London feels quiet this season—like the city took a deep breath and held it. And maybe that’s why Mark Fast is feeling nostalgic. He’s been here forever (or at least, since graduating from Central Saint Martins almost two decades ago), but this season? Something feels different. “I don’t know why,” he admitted during a preview. “Something is in the air.”

Which, obviously, sent me spiraling into the archives—because if a designer is having a feeling, you check if the clothes are, too. And, sure enough, Fall 2009 was staring back at me.

“It’s the body-con dress,” Fast said simply, as if it had always been that obvious. And maybe it has. His customers have always gravitated toward that—the clingy, second-skin, unapologetically HOT silhouette he built his name on. And this season? He didn’t fight it. Aside from a few detours (some tailoring, acid-wash denim, satin, sheer numbers with dangerously high-cut briefs), the show belonged to that dress. Upper-thigh-grazing. Knit by hand and by machine. In royal purple, mustard, fuchsia, black, chartreuse. Classic Mark Fast, through and through.

But then there were the lace-up separates—corset-like, laced tight, structured and slinky at once. “It’s almost like a vampire taking costumes and treasures from her lifetime and wearing them now,” he said, with a flicker of amusement. A few had pin-tucked ruffle trims (a callback to Spring 2010). Everything felt like a love letter to the women who have always gotten him—the ones who have been slipping into his dresses since the beginning.

“We’re doing a celebration of the women that I’ve worked with for so long,” Fast explained. “Fine-tuning the craft of what I do with them.”

And, honestly? That’s exactly what it felt like. A collection made for the devotees—the ones who never needed convincing.