London Fashion Week

Last updated

London Fashion Week
London Fashion Week Men's Strand January 2017 01.jpg
London Fashion Week Men's in January 2017
GenreFashion catwalk shows and surrounding events
FrequencySemi-annually
Location(s)180 Strand, London, United Kingdom
Inaugurated1984 (39 years) [1]
AttendanceOver 5,000 press and buyers
Organised by British Fashion Council for the London Development Agency with help from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Website http://londonfashionweek.co.uk/

London Fashion Week (LFW) is a clothing trade show that takes place in London, UK, twice a year, in June and September. Showcasing over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers, it is one of the 'Big Four' fashion weeks, along with New York, Milan, and Paris. [2] [3]

Contents

History and Organisation

Organized by the British Fashion Council (BFC) for the London Development Agency with help from the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills, London Fashion Week first took place in February 1984. [1] Lynne Franks had influenced the idea of putting together the London shows into a schedule. [4]

It currently ranks alongside New York, Paris, and Milan as one of the 'Big Four' fashion weeks. [5] It presents itself to funders [6] as a trade event that also attracts significant press attention and benefits taxpayers. Over 5,000 press and buyers, with orders of over £100 million. [7] A retail-focused event, London Fashion Week Festival, takes place immediately afterward at the same venue and is open to the general public. [8]

During SS16 (shown September 2015) and AW16 (shown February 2016), British Fashion Council made the decision to host the designers' showrooms at the 'Vinyl Factory', situated at the active car park in Soho, off Brewer Street. [9]

Following increasing numbers of anti-fur protesters, the London Fashion Week held in September 2018 was the first major fashion week to be fur-free. [10]

Official Venues

Since its inception in 1984, London Fashion Week (LFW) has utilized various official venues. The inaugural event in March 1984 took place in the car park of the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, featuring 15 catwalk shows from designers such as Vivienne Westwood, David Fielden, Ghost, and Betty Jackson. [11]

In September 1984, LFW moved to the Duke of York’s Barracks on King’s Road, remaining there for three seasons before relocating to Olympia in March 1986. [12] The early 1990s recession prompted another move, this time to The Ritz Hotel in 1992, where Alexander McQueen showcased his work for the first time since his graduate collection. [13]

By 1994, the official venue shifted to the grounds of the Natural History Museum, with marquees set up for runway shows and showrooms. In September 2002, LFW returned to the Duke of York's Headquarters on King’s Road, but due to planning permission issues, it relocated to Battersea Park in February 2005. [14]   [15]  

In 2009, Somerset House became the new venue, hosting LFW until September 2015, when the event moved to the Brewer Street Car Park in Soho. [16]

The venue was changed again in February 2017 to the Store Studios at 180 Strand, where LFW remained until February 2020. [17]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of physical shows in September 2020. The first LFW event with a live audience post-pandemic was in June 2021. Since then, the British Fashion Council (BFC) has adopted a hybrid digital-physical approach, resulting in no official LFW venue since February 2020. [18]

Events

Portrait of a female model made at London Fashion Week in 2016 LFW Portrait Neon.jpg
Portrait of a female model made at London Fashion Week in 2016

Live Streaming

In 2009, Burberry returned from showing in Milan to showing in London and the show was live-streamed. This began an era of “see now, buy now” shows. [4] In spring 2010, London Fashion Week became the first of the “Big Four” fashion weeks to offer designers showing collections on the catwalk at Somerset House the opportunity to broadcast their shows live on the Internet. [19]

London Fashion Week Men's

In June 2012, the British Fashion Council launched London Collections: Men, styled LC:M, which included Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter shows. By June 2015, LC:M had 77 designers showing, a 67% increase since its launch in 2012. [20] The event's name was changed to London Fashion Week Men's for the Autumn/Winter 2017 collections, which launched in January 2017, to better reflect the event's growing consumer focus. [21]

London Fashion Week Festival

Following London Fashion Week each season, the 4-day London Fashion Week Festival (LFWF), formerly known as London Fashion Weekend, offers a consumer-orientated fashion week experience. [22]

Held at The Store Studios, 180 The Strand, LFWF allows consumers to shop a curated edit of designer collections at show-exclusive prices, sit front row at catwalk shows by London Fashion Week designers, get a head start on the key trends of the coming season and listen to talks by industry experts. [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander McQueen</span> British fashion designer (1969–2010)

Lee Alexander McQueen was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards, as well as the Council of Fashion Designers of America International Designer of the Year award in 2003. McQueen died by suicide in 2010 at the age of 40, at his home in Mayfair, London, shortly after the death of his mother.

