London Fashion Week is finally here! As the most fashionable folk around gathered in the capital yesterday [Thursday 20 February] ahead of five days of back-to-back runways, presentations and parties, it was Harris Reed who kicked things off with a serious bang. The British-American fashion designer – who is also the creative director of French fashion house Nina Ricci, alongside his own eponymous label – is perhaps most notable for dressing so many of our favourite celebs, including Harry Styles (*swoon*) when the singer became the first man on the cover of Vogue in December 2020. However, he called upon another close, personal A-list friend to help him stage his autumn winter 2025 runway show last night.

Yep, none other than Florence Pugh surprised those in the front row with a celebrity runway cameo. Fittingly, Flo’s ensemble had our jaws on the floor as she donned a figure-hugging black see-through dress with a hood and draping cowl neckline (reminiscent of her Dune promo tour era), cap sleeves and a skirt that swept the floor, opting for high-waisted black knickers underneath.

An opaque black overlay in a leotard silhouette sat on top of the front of the design, wrapping around her waist to fasten at the back while the top protruded out over her shoulders into curling pointed antlers. This horn motif was repeated with gold embellishment drawn in swooping downward arcs on the dress positioned at each of Florence’s hips.

For her footwear, Florence wore towering platform heeled sandals with sheer black straps to coordinate with her dress, and she accessorised with a gold chain pendant necklace and gold earrings adorning her multiple piercings, including large hoops. Her beauty look was equally captivating, with her blonde hair swept into a bouffant and pulled back into a neat, elegant bun. However, the real focus was on her eyes which were accentuated with the longest spider lashes.

Far from simply modelling the design that perfectly reflected Reed’s self-described “romanticism gone non-binary” style, Florence delivered a poignant opening monologue for the show, similar to her Shakespeare-inspired monologue delivered two years ago at Harris Reed’s AW23 show. This time around, Flo called on those in rapt attention in the audience on ways to be, including to “be fearless” and “always be yourself.”

Cosmo UK were lucky enough to be in the audience and it was a mesmerising, powerful performance. Safe to say, we’ll be talking about this moment well into Paris Fashion Week.

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Alexandria Dale is the Digital Fashion Writer at Cosmopolitan UK. Covering everything from the celebrity style moments worth knowing about to the latest fashion news, there’s nothing she loves more than finding a high street dupe of a must-have designer item. As well as discovering new brands, she’s passionate about sustainable fashion and establishing the trends that are actually worth investing in. Having worked in fashion journalism for six years, she has experience at both digital and print publications including Glamour and Ok!