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This season, London Fashion Week looked to the past, while building foundations for the future.
As part of the event’s 40th-anniversary celebrations, the British Fashion Council (BFC) asked Vogue chief critic and BFC ambassador for emerging talent Sarah Mower, and renowned photographer and creative director Robin Derrick to curate a retrospective. The exhibition, which snaked around the walls of the Newgen showspace at 180 Studios, featured a timeline of images from iconic fashion shows, quotes from the people who have been pivotal in building London Fashion Week (LFW) over the years, as well as a list with every designer that has shown over the past four decades.
The celebration comes amid a dark time for the industry, particularly following the collapse of e-tailer Matches and a number of brands entering administration. “It’s not been the easiest [running an independent brand in the current environment],” says London-born Indian-Nigerian designer Priya Ahluwalia. “You’re operating in a landscape that’s more difficult than it was previously, but you’re competing in a marketplace that has conglomerates.”
Many of the brands celebrated in the retrospective have struggled in recent years, including Christopher Kane, House of Holland and Roksanda. “I don’t think we’ve quite recovered from the impact of those changes [Brexit and Covid],” says Newgen rising star Tolu Coker, adding that funding is a particular challenge for young designers today. “The visibility that comes with being part of Newgen is amazing, but when it comes to a physical, tangible resource like being financed, it’s really difficult.” Coker says that while “it’s a scary climate”, she’s also “hopeful”.
“It’s been a tough year for London, and so, in this moment, I feel very grateful,” says Steven Stokey-Daley, founder of SS Daley, after collecting the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design on Thursday, just before LFW commenced.
