London Fashion Week

The youngest of the ‘Big Four’ Fashion Weeks ~ the others being New York City (1943), Milan (1958) and Paris (1973) ~ London Fashion Week began in a marquee in a car park on a winter’s day in 1984. Despite this distinctly unglamorous start, it did attract young, emerging designers with avant-garde ideas, including punk icon Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022), and continues to do so today.

The Weeks happen in February, June and September and, of course, the venues have taken a definite upturn, with spells at The Ritz, Natural History Museum and Somerset House, for instance. The current location is The Store Studios on The Strand. The British Fashion Council, founded in 1983, is the organiser and its aim is to showcase the creativity of British designers and promote London as a hub for innovation. Naturally, this leads to some ‘thinking outside of the box’ and there have been some extraordinary sights on the catwalk, including a coffee table turning into a completely impractical ‘skirt’!

The Queen, Princess Diana and Princess Margaret have separately attended London Fashion Week shows, which are invitation-only. There are some public events after the main schedule, but it is intended for fashion industry buyers whose job it is to spot commercially viable trends.

(Image: Farrukh at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0)