About What Ties Us Together

What Ties Us Together
Spring/ Summer '27

Lookbook images here...

Rory William Docherty presents What Ties Us Together at London Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2027.

“'What Ties Us Together' explores shared values, mutual respect, a care for craftsmanship and the collective subconscious that echoes through creatives. It’s a natural step on from my last collection, ‘Identity’, which was an exploration of people, place a nd provenance. ” Rory William Docherty

The simple tied knot is a recurring motif in Rory William Docherty’s work. Reinforcing this house code in his latest collection, the familiar knotted ties that run down the front of the original Painter’s Shirt are teased out and crafted in new forms and materials. There are woven metal knots that glint airily, tied en masse across a sheer metallic cocoon jacket. There are graphic cotton knots that anchor skirts and shirts at hip and shoulder. There are trompe l’oeil knots printed on organza and then layered over with 3D knots that seem to dance across a shift dress. There are solid jewellery knots hand cast in bronze, silver and 18-carat gold that resemble the cinch and soft drape of knotted fabric, a deft play on perceived lightness by maker Jordan Draffin.

With an interest in subconscious creative repetition, Docherty follows his own process. Beginning with a hand-knotted rope of newsprint, carefully observed, and drawn large-scale in pencil, the original artwork becomes a design woven in bespoke silk jacquard. A T-shirt version of the knotted rope, this time crafted in silk dupion, is knotted together with the ends left to flip and flop like fish caught in a net. The designer's sub-conscious reference: the original Painter's Shirt with knotted ties, inspired by drawings of puffins on the Isle of Skye, their beaks full of live herrings that flip and flop.

The show space reflects the clarity of design. Natural light filters beneath the Andaz London’s 1901 ballroom dome, a glass canopy echoing the purity of line and proportion. Here, craftsmanship, timeless materials, and classical tailoring techniques ground Rory William Docherty’s vision. The atmosphere feels like being submerged inside a quiet bubble within East London, a pause away from the city’s noise, where quality and beauty endure.

For this summer collection, there is a pull towards the sea, not nautical but natural, with fluid silks, coastal hues and linens shot through with shining threads that shimmer like sun on sand. Easy chinos, dirndl skirts and oversized trenchcoats provide foundational wardrobe pieces in shades of khaki, soft green-grey and cool sunset pink. Lean but relaxed loose tailoring is made from superlight, unlined wool organza. Soft shoulders and cocoon shapes lend a gentleness to silhouettes with those knots that fasten and can be tightened providing the counterbalance.