LONDON — It’s Kent & Curwen’s 100th anniversary this year and designer Daniel Kearns is in a nostalgic mood.
For his fall 2026 show, which takes place here on Tuesday, the designer looked to the brand’s heritage making club ties and sports uniforms for some of Britain’s oldest institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Eton, for the Henley boat races and the country’s cricket teams.
Specifically, he took in the longstanding — and obscure — Cambridge tradition of “night climbing,” where students scale the college buildings at night and mark their feats, scratching messages on windows or draping statues or gargoyles in comical outfits.
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The Cambridge students are still climbing — and trying not to get seen or caught. The best part, especially in this social media age, is that the climbers never talk about their adventures.
Kearns drew on a series of books about the climbers, some of which feature night photography of their escapades. Lord Byron, Romantic poet and lifelong rule-breaker, was an early member of the group, famously scaling the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge.
“I loved this idea of tradition, reverence and irreverence and — like the climbers — looking at things from a different perspective,” Kearns said during an interview ahead of the show, which will take place at Westminster school, one of the oldest secondary schools in the country, located next to the eponymous Abbey.
Tuesday’s show will be Kearns’ fourth for the brand, which is owned by China’s Biemlofen, a publicly traded clothing retailer founded in 2003 by Xie Bingzheng. In 2023 Biemlofen purchased the global trademarks for Kent & Curwen and Cerruti 1881, the Italian tailored clothing label that Kearns also designs.
Although Kent & Curwen’s roots are in menswear, Kearns has been rapidly integrating women’s clothing into the mix while preserving the brand’s old-world collegiate vibe.
The brand has been going from strength-to-strength, with bestsellers including rugby and polo shirts, accessories and jewelry with the signature rose or lion logos, and a top-handle handbag that’s shaped like a rugby ball.
In keeping with those daring climbers, Kearns’ fall collection has a rugged, outdoorsy spin. There are cropped trenches with double collars for extra warmth, and longer ones that come with small capes inspired by Lord Byron’s style.
Kearns has further embraced academia by taking the pleating on the shoulders of black academic gowns and adding it to the bottom of cropped trenches as well as the upper arms of white shirts, giving them a lovely sculptural shape.
As always, knits play a starring role, with cropped Donegal crewnecks in shades of corn or raspberry, and Aran sweaters showcasing the brand’s rose, lion and KC motifs.
The youthful, snappy womenswear features short tweed skirts and matching coats with velvet collars, ribbed knit minidresses with flippy skirts and dangly gold earrings inspired by the fringe on loafers.
Kearns, who is on his second stint at the brand having worked as creative director at the label from 2016 to 2021 when David Beckham was involved, said the core DNA is already established. Now, he’s eager to broaden the Kent & Curwen audience, speak to the next generation and put an ever more playful spin on tradition.