London Fashion Week Facts

London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025 has started! To celebrate this September's collections, we asked Morgan, our Library Services Manager here at the FRA, to dive into the history of London Fashion Week and some of its major moments.

Presenting new fashion collections to clients is a practice that began in nineteenth-century Paris. Over the following years significant interest from international journalists who covered the shows expanded (Cope 2016). When World War II prevented Americans from travelling to Paris, the first New York City fashion week was organised and presented in 1943. The presentation of showing collection of fashion in front of clients travelled across the world to other cities such as Florence, Milan and eventually London (Cope 2016).

Legendary fashion publicist, Lynne Franks, was the one who pushed for a fashion week in London, wanting to give London a dedicated arena to promote its fashion talent in keeping with other fashion capitals such as New York, Milan, Paris and Tokyo (Taylor and Gallagher 2024). Lynne Franks is also the real-life inspiration for the character Edina in the TV show 'Absolutely Fabulous'! (Stylist Team 2017)

London Fashion Week launched in 1984 with support from the British government (Cope 2016), and the British Fashion Council which was founded in 1983 (Skov 2010), and soon after, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hosted a London Fashion Week reception for designers at 10 Downing Street in 1984 (Mower 2024). London Fashion Week in the 1980s was famous for showcasing iconic designers Vivienne Westwood, Katherine Hamnett and Rifat Ozbek.

In the 1990s, London Fashion