Scotland Fashion Now: The New Fashion Event Coming to V&A Dundee
Design by Susu Wang, Edinurgh College of Art. Photo by Aga Urbanska.
Scotland’s next generation of designers is taking centre stage this September as V&A Dundee launches a major new annual celebration of Scottish fashion.
There’s a new date for Scotland’s fashion diary.
From 3rd to 6th September, V&A Dundee will transform into a fashion hub for the inaugural Scotland Fashion Now, a four-day programme celebrating the designers, creatives and emerging names shaping Scotland’s fashion industry.
And this isn’t planned as a one-off. Scotland Fashion Now is the first in a new annual programme, bringing together graduate talent, established industry names and some of fashion’s leading organisations under one very impressive roof.
Design by Qiai Wang, Glasgow School of Art. Photo by HAOFENG JI.
Scotland's New Designers Take to the Catwalk
It all begins on Thursday, September 3rd, with Scotland Fashion Now: Graduate Showcase '26, an hour-long catwalk show dedicated to the next generation of Scottish fashion talent.
Selected graduates from Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Gray’s School of Art and The Design School at Heriot-Watt University will show their collections inside V&A Dundee.
In total, 26 designers and 83 looks will take to the runway, modelled by talent from Model Team.
Expect everything from knitwear and classic tailoring to experimental textiles and sustainable design, with collections exploring themes including inheritance, conflict, memory and Scotland’s natural landscape.
The show will be followed by an industry networking reception supported by Mulberry, giving the emerging designers the opportunity to connect with the wider fashion world.
Mal James, Personal Chair of Fashion Design at Edinburgh College of Art, describes the showcase as an important opportunity to celebrate the talent continuing to emerge from Scotland’s fashion schools.
“By further connecting our graduates to a wide industry network, the V&A Dundee Graduate Showcase is crucial in both celebrating their achievements and reinforcing Scotland's significant presence in the fashion world,” he says.
The British Fashion Council Comes to Dundee
The programme continues on Friday, September 4th with another significant first.
V&A Dundee will host a Designer Panel in collaboration with the British Fashion Council, giving audiences the chance to hear directly from some of the people shaping British fashion today.
It will be the first event in the BFC’s newly announced National Designer Panel Series, curated in partnership with ELLE UK as part of its Fashion Britain programme.
The wider initiative aims to take the fashion conversation beyond its traditional London centre and champion creative talent and opportunities across the UK – making Dundee a particularly fitting place to begin.
More Than the Runway
While the catwalk might grab the headlines, Scotland Fashion Now is designed to shine a light on the many different careers and skills that sit behind the clothes we see on it.
Taking inspiration from V&A Dundee’s current Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show exhibition, the four-day programme will include talks, workshops and masterclasses covering different corners of the industry.
There will be a hair styling masterclass with an award-winning L’Oréal Professionnel stylist, a fashion communications workshop for emerging designers and founders with SALAD Communications, and a session exploring alternative fashion careers with Scottish production company LS Productions.
Model Team will also hold an exclusive open casting call, searching for a new face from Scotland’s North-East, while diversity campaign group I Am More Than will lead a discussion around representation on the runway.
Dundee’s own textile heritage will have its moment too, with a special display of knitwear by graduates from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design celebrating the city’s long history of textile production alongside a new generation of innovative makers.
Why Scotland, Why Now?
Scotland has never been short of fashion talent. What it hasn't always had is a major national platform bringing its different strands together.
Scotland Fashion Now hopes to change that.
“As Scotland’s design museum, we have the opportunity to bring both public and industry together to celebrate and platform the talent being developed and nurtured in Scotland,” says Troy Nelson, Creative Programmer at V&A Dundee.
“Scotland plays a distinct role in shaping the global fashion industry, often drawing on a creative identity that blends heritage craft and subversive tradition with an international outlook and a cultural drive to explore and invent.”
Perhaps most excitingly, the event puts Scotland’s art schools firmly at the heart of that conversation – not simply looking back at the designers Scotland has produced, but asking who might be next.
Scotland Fashion Now also joins an increasingly busy Scottish fashion calendar, alongside the returning Scotland Re Scottish Fashion Festival and The Fife Arms Festival of Fashion in Braemar this November.
For anyone interested in where Scottish fashion is heading next, Dundee looks like the place to be this September.
V&A Dundee, Scotland. Photo by ©HuftonCrow
The Details
What: Scotland Fashion Now
Where: V&A Dundee
When: September 3rd to 6th 2026
Tickets: On sale from 4 August 2026
The programme includes the Graduate Showcase '26 catwalk, British Fashion Council Designer Panel, industry talks and workshops, modelling open casting, runway representation discussions and graduate knitwear displays.
Tickets and individual event information are available via V&A Dundee.