Tove Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection

London Fashion Week has rightly garnered a reputation for emerging talent that expresses itself in raw and revolutionary ways. But there’s a quieter fashion force at work in the city that places emphasis on polished eveningwear, beautifully constructed outerwear and sleek accessories—and which has a loyal and diverse customer base to boot. (Think Roksanda Ilincic and Emilia Wickstead, and you’re on the right track.)

Tove, which made its runway debut for fall 2023 in the alabaster-clad confines of Senate House, falls firmly in the second camp. Established in 2019 by designer Holly Wright and buyer Camille Perry, who met while working at Topshop back in the day when it pretty much defined London style, the label has built up a loyal coterie of customers and international stockists in an impressively compressed, Covid-dominated timeframe. Its devotees are the kind of women who wear shoes from The Row, jeans from Toteme, and knitwear from Uniqlo: they like minimalism, but with a hint of ingenuity, and at a price point that doesn’t cut too deep. They keep coming back to Tove for dresses that neatly tread the line between classic and cool, for coats with wide lapels that have a movie-star-off-duty appeal, for cute blouses and bodysuits that work under office tailoring and with denim for date night.

A catwalk show wasn’t going to change that. “We wanted to put clothes on the runway that you are actually going to wear,” confirmed Wright, characteristically relaxed in a preview 24 hours before the show. Nevertheless: “We thought it would be nice to show the breadth of the brand. We’re so well-known for dresses and separates but actually outerwear is an amazing part of our business now,” said Perry, her counterpart in charge the spreadsheets. (Thank you, Katie Holmes, seen out and about in January in a Tove leather coat that’s now sold out.)

You could see the mental shopping lists being totted up as the audience snapped photos of the elegant looks that glided down the Senate House steps, grounded with black Charvet slippers. Silk-jersey, a brand staple, was put to work caressing the body in a series of long-sleeved, ankle-grazing fluid dresses in buttermilk and burgundy. The leather pieces were handled with a deft hand, with highlights including a sleeveless maxi dress with a knotted waist detail and a safari-jacket and pencil skirt combo. The designers like to refer to their work as “seasonless,” and a gathered organic silk corset top paired with simple black trousers ticked the timeless box.