DUNNE CLIFF LFW AW26 a
rising new-guard contemporary handcrafted knitwear Catwalk Collection and Interview with one of Canada’s most conceptually driven emerging voices.
At London Fashion Week , amid the kinetic energy of Fashion Scout’s Shoreditch Protein Studio Catwalk, Dunne Cliff offered something rare: a pause. As part of the Global Fashion Collective ( GFC ) Allison Dunne, the emerging Canadian designer behind the label, presented a collection that read less like a seasonal statement and more like a quiet, intellectual unfolding, what she aptly frames as ‘clothing as essay’.
This was fashion that resisted immediacy. Instead, it invited consideration. Handcrafted knitwear anchored the collection, each piece carrying the weight of time, touch, and intention. There was a studied tension at play with heritage brushing up against innovation, wit cutting through reverence, yet nothing felt forced. Allison’s strength lies in her refusal to resolve these oppositions too neatly. The garments lingered in that in-between space of creativity using mostly wool with crafted embellishments.
Silhouettes were deliberate but never rigid. Textures did much of the talking: tactile, irregular, at times almost philosophical in their construction. A sleeve might feel slightly offbeat, a finish intentionally imperfect with gestures that spoke to a deeper meditation on process over polish. These were clothes that acknowledged their own making, embracing irregularity not as flaw, but as narrative that speaks to the youth culture of today.
The collection quietly questioned fashion’s obsession with perfection and speed. In its place, Allison contemplated on memory, on technology, on the evolving dialogue between past and future. The result felt deeply personal yet intellectually expansive, positioning Dunne Cliff as one of the more conceptually assured voices within the new-guard.
The show formed part of Global Fashion Collective’s Fall/Winter 2026 showcase, a tightly curated platform that continues to champion international design talent. Bringing together creatives from across France, Canada, and Ukraine, the presentation underscored a broader narrative of cultural exchange and cross-disciplinary thinking. Within that collective energy, Dunne Cliff stood apart for its restraint.
In a week often defined by spectacle, Allison’s work spoke softly with respect to mother earth and in doing so, commanded attention.
IN CONVERSATION WITH ALLISON DUNNE Interview by Kim Grahame, Fashion Editor, Just News International
KG/ It’s lovely to meet you today at the Global Fashion Collective Fashion Showcase at The Protein Studios during London Fashion Week. I loved your catwalk collection Allison Dunne. Your brand name is?
AD/ My brand’s Dunne Cliff.
KG/ Love it. It’s very kind of retro and very Glastonbury in a way.
AD/ Thank you.
KG/ Do you go to many festivals?
AD/ I haven’t, not. I haven’t been I’m from Vancouver.
KG/ So where did you study?
AD/ I went to college… just a short program, Vancouver Community College. And then I, yeah, I self taught the knitwear. And then I went to Central St Martin’s this summer.
KG/ How wonderful, I was at Saint Martins as well..four years.
AD/ Really. What did you study?
KG/ Fashion.
AD/ Oh Cool.
KG/ But this is more about you. So you were at Saint Martins, for how long?
AD/ Just for the summer, a short course in experimental fashion knitwear. And then I used that, that training to help, help boost my knitwear knowledge. So I was doing it before, but now it’s a big part of my collection.
KG/ Fantastic.
And your knitwear, some of its hand knit.
AD/ Yeah, yeah. It’s all hand knit.
KG/ All of it?
AD/ Yeah.
KG/ The designs did look alot like that, which is very in vogue now.
AD/ Yeah.
KG/ Very much. It gives it that sort of edgy, raw feel, doesn’t it really?
AD/ Yeah, there’s also ceramics made by a ceramic artist from Vancouver, and there was
hand spun yarn from an artist, textile artist, also on Vancouver Island. So there was a big it was a big community. I like to celebrate hand textile and hand work.
KG/ really lovely. And your hand woven yarns that you use, are they all are they all wool? Or what are they?
AD/ They’re mostly wool, yeah. As much as I can, I try to use 100% wool, but sometimes I have other details, like silver threads.
KG / Just for embellishments.
AD/ Yeah.
KG/ Nice. What other embellishments do you use in your work?
AD/ I also do jacquards, like I feature a lot of weaving and ribbing techniques in my work, but other embellishments, there was hair, a lot of hair in my work, and bowl felting as well.
KG/ What kind of hair, human hair?
AD/ Yeah, it was hair extensions.
KG/ All right, so who would you say was your favourite, your influence?
AD/ Who would I say from the collection I was inspired by …the Luddites, the Luddite movement, thinking about how technology today is something we choose to embrace, or we can choose to reject, and how we wrestle with technology and change and how it impacts our our futures and our jobs. That’s why I had the models take off their phones during the catwalk… their ceramic phones.
KG/ It’s a very important aspect of what’s going on in the world today.
AD/ Yeah.
KG/ You’ve totally returned to the earth, in a way,
AD/ Yeah.
KG/ Very beautiful collection. Is there anything else you would like to say about your collection.
AD/ Yeah, my work is available online. I have a website www.duncliff.com and
Instagram as well on @dunne.cliff
and, yeah, my work is always something that I like to play with concepts and thinking about bringing, bringing the local in Vancouver, Canada to a bigger stage.
KG/ Fantastic. So people can buy your garments on your website.
AD/ Yeah, totally. And we also have it in a store on Main Street in Vancouver, if they’re ever there as well.
KG/ Well, congratulations on your show, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.
AD/ Lovely to meet you. Thank you. Thank you.
“In a season driven by spectacle, Dunne Cliff reminds us that some of the most powerful statements are often spoken in a whisper.”
Written by Kim Grahame
Catwalk photos: Arun Nevader
Social photo: Julius Just
