Commencing on February 16th, the event will feature 150 events and fall-winter showcases, including established and up-and-coming designers.
As the showcase event celebrates its 40th birthday this year, fashionistas will be engaging in celebrations as new and veteran designers exhibit their autumn/winter lines on Friday, marking the start of London Fashion Week.
On February 15, representatives of the British Fashion Council (BFC) will open the London Stock Exchange. To commemorate the anniversary and recognize the contribution of the creative sector to the British economy, famous London locations, including Covent Garden and the London Eye, will be lit up green.
Men’s and women’s clothing sales in the UK were projected to have been worth a combined 47.5 billion pounds ($59.6 billion) last year, according to the BFC, which cited research from Mintel.
Following the council’s founding in 1983, London Fashion Week made its debut the following year.
Known for its up-and-coming talent and avant-garde trends, it is one of the four major catwalk fixtures, along with New York, Milan, and Paris. It is also the place where designers like Stella McCartney and the late Alexander McQueen began their careers.
“London’s always been famous for its extraordinary creativity and I would say that’s what sets it apart,” Lydia Slater, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar UK, told Reuters.
“If you look at so many of the enormous, really successful fashion houses, they’re often headed up by British creatives who started here and who made their mark at London Fashion Week.”
London has produced numerous major fashion highlights throughout the years, such as models turning furniture into clothing at Hussein Chalayan’s autumn/winter 2000 presentation and robots spray painting model Shalom Harlow’s white outfit at McQueen’s Spring/Summer 1999 show.
“If you’re trying to start out in Paris, say, these brands are so big and so shiny and so polished that it’s very difficult to kind of make your mark in that way,” Slater said.
“Whereas with London, you can be a small designer and have a show that makes an incredible hit by doing something really quirky and different. And so I think that’s why over the years we’ve seen so many exciting things take place in London that you can’t really imagine taking place at other fashion weeks.”
The late Queen Elizabeth made an unexpected appearance in the front rows of London’s event in 2018. Designer Richard Quinn was among those guests.
This season, London Fashion Week, which takes place from February 16–20, will feature over 150 events.
“The NEWGEN designers will definitely be front and center,” BFC Chief executive Caroline Rush told Reuters, referencing a program providing financial support and mentoring for new designers.
“But equally, we are also very excited to see (designers) Simone Rocha, Roksanda, Emilia Wickstead, 16Arlington, and (the) Burberry show on Monday will definitely be one to watch.”