TheFashion Awards, known as the British Fashion Awards until 2016, is an annual ceremony established in the United Kingdom in 1989 to showcase both British and international individuals and businesses who have made the most outstanding contributions to the fashion industry during the year. The ceremony is organized by the British Fashion Council, and is the primary fundraiser for the BFC's Education Foundation; a charity that promotes excellence in design by financially supporting students with the ability and potential to make an exceptional contribution to the fashion industry.

Julien Macdonald OBE is a Welsh fashion designer who has appeared as judge on the television programme, Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model. In 2001, he was named "British Fashion Designer of the Year", and on 15 March 2001, was appointed as chief designer at Givenchy. His atelier is at Old Burlington Street, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gareth Pugh</span> English fashion designer

Gareth Pugh is an English fashion designer based in London. He is known for his unconventional use of volume and form when designing outfits, and his work is described as performance art. He achieved prominence in the Kashpoint's Autumn 2005 Alternative Fashion Week group show, and he made his solo premiere in London's Fall 2006 fashion week. Due to his focus on experimental fashion, Pugh has had limited success selling wearable clothes. Instead, his projects are funded through patronage by Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy. His designs have been sported by notable performers, including Kylie Minogue, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Kane</span> Scottish fashion designer

Christopher John Kane is a Scottish fashion designer based in London.

Luella Dayrell Bartley is an English fashion designer, magazine editor and former journalist based in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Fashion Council</span>

The British Fashion Council (BFC) is a non-profit organization that aims to enable sustainable growth of British fashion in the global fashion economy. Founded in 1983, the BFC organizes biannual womenswear and menswear showcases, London Fashion Week (LFW) and London Fashion Week Men's (LFWM) to promote "the best of British design" to an international audience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Temperley</span> English fashion designer

Alice Temperley MBE is an English fashion designer based in Ilminster, Somerset, England. Her fashion label, Temperley London, was launched in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasper Garvida</span> Filipino fashion designer

Jasper Garvida is a fashion designer. Born in the Philippines, he grew up in Canada before moving to London to study Fashion Design at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. He established his eponymous fashion label in September 2008, known for its bold, highly embellished womenswear. Jasper has swiftly established his reputation as a unique luxury designer with an emphasis on tailoring and feminine silhouettes.

Davit Komakhidze known as David Koma is a Georgian fashion designer based in London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Katrantzou</span> Greek fashion designer (born 1983)

Mary Katrantzou is a Greek fashion designer who lives and works in London.

Men's Fashion Week, typically held twice a year in January and June, is a series of international fashion industry events where menswear collections are shown to buyers, stylists, the media, and in some cases, the general public. This week marks the debut of New York Fashion Week's men's version. As the name implies, it's the men's equivalent of the women's event that takes over New York twice a year, bringing with it a plethora of models, designers, and ensembles that are subjected to days-long, intense media analysis. Although the men's fashion week is substantially narrower in scope, a number of designers, both established and up-and-coming, have flocked to Gotham in the hopes that American men may eventually take an interest in couture, as their European counterparts have.

Oxford Fashion Week was an annual independent fashion showcase in Oxford, England. It was founded in 2009 by Oxford University graduates Carl Anglim and Victoria Watson. The event was organised by Carl Anglim and Tiff Saunders. Anglim was the director and Saunders was the assistant director. Oxford Fashion Week showcased the talent of designers such as Alexander McQueen, Matthew Williamson and Valentin Yudashkin. The last event appears to have taken place in 2016.

Zoe Jordan is an Irish fashion designer. She studied architecture and business before embarking on a career as a bond trader in New York for HSBC and later an equity sales-trader at Credit Suisse. After years on Wall Street, she left the world of finance behind in order to pursue her real passion, fashion design. Her eponymous brand launched in London in 2011 and went on to be winner of several awards.

Fashion East is a non-profit designer support and showcasing scheme, a project established by the Old Truman Brewery and Lulu Kennedy MBE in 2000. Designers can apply for support across three different programmes. Each programme offers fashion week showcasing opportunities, business mentoring & financial sponsorship for menswear and womenswear designers. Designers are selected by Lulu Kennedy and a panel of industry people.

