LONDON — The 257th edition of the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts kicked off Wednesday night with its annual preview party, inviting London society’s who’s who for the chance to call dibs on around 1,700 pieces of art from a wide array of artists with a 40 percent deposit.
Alexa Chung, Mia Regan, Liberty Joy, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Weymouth, Jenna Coleman and Farshid Moussavi were among some of the well-dressed guests perusing the works at this year’s event, the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show, which has been held every year without interruption since 1769.
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Chung, attending the party with her fiancé Tom Sturridge, wore a strapless dress from Erdem’s fall 2025 collection. It features a watery female portrait by painter and fellow Royal College of Art graduate Kaye Donachie.
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Coleman picked a different look from the same collection. She paired the watercolor long skirt with a dazzling sequined black top.
Bonham Carter, who cohosted this year’s party alongside broadcaster Clara Amfo, designer Rejina Pyo, sculptor Conrad Shawcross and entrepreneur Hikari Yokoyama, picked a full, floral, embroidered, layered look by Simone Rocha.
Stylist Harry Lambert dressed Regan in an optical illusion number from Central Saint Martins graduate Petra Fagerstrom’s award-winning, AI glitches, real-life-hybrid graduate collection.
Weymouth, the Marchioness of Bath, opted for a flowy satin yellow lace dress from Self-Portrait, while Joy, founder of vintage store Liberty Joy Archive in London, dialed up the playfulness of her nostalgic satorial look with a fish tie.
According to the Junya Watanabe-clad architect Farshid Moussavi, who coordinates the fair alongside the exhibition committee, this year’s summer exhibition, which is supported by the Kering Beauté-owned high-end niche fragrance brand Creed, is dedicated to “art’s capacity to forge dialogues,” and fashion is deep in the conversation.
On the walls, there are artworks by designers like Hussein Chalayan and Daniel Fletcher.
Fletcher, who is now spearheading the rebrand of the Guangzhou-based label Mithridate, said he submitted two pieces that are aimed at reflecting the cross-cultural dialogue he is having with China.
“The pieces are based on my signature design. It’s about the colors and the stripes and this very traditional English heritage, but then I made them with an ancient Chinese knotting technique for embroidery. I wanted to bring those two worlds together,” said Fletcher, who is planning to launch the Mithridate pre-spring collection during Henley Regatta, a high-profile annual rowing event held on the River Thames in July.
Many more, including Edeline Lee, Charlie Casely-Hayford, Bianca Saunders, Foday Dumbuya, Charlotte Knowles, Erdem Moralıoğlu, Stephen Jones, Conner Ives, Nensi Dojaka, Huishan Zhang, Marco Capaldo of 16Arlington and Completedworks’ Anna Jewsbury, came to get inspired and support the fellow London creative community by buying some art on the spot.
Knowles said she came to support her artist cousin Charlie Billingham, who has two pieces on display at the summer exhibition.
“There’s a good sense of humor. It’s playing like Old Crookshanks’ kind of satirical works. The colors are very hostile, but it’s just very fresh and very spontaneous,” she added.
Dojaka said she was most impressed by the lot 867, a pinkish abstract painting by British artist Bianca Raffaella, during the preview.
“She’s partially sighted, so she paints on memories of what she has seen in the past. She paints with her hands. To me, her work feels like poetry,” Dojaka said.
Jewsbury thinks that art and fashion feed into each other, and she is always paying attention to how artists throughout the centuries depict jewelry in their paintings.
“I went to the National Portrait Gallery the other day. In the Tudor room, there are so many pearls in there, and we do a lot of pearls. It is really interesting seeing men and women in those times wear them,” Jewsbury added.
Zhang, who now splits his time between China and London, said he is looking to get inspired by thought-provoking arts at the party, just like how he was deeply touched by the works of Pan Yuliang, the first woman in China to paint in the Western style.
“Her work was all about liberation. She did a serious study of female figures. It was so conservative during her time, she had to go to the women’s bathroom to paint female nudity,” said Zhang, adding that he is planning to spend the summer in Dunhuang, to study the mesmerizing Buddhist art found in those ancient grottoes.
As the night came to an end, guests gathered in the courtyard to enjoy an electrifying performance by the London-based Nigerian singer Obongjayar.
Reece Clarke, principal at the Royal Ballet & Opera, a first timer for the RA summer party, said he was amazed by the wide variety of artists — established and up and coming — displaying their unique and wonderful creations.
“As an artist, I’m always looking for different sources of inspiration, and tonight I’m surrounded by so many wonderful artworks. I definitely feel inspired,” he added.
The Scottish ballet dancer will be making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City this summer, with some downtime in Europe to recharge before going back to a jam-packed schedule in September.
“[I’m going to] allow my body some rest time, and the nice mix of countries I’m going to will give me artistic sources of inspiration,” Clarke said.
— With contributions from Hikmat Mohammed