Daniel Fletcher on his Sloaney Mithridate Spring/Summer 2026 collection

"It's like a journey from the country to the town, and how this kind of like how those two worlds interact," Daniel Fletcher said of his Spring/Summer 2026 Mithridate collection ahead of the London Fashion Week show. "So, I began by taking things that feel very British and familiar, whether cotton striped shirts or cable knit jumpers, and then mixing them with something much more like from the city and evening-inspired."

Unveiled at the historic Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Fletcher's second collection for the Chinese brand looks to the 1980s, and in particular the Sloane Rangers - the arcetypal being the late Lady Diana -, as a starting point. "A day in the country turns into a night in the city. It’s the 1980s, and hedonism looms large," read the designer's show notes. "Piled into the muddied Jag and heading for the bright lights of the Royal Borough."

The collection moved from the countryside to the city in a flash of racing green, chocolate brown, baby blue and lavender. "I created that kind of English countryside look, and then turned that into something suitable for the King's Road in the 1980s." While the womenswear was heavy with sequins and dresses designed for the nighttime or afternoon martinis at the newly-opened restaurant At Sloane - one is designed from an antique rug -, the menswear cut through equally as strongly. Shorts paired with zip-up puffer jackets and caps were nods to the grown-up boarding school boys who haunted the pubs off Sloane Street in the 1980s, while cable knits were layered over wool-silk tailoring. Tailoring was louche and laissez-faire - a signature for Fletcher - moving effortlessly with every stride, and completed with loosely tied neck-ties. In one instance a fringed shawl inspired by eveningwear has been attached to a knit, while in another one is cast from suede and attached to a suede jacket. The collection embodied the nonchalance of the Eighties wealthy set.

This season Fletcher thought to up the ante on Mithridate's accessories offering. With a collection rooted in the idea of country-to-city travel, oversized bags are inspired by classic luggage with details borrowed from the interiors of trunks and decorated with embossed luggage tags. Meanwhile number motifs, which have been common in Fletcher's eponymous brand since its inception in 2014, were prevalent, cast on caps, knits and shorts. "So the original inspiration came from looking at rugby pitches and sporting uniforms, but then it's also very important in the Chinese practice of feng shui as well," he told Gentleman's Journal.

For Fletcher the collection was a trip down an imagined memory lane, inspired by vintage pictures of Sloane Rangers. But there was personal depth to it too. "I would say my connection to the Rangers comes from this idea of like growing up more in a more rural setting near Chester and then moving to the city and actually having a lived experience of the difference in wardrobes that you find."