Nabil El-Nayal, more commonly known as Nabil Nayal is a Syrian-born British fashion designer. He moved to England at the age of 14 and has won awards including the Royal Society of Arts Award, the Graduate Fashion Week 'Best Womenswear' Award and the British Fashion Council MA Scholarship Award.

Emilia Wickstead is a New Zealand fashion designer based in London, England. In 2014 she won the Red Carpet Designer of the Year Award at the Elle Style Awards, and her clients include Samantha Cameron, and the Princess of Wales.

JW Anderson is a UK fashion label, founded by Jonathan Anderson. Anderson originally from Magherafelt in Northern Ireland established JW Anderson in 2008 and subsequently launched his fashion house in London. The brand initially focused on menswear, before moving into womenswear in 2010. From 2012 onwards, the brand and its designer have collaborated with a number of retail fashion brands, most notably Topshop, Versace, and Uniqlo, with LVMH acquiring a minority stake in the brand in 2013.

FYODOR GOLAN is a fashion brand based in London. It was founded in 2011 by British designers Fyodor Podgorny and Golan Frydman. The duo is known for their colourful advanced-contemporary ready-to-wear designs.

Levi Palmer was born in Belton, Texas, USA in 1981 into a working-class family. He discovered goth subculture at a young age and decided to pursue a career in fashion. After moving to Austin, Texas and showing his first catwalk at a local nightclub, he started the Designer Guild of Austin along with other local fashion designers in 2000. In 2001, he began studies in Pattern Cutting and Fashion Design at El Centro College in Dallas. In 2003, he entered his graduate collection into the Fashion Group International's student Career Day competition and won the top two prizes, which included a summer of study in London and Paris. After returning to Dallas and starting a jewelry business, he continued his education at Central Saint Martins in London from 2005-2009.

References

  1. 1 2 Johnson, David (1 December 1983). "Eight For 84 – Identifying the best of Britain's young designer talent". The Face, issue 44, page 46. London. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  2. ↑ Bradford, Julie (2014). Fashion Journalism. Routledge. p. 129. ISBN   9781136475368.
  3. ↑ Dillon, Susan (2011). The Fundamentals of Fashion Management. A&C Black. p. 115. ISBN   9782940411580.
  4. 1 2 Mower, Sarah (March 2024). "Talk of the Town". Vogue. UK.
  5. ↑ "British Fashion Council website". Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  6. ↑ "Agreement for Funding Relative to Creative Sector Support – Designer Fashion. Parties: LDA/BFC website". 2 November 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
  7. ↑ "London Fashion Week factsheet" (PDF). Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  8. ↑ "London Fashion Weekend website". London Fashion Weekend. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  9. ↑ "Ikon London Magazine London Fashion Week coverage". Ikon London Magazine. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  10. ↑ Conlon, Scarlett (7 September 2018). "London fashion week vows to be fur-free". the Guardian. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  11. ↑ "Celebrating 32 Years of London Fashion Week". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  12. ↑ Kotsoni, Elektra (15 February 2024). "How London Fashion Week began: An oral history". Vogue Business. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  13. ↑ Jana, Rosalind (13 September 2019). "A Brief History Of London Fashion Week". British Vogue. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  14. ↑ Vogue (11 September 2002). "ROYAL ATTENDANCE AT LONDON FASHION WEEK". British Vogue. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  15. ↑ FashionUnited (13 January 2005). "London Fashion Week". FashionUnited. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  16. ↑ "London Fashion Week is leaving Somerset House". Harper's BAZAAR. 27 April 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  17. ↑ "Everything You Need To Know About London Fashion Week AW17". ELLE. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  18. ↑ "LFW: Everything you might have missed from the weekend". 14 June 2021.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ↑ Rice, Simon (19 February 2010). "Independent newspaper article". The Independent. London. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  20. ↑ Doig, Stephen (5 June 2015). "LCM and London's menswear renaissance". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 6 June 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  21. ↑ "London Collections: Men to be renamed". 13 June 2016.
  22. ↑ Julius, Freddie (28 January 2018). "London Fashion Week Festival". Tourist England. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  23. ↑ Stacey, Danielle; Symester, Chantelle (31 January 2019). "London Fashion Week 2019 - what you need to know and all the unmissable events". mirror. Retrieved 11 April 2023.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to London Fashion Week at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.