On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, London label R&M Leathers staged its first catwalk show, titled MISS LEATHERS, inside the Clapton Round Chapel in Hackney. Held the night before Paul Costelloe led the official British Fashion Council schedule on Thursday morning, the off-schedule presentation was framed by media and guests as an unofficial kickoff to the London Fashion Week SS27 calendar.
Rather than seeking backing through British Fashion Council incubators like BFC NEWGEN or Fashion East, founder Ruby Mariani mounted the presentation in direct commercial collaboration with adult entertainment platform Pornhub. The platform sponsored both the debut runway and the official afterparty, providing an alternative financing route that sidestepped traditional luxury conglomerates like LVMH and Kering.
Founded in 2018, R&M Leathers has established a high-profile reputation on custom styling, dressing clients such as Julia Fox, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, and Charli XCX, who wore custom shorts across her Brat tour and at the premiere of The Moment. Attendees and runway participants at the Hackney show reflected that cultural footprint, including musicians Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg and Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers, musician Deto Black, and KNWLS co-founder Natasha Somerville.
Mariani’s aesthetic draws from heavy metal, biker subcultures, vintage erotica, and the work of British fetish designer John Sutcliffe. Operationally, the studio functions on a bespoke, made-to-order model rooted in manual hardware application and hand-carved leather panels. That meticulous production process highlights the structural divide facing independent fetishwear labels as they scale beyond custom studio work.
While progressive retailers and avant-garde boutiques such as Assembly New York, Garmentory, and pop-up spaces like Heaven by Marc Jacobs in Soho have embraced fetish-adjacent independent design, global department stores continue to face operational friction when attempting to stock these specialized collections. By pairing independent artisan manufacturing with untraditional commercial patrons, R&M Leathers presents a distinct business case for high-end subcultural fashion outside the established luxury establishment.