London Fashion Week

London Fashion Week
London Fashion Week Men's in January 2017
Genre	Fashion catwalk shows and surrounding events
Frequency	Semi-annually
Location(s)	180 Strand, London, United Kingdom
Inaugurated	1984 (39 years)[1]
Attendance	Over 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]

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]

London Fashion Week 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]

In late 2024, a British Fashion Council representative told Parliament that exotic skins — such as alligator, snake and reptile — will be banned from the event as of 2025.^[11]

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. It featured 15 catwalk shows from designers such as Vivienne Westwood, David Fielden, Ghost, and Betty Jackson.^[12]

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.^[13] 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.^[14]

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.^[15] [16]  

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.^[17]

The venue was changed again in February 2017 to the Store Studios at 180 Strand, where LFW remained until February 2020.^[18]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of physical shows in September 2020. The first LFW event with a live audience after the 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.^[19]

Events

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.^[20]

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.^[21] 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.^[22]

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.^[23]

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.^[24]

See also

• Fashion week
• List of fashion events

References

1. 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. 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. Aanchal Chaudhary, "London Fashion Week To Create History With Exotic Animal Skin Ban Starting 2025," The Free Press Journal, 1 December 2024.
12. "Celebrating 32 Years of London Fashion Week". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
13. Kotsoni, Elektra (15 February 2024). "How London Fashion Week began: An oral history". Vogue Business. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
14. Jana, Rosalind (13 September 2019). "A Brief History Of London Fashion Week". British Vogue. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
15. Vogue (11 September 2002). "ROYAL ATTENDANCE AT LONDON FASHION WEEK". British Vogue. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
16. FashionUnited (13 January 2005). "London Fashion Week". FashionUnited. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
17. "London Fashion Week is leaving Somerset House". Harper's BAZAAR. 27 April 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
18. "Everything You Need To Know About London Fashion Week AW17". ELLE. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
19. "LFW: Everything you might have missed from the weekend". 14 June 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
20. Rice, Simon (19 February 2010). "Independent newspaper article". The Independent. London. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
21. 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.
22. "London Collections: Men to be renamed". 13 June 2016.
23. Julius, Freddie (28 January 2018). "London Fashion Week Festival". Tourist England. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
24. 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.

External links

Media related to London Fashion Week at Wikimedia Commons Official Website https://londonfashionweek.co.uk