A Leicester designer is preparing to rewrite the city’s fashion story this November, transforming a former Victorian knitwear factory into the setting for what is believed to be Leicester’s first standalone runway show dedicated entirely to avant-garde fashion.
Created by Leicester-based designer and Creative Director Sallyanne Kirk, The Gilded Cage will see her label Unloved Daughters unveil its debut collection at Cosy Club Leicester on Friday 13 November 2026, bringing together sculptural fashion, reclaimed materials, traditional handcraft, live performance, music and moving image in a dramatic exploration of the lives, restrictions and resilience of Victorian women.
The collection explores beauty, mourning, restraint, marriage, medicine and institutional confinement. It gives contemporary form to the experiences of women whose lives were frequently defined by social convention, expectation and control, carrying their stories from Victorian Britain onto a 21st-century runway. Through exaggerated silhouettes, reclaimed materials, traditional handcraft and experimental construction, Kirk transforms these histories into a contemporary runway experience.
Leicester has an extraordinary fashion history, but its creative identity has too often been overshadowed by conversations about mass manufacturing. This show is about proving that ambitious, directional and genuinely avant-garde fashion can be created here. We are making fashion history in Leicester and creating a moment that I hope opens the door for the designers who come next.”
Fashion is woven into Kirk’s own family history. She comes from four generations of Leicester fashion-industry workers and has spent more than eight years working across fashion design, creative direction, photography, music video and visual storytelling.
Her label, Unloved Daughters, has previously been featured by Vogue, Vogue Runway and BBC News. The Gilded Cage will be the label’s first complete collection and debut runway show. The project is also helping to develop the next generation of fashion talent, with 11 emerging designers and interns contributing to the collection.
They come from De Montfort University, Nottingham Trent University, the University for the Creative Arts and the University of East London. For many, it is their first opportunity to contribute to a circular couture and avant-garde collection of this scale.
The choice of venue deliberately brings Leicester’s fashion past and future together. Cosy Club Leicester occupies a restored former knitwear factory dating back to the 1800s. The building once produced boots, hats and hosiery, and retains original industrial features from its manufacturing past. More than a century later, clothing created in Leicester will return to a building that once helped clothe the nation, this time not through mass production, but through experimental design and couture.
The show is being presented through Leicester Fashion District CIC, founded by Kirk to support Leicester’s independent designers, students and creative fashion community and help reposition Leicester’s fashion identity around creativity, craftsmanship, ethics and innovation.
The event will also leave a legacy beyond the catwalk. One hundred per cent of proceeds from public ticket sales will be donated to Wesley Hall Community Centre, supporting its work with local people and families.
Sallyanne adds: “This is a Leicester collection, made by Leicester hands and presented inside a building that carries the history of the city’s garment industry within its walls. We want Leicester’s young designers to see that work this ambitious can happen here, and that they do not have to leave the city to create something extraordinary.”
The Gilded Cage takes place at Cosy Club Leicester on Friday 13 November 2026. Tickets are available at https://fatso.ma/f9ldh
