Why there’s still a place for London Fashion Week in 2024

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London Fashion Week has began, marking the fortieth anniversary of the biannual occasion.

Since launching in 1984, the occasion has grown from an avant-garde present to a large in the style trade – with this 12 months’s London Fashion Week (LFW) opening on the London Stock Exchange this week, signifying the significance of the style trade to the UK financial system. UK womenswear gross sales alone are price an estimated £30.9 billion, in line with Mintel information.

But, the world has modified a lot in the previous 4 a long time – so is there still a place for LFW at the moment?

Dr Benjamin Wild, senior lecturer of Fashion Narratives at Manchester Metropolitan University, believes so.

“Fashion is an industry that contributes just over 3% to the country’s GDP. I also think in terms of diversity and social responsibility, that’s something I think London takes very seriously. With three globally established fashion weeks, I think that it’s imperative to be different,” says Wild.

First organised by the British Fashion Council in February 1984, London Fashion Week occurs twice a 12 months – in February and September.

When it launched, there have been already three properly established vogue weeks working in Paris, New York and Milan, and London was thought of an ‘interloper’ of the trade.

“It’s always been said – and I think it’s very much true that right from its inception, London Fashion Week has always been associated with innovation, and in terms of its creativity, there’s a greater sense of freedom,” provides Wild.

“It does capture something that is quintessentially British or English in terms of being a little bit rebellious, a little bit playful and defying the norms. I think that’s enabled London Fashion Week to really establish itself in distinction to the pre-existing fashion weeks and, over these past 40 years, it’s always had an angle, it’s always had a perspective and, if you like, a territory that is very much its own.”

In March 1984, when prime minister Margaret Thatcher hosted a reception to rejoice London Fashion Week, English designer Katharine Hamnett induced a stir by carrying a slogan tee which learn ‘58% don’t need Pershing’, in response to opinion polls being in opposition to the basing of Pershing II missiles in the nation.

Wilds believes politics seeps into LFW greater than the opposite vogue weeks around the globe, including: “Fashion is a mirror of society”.

Since the Eighties, LFW has established itself as a large inside the vogue trade and is now a extremely anticipated occasion in the style calendar.

However, the exclusivity of the exhibits has drawn criticism, and Wild says the catwalk isn’t “particularly democratic” – however he believes the occasion is shifting with the occasions, with the 2009 LFW at Somerset House placing up digital screens to make the occasion accessible.

“The way [designers] communicate with their audiences, whether that’s taking advantage of digital technologies, has evolved over this 40-year period,” Wild provides.

London has at all times been a hub for revolutionary vogue – in the Eighties, for instance, a group of designers known as Body Map created designs that didn’t observe the pure silhouette of the physique.

Wild says London Fashion Week has continued to push boundaries, with the primary London Collections: Men launching in 2012, and shifting once more in 2020 to turn into one gender-neutral occasion. The educational provides that being totally different and numerous is “very much part of the DNA of the event”.

It has had pushback over time although, most just lately from Extinction Rebellion who disrupted an occasion final 12 months to name on LFW to chop their ties with Coca-Cola, criticising their plastic use.

Despite this, Wild argues LFW still has worth in 2024 – however admits it might want to evolve to remain related. This is especially the case in phrases of sustainability/setting affect and accessibility.

“We’re increasingly thinking about sustainability, with a lot of recent reports from the industry itself, but also other international organisations, saying the fashion industry will not meet, and won’t be able to contribute to meeting sustainability goals that have been set,” Wild notes.

He additionally thinks the questions round whether or not it ought to transfer extra on-line are vital if it needs “to be increasingly relevant”.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, when gatherings had been restricted to small numbers, organisers pivoted their method by going digital and live-streaming exhibits on-line. This is one thing Wild thinks we’ll see extra of in the longer term – “a hybridity and balance between physical and digital”.

He provides: “I think it’ll be interesting to see how it does evolve. I think the fashion industry right now, very much since the pandemic, is trying to align its priorities. There will always be that need for the physical, because of the materiality of our clothing, but we’re increasingly aware of sustainability.

“We’ll probably see more of what London Fashion Week is doing this year, emphasising the cultural element in the capital, with multi-site events and reaching out to bring in people who might not validly associate themselves with fashion.”