Walking into Assia House for Sarah Regensburger’s Diaspora: The Art of Belonging, the first impression was one of warmth. Vegan canapés and nibbles from Naroon London circulated whilst Persian rugs and intimate details of family and heritage set the tone. This was London Fashion Week, but it felt less like entering a runway venue and more like being welcomed into someone’s home.
That sense of hospitality was central to a collection about belonging. Born in Germany to an Iranian family and now based in London, Regensburger grew up between cultures, once feeling she had to conceal her heritage to be accepted. For SS27, she turned that experience into her most personal collection yet, bringing Persian memory into dialogue with the Western wardrobe she grew up around.
BombayMami opened the show with a chant and her single, before Maryam shared a Sufi dance, whilst DJ Kiki Fazli’s soundtrack introduced the voices of young women from Baluchistan answering the question, “What does freedom mean to you?” The answer unfolded through the clothes, the casting and the performances which also included Shalini Rani and Simran Hunjun with drummer Japa Dasi.
Regensburger’s clash of cultures was literal and beautifully resolved. Sharp tartan tailoring, a quintessentially British reference, was hand-stitched with Iranian Panj coins, a motif inherited from her grandmother and now the symbol of her new sub-brand, PANJ. Vegan banana leather jackets carried paisley motifs and intricate Baluchi needlework made by young women in Baluchistan through Loug Chokan, while Persian poetry inspired catsuits and a model carried Hafez, whose verses were part of Regensburger’s childhood home. Mirrorwork recalled Tehran’s Golestan Palace, Bandari masks met contemporary tailoring, and Persian rugs and termeh, the ceremonial hand-woven textile, became clothing and accessories.
The vegan philosophy running through the collection was equally important. Regensburger has long treated veganism as a design principle rather than a trend, creating fashion without animal-derived materials while preserving the richness, craft and desirability expected of luxury. Her 2022 PETA Designer of the Year award is part of that wider commitment, but at Assia House the message was simply embedded in the clothes: ethical fashion can carry heritage, sensuality and serious craft without compromise.
Stylist Rebekah Roy brought the references together, with shoes by Sophie Park, hats by Katherine Elizabeth Millinery, jewellery by Farids Design, glasses by Victor Wong and henna by Huq That. Hair by Chrystoph Marten and Beautick Official and make-up by Astrid Kearney and the Ardell Beauty UK team completed a cast that felt deliberately diverse and overwhelmingly female: Manijeh, Simran, Shalini, Lauren, Mariama, Jei, Pixie, Varshini, Yassin, Dolly, Tanya and Zuza.
At a moment when culture feels increasingly divided, that casting felt significant. Women were not simply presenting the collection; they were embedded in its story, from the Baluchi artisans whose needlework appeared on the runway to the voices in the soundtrack and the women performing throughout the evening.
Then came the most poignant moment. The final T-shirt carried the Panj symbol on its front and 1962 in Farsi on the back, the birth year of Regensburger’s mother. Sarah and her mother then closed the show together in matching leaf-print suits. After a collection about inheritance, displacement and finding a home between cultures, it was an affecting reminder that belonging can be passed from one generation to the next.
With production by Holly Stanton, PR by Aristos Patsalidis, photography by Lauren Marsh and film by Mav the Filmmaker, Diaspora felt like reclamation. Regensburger took the things she once feared might make her different, Persian coins, poetry, craft, family, veganism, and made them impossible to overlook. In the intimacy of Assia House, that felt quietly radical: not choosing between worlds, but finally allowing them to belong to one another.
Credit Catwalk Photography: Lauren Marsh
BTS Header Image: Zena Fawzy Abdou