by LONDON – London Fashion Week is hitting the big 4-0 and has certainly seen its share of drama, from Katharine Hamnett’s sex lessons to Richard Quinn’s surprise visit from Queen Elizabeth II and the only appearance on her in fashion week. Here, WWD looks at nine hours that have lit up the streets of London over the past four decades.
Fall, and Rise: 16-year-old Naomi Campbell made headlines around the world when she tumbled down the runway in 9-inch platforms during Vivienne Westwood’s 1993 show, “Anglomania.” The show was a nod to Westwood’s English and Scottish heritage, featuring body-hugging lace dresses and a long red tartan skirt. John Galliano, Jean Paul Goude and Azedine Alaïa watched from the front row. Of course, Campbell would become world famous – and friendly with Westwood, walking (without further incident) in many of her shows in London and Paris. Westwood would continue to fly the tartan flag, keeping her punk spirit, and putting her passion for sustainability into future collections.
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Man vs Nature: Alexander McQueen, the ultimate showman, staged his spring 1999 tour at the Gatliff Road warehouse, a former bus depot in London’s Victoria. Shalom Harlow stood on a rotating turntable surrounded by two dancing robot arms who proceeded to paint her strapless white dress with black paint and lime green. The collection was inspired by the work of artist Rebecca Horn “High Moon”, where two shotguns are suspended in the air facing each other with a stream of blood running on the floor. The show was memorable for other reasons, too. Paralympian Aimee Mullins made her catwalk debut wearing prosthetic legs carved from Elmwood, sparking conversations about diversity and inclusion long before they became fashionable.
Woodwork: Hussein Chalayan’s fall 2000 collection, “After Words,” had a theatrical and philosophical bent, inspired by war refugees who were forced to leave their homes with only a few personal possessions. The stage was set as a living room and showed models sheltering household items inside their coats and pockets or wearing slipcovers as dresses. At one point, a model stepped into the middle of the table and magically transformed into a long flowing skirt. “Many things could have gone wrong technically, but somehow they didn’t,” Chalayan told WWD in 2020. The designer was always experimenting: For his graduation collection at Central Saint Martins in 1993, he planted dresses with iron stakes in the ground and let them sit there for months before digging them out and presenting them on the catwalk.
Sex Education: Katharine Hamnett has always used fashion to solve her problems. In 1984 she attended a fashion industry event in Downing Street wearing an oversized white t-shirt that read “58 Percent Don’t Want Pershing”. The statement referred to a poll which showed that the majority of Britons objected to the American Pershing missiles being stationed in the country. According to Hamnett, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was shaking when she saw the T-shirt. 20 years later, during her spring 2004 collection and to mark World AIDS Day, Hamnett was back on her soapbox. She dressed Naomi Campbell in a stunning black crystal top that said “Use a condom.”
Big Night: London Fashion Week has never been a celebrity magnet, but that changed one night in September 2006 when Giorgio Armani rolled into town, showing his spring 2007 Emporio Armani collection at Earl’s Court in west London. It was a made-for-TV extravaganza with performances by Beyoncé, Bryan Ferry, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli and 50 Cent. It was held in aid of (Product) Red, a charity that raises awareness and funds to help end HIV/AIDS in several African countries. The event had a long lasting impact on London Fashion Week, becoming a must-see show on the seasonal fashion circuit.
Hidden Beginning: The MA Central Saint Martins graduate show has long been a launching pad for some of the biggest names in the industry, but it often takes years for the designers to gain attention. Burberry’s chief creative officer, Daniel Lee, who graduated from CSM in 2011, has worked behind the scenes for nearly a decade, honing his skills as a ready-to-wear director at Celine, and earlier at Maison Margiela, Balenciaga and Donna Karan. He made his mark at Bottega Veneta, injecting a new spirit and youth into the collections, and his zeitgeist-y designs became the talk of social media and the wider fashion industry. Now, as Burberry’s creative director, he is tasked with working his magic again and supercharging the brand’s accessories business in particular.
Turning Green: From 2012 to the beginning of 2020, many British menswear brands took center stage during the biannual event London Collections: Men. One of the best emerging brands was Craig Green, who captured the imagination of the industry with their amazing designs and sense of architecture. His first solo spring 2015 runway show was a poetic and emotional take on contemporary men’s fashion with coats reminiscent of samurai robes; ribbon fastenings on sleeves; and visible stitching on the outside of garments. Later collections would include clothes that could double as nomadic tents or flying machines, and Green’s wild imagination would bring him many awards at the London Fashion Awards.
Now You See It: When the “see now, buy now” trend started to emerge in 2016, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey jumped on it early. Ambitious, he staged a show in London and pre-stocked the stores with the new collection. By 8 pm, shortly after her “September 2016” show wrapped, hundreds of customers were waiting at Burberry’s Regent Street store in London, ready to shop the 83 looks and more than 250 pieces. “The culture of the company is very much to move forward, to try new things,” Bailey told WWD. “Nothing is forever, we’re testing things, and we certainly don’t have all the answers.” Burberry (and most of the other brands that experimented with “see now, buy now”) eventually returned to the previous seasonal format, but Bailey’s move soon succeeded, and he industry thinking, and talking.
The Queen meets Quinn: In 2018 Queen Elizabeth attended her first – and last – fashion show, presenting the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design to Richard Quinn. The award, which recognizes the role of fashion in society and diplomacy, has been given in subsequent years to designers including Bethany Williams, Alighieri’s Rosh Mahtani and Priya Ahluwalia. But the Queen’s surprise visit was nothing like the moment she took to the podium to declare: “Our fashion industry has been renowned for its excellent craftsmanship for many years and continues to produce textiles of the highest quality quality and cutting-edge designs.” Four years later, Quinn and many London designers would pay tribute to her Light in their fashion shows after her death in September 2022.
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