LONDON — Most designers start with a sketch. So does Steve O Smith — and then he brings them to life. 

Swooshes from his ink drawings turn into black silk appliqués mounted onto swathes of floaty organza and tulle. It’s no wonder he won LVMH’s 2025 Karl Lagerfeld Prize last fall. There’s an element of childlike wonder to it all, fantasy made real. 

Since graduating from Central Saint Martins’ MA design course in 2022, Smith has built up a serious made-to-order business and cultivated quite the following, most recently dressing Emma Stone for a Yorgos Lanthimos-directed Super Bowl ad.

That might be why French couturier Madeleine Vionnet was one of his touch points this season. Inspired by her graphic use of embellishment and appliqués, Smith began beading, swapping his signature painterly fabric daubs with vintage glass bead embroidery.

Smith also looked to Otto Dix’s 1928 “Metropolis” triptych, a jewel-toned depiction of the Weimar Republic’s descent into societal collapse after World War I.

“You can see it in the collection, but I was quite inspired by the proximity to grotesqueness in Otto Dix’s drawings,” he said, adding that he was also inspired by the artist Edward Burra, who was recently the subject of a retrospective at the Tate Britain. 

Both references were from 1928, and Smith said he was inspired by their depth. “You can see that there’s this intensity to the work that all of these people are making at the same time. It’s taking all of those aspects and really editing them down so that I can start drawing,” he said.

He also looked to the artists’ use of color. Deviating from a black and white palette for the first time since his MA collection, Smith incorporated the scarlets, golds and pinks that often feature in Burra’s and Dix’s work into his own drawings.

One dress was a cocktail of red and rose georgette overlaid with wafer-thin panels of tulle and topped with a ribbon of beaded embroidery.

What makes Smith’s work delightful is that while it’s conceptually straightforward, every garment is made with an obsessive level of craftsmanship. The pristine organza interior of a tailored jacket — made entirely by hand — was just as exquisite as its crimson and black tulle-topped exterior.

In another nod to Vionnet, Smith passed up a show in favor of a look book starring model Jean Campbell, and an exhibition-cum-salon at the Mandarin Oriental. Editors and fashion insiders came together for a lunch of hamachi and bass fillet. 

“In such an online world where we’re hit with so much content, there’s something really refreshing about having a personal relationship, and that’s how it works with our clients,” Smith said, teasing plenty of upcoming celebrity dressing to come.

That includes a bespoke gown for singer Raye to kick off the U.K. leg of her tour at the end of this month.