Dame Vivienne Westwood, the trailblazing British fashion designer who brought punk and politics to the rarefied world of high fashion, has died on December 29, aged 81. She passed away peacefully and surrounded by her family in Clapham, South London, a representative for Westwood confirmed.
British Fashion Council (BFC) today announces that for the next twelve months all London Fashion Weeks will merge womenswear and menswear into one gender neutral platform, to allow designers greater flexibility. For this June, London Fashion Week, will take a new form, as a digital-only platform in light of the current environment, and will run from 12th June 2020 through the time period of former London Fashion Week Men’s. The digital platform www.londonfashionweek.co.uk will relaunch and be for both trade and consumer audiences; embracing the cultural commentary, creativity and humorous spirit for which British fashion and London are known for.
Caroline Rush CBE, BFC Chief Executive commented: “It is essential to look at the future and the opportunity to change, collaborate and innovate. Many of our businesses have always embraced London Fashion Week as a platform for not just fashion but for its influence on society, identity and culture. The current pandemic is leading us all to reflect more poignantly on the society we live in and how we want to live our lives and build businesses when we get through this. The other side of this crisis, we hope will be about sustainability, creativity and product that you value, respect, cherish. By creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and something to build on as a global showcase for the future. Designers will be able to share their stories, and for those that have them, their collections, with a wider global community; we hope that as well as personal perspectives on this difficult time, there will be inspiration in bucketloads. It is what British fashion is known for.”
London Fashion Week June 2020 will put storytelling at its heart and give a voice to British fashion businesses and creatives, allowing them to tell their stories in these extraordinary times by tapping into London’s cultural zeitgeist and highlighting its position as a global multi-cultural city. Bringing the fashion community together, the platform will host exclusive multimedia content from designers, creatives, artists and brand partners, enabling collaboration and bringing together fashion, culture and technology.
This new digital experience will be open to a global public and trade audience, and will work as a meet-up point, offering interviews, podcasts, designer diaries, webinars and digital showrooms, giving the opportunity to designers to generate sales for both the public through existing collections and the retailers through orders for next season’s products.
Alongside longstanding brand partners of London Fashion Week, British GQ, Evening Standard, JD.COM, INC, LAVAZZA, LetsBab, Mercedes-Benz, The May Fair Hotel and TONI&GUY, BFC has engaged a number of digital pioneering brands, including Amazon Launchpad, Facebook, Google, Instagram, JOOR, ORDRE/ORB360 and YouTube, who will all be activating content in unique ways, helping British designer businesses reach new public and trade audiences. The generosity and commitment of our partners, suppliers and supporters is more vital than ever. Please help us by acknowledging their support for London Fashion Week June 2020 alongside our Official Suppliers: Fashion & Beauty Monitor, Getty Images, Launchmetrics, S’well and Official Supporters: The Department for International Trade, The European Regional Development Fund and The Mayor of London.
The autumn/winter 2019 edition of London Fashion Week Men’s kicked off yesterday in its new home at Brick Lane’s Truman Brewery. Our style editor Martina Ghia and fashion journalist Stephen George have taken over our social media for the weekend and here are all the highlights from DAY 1:
Day one showcased what London has become today: Upcoming and international designer names on the schedule with creativity and diversity on their best.
For Autumn-Winter 2019, Bobby Abley takes inspiration from his family and hometown of Scarborough, where he worked on the collection. Abley revisits his childhood; balaclavas, scarves and baby blankets are all replicated, hand knitted by his mother (and other relatives) and incorporated within the collection as one-off pieces. The family team of knitters also created cardigans and jumpers in fluorescent colours – a palette which recurs throughout the collection. The rest of the colours in the collection are inspired by Abley’s favourite characters from Pokémon.
90s and modern sport wear references were the main characteristics of ICEBERG AW19 show. Mickey became the protagonist of the apres-ski style of the collection which have been combined perfectly with the bold colours and the british punk references on grooming and styling.
Live music from London indie group Wild Daughter, a plethora of leopard print and heavy leather trench coats and trousers were some of the John Lawrence Sullivan’s fashion elements during his underground AW19 show. Strong textures and bold colours have been combined to create the new contemporary menswear.
Amidst the current uncertain political and social climate, Qasimi’s urban nomad travels to the near future with a vision of hope within a utopian landscapefor autumn/winter 2019.
Utilitarian sportswear, bold colours with burgundy as the protagonist and protective layering are the three main trends that Qasimi is proposing for the next winter.
Concluding Day 1 it is worth to mention the British emerging talents who turned into tailoring with a twist for next winter.
EDWARD CRUTCHLEY
CHARLES JEFFREY LOVERBOY
