De Montfort University (DMU) landed at the Old Truman Brewery for Graduate Fashion Week 2026 with an absolute vengeance. Known historically for turning out graduates with formidable technical construction skills, this year’s crop of menswear designers proved they have the emotional and conceptual depth to match that physical precision.
In an era where menswear risks stalling out on hyper-commercial workwear or performative avant-garde, DMU’s 2026 cohort delivered authentic storytelling, subverted utility, and brilliant material exploration.
Here are the five standout menswear collections from the DMU 2026 runway that completely captured our attention.
What sets DMU's class of 2026 apart is that these collections aren't just theatrical concepts meant solely for a runway loop. They represent a deep understanding of fabric behavior, pattern cutting, and cultural relevance. This is menswear with something to say, built by designers who clearly know exactly how to say it.
Alexandra Easton
The Collection: F&F Design Competition Runner-Up & National Menswear Showcase
It’s easy to see why Easton grabbed second place in the F&F Design Competition and earned a highly competitive spot in the national GFW Menswear Catwalk Showcase (featuring just 20 designers nationwide). Easton has a rare gift: the ability to balance commercial viability with clear, uncompromising creative vision. Her collection reinterprets classic British menswear staples with a modern, rebellious edge, focusing heavily on texturised fabrics and brilliant piece-interlocking. Her upcoming industry placement is going to be one to watch very closely.
Nawal Ali
The Collection: An Ode to the Immigrant Cab Driver
The Verdict: The crowning achievement of DMU’s 2026 showcase. Walking away with both the DMU Catwalk Award and the coveted Bronze Best of Graduate Fashion Week title, Ali delivered a profound masterclass in emotional storytelling, entirely anchored by razor-sharp tailoring.
The collection draws moving inspiration from her father’s lived experience navigating the British landscape as an immigrant taxi driver. Ali takes the rigid, utilitarian aesthetic of front-facing uniforms and infuses them with a striking, poetic vulnerability. By juxtaposing heavy, protective outerwear silhouettes with her own delicate, hand-illustrated floral motifs—a beautiful tribute to her father’s gentle demeanor—she offers a flawless interrogation of masculinity, cultural transition, and survival. It is heavy, socially charged narrative executed with breathtaking technical refinement.
Amber Haynes
The Collection: National Menswear Catwalk Selection
The Verdict: Haynes brought a gritty, intensely tactile friction to the runway, more than earning her spot in the elite national GFW Menswear Showcase. Her collection is a brilliant exercise in raw, deconstructed utility. By weaponizing frayed fabric edges, complex geometric paneling, and subverted functional hardware, she successfully engineers a distinct new subcultural uniform. There is an authentic, alternative pulse vibrating through these garments—one that feels effortlessly plugged into the current UK underground music and arts scenes. It’s unapologetic, structurally intricate, and, crucially, incredibly wearable.
Taelor-Mae McNally
The Collection: National Menswear Catwalk Selection
McNally didn't just design garments; she deconstructed the very architecture of tailoring. Completing the powerhouse trio of DMU names that broke into the national Menswear Showcase, her work is a fierce, cerebral dive into sculptural form and bodily awareness. McNally takes the rigid, historical DNA of the classic tailored jacket, completely dismantles it, and reassembles it to radically challenge the traditional masculine shape. By forcing stiff, structural inner-linings to collide with fluid, organic silhouettes, she creates a beautiful, tense friction on the body. It’s a masterclass in subversion, offering exactly the kind of uncompromising innovation that proves graduate runways are where the real future of menswear is forged.
Toby Haywood
The Project: Fashion Communication Portfolio Award Shortlist
Haywood provides definitive proof that DMU’s creative dominance stretches far past the cutting table and directly into the future of fashion media. Shortlisted for the prestigious GFW 2026 Fashion Communication Portfolio Award, his output is an absolute clinic in narrative strategy, immersive world-building, and sharp visual identity.
Haywood doesn’t merely document clothing; he bottles its subcultural weight, translating intricate creative concepts into sleek, sophisticated, and conceptually bulletproof portfolios. In a landscape where a brand's message must be as flawlessly executed as the garments themselves, Haywood brings the precise editorial instinct and definitive creative direction needed to redefine modern styling and fashion communication.