How London Fashion Week’s Comeback Is Showing Up in Buyer Attendance

Those figures do not tell us what buyers ordered but they do show that London drew more of the people who can turn a collection into wholesale distribution. The signal is buyer presence, not sales Across five days, the BFC counted 47 catwalk shows, 23 presentations, 10 digital activations and 53 evening events.

Its buyer figures describe accredited attendance at the September 2026 event compared with the year-earlier edition. The 41% international increase is especially notable because it outpaced the 19% rise in buyer attendance overall. There are important limits.

The BFC has not published the absolute buyer counts, the international share of the total, buying budgets or order values alongside those percentages. An international buyer attending a show is an opening for a commercial relationship, not evidence that a purchase order followed.

The figures are also reported by the event organizer, rather than presented as an independently audited measure. A calendar with several reasons to make the trip London’s schedule offered buyers more than one proposition. McQueen’s return to the London runway for the first time since 2001 gave the week a major house moment…