, woven throughout the fabric choices and the boldness of colour, mirrored Birsen’s own journey—of navigating a traditional world with a fiercely individual spirit.

Bora Aksu’s SS25 collection was a reminder of fashion’s power to transcend the material and touch on the personal, the emotional. In every stitch, drape, and fold, there was a tender connection to the past, yet with an eye firmly on the future. Aksu once again proved that his designs are not just clothes, but woven stories—this time, the most intimate of them all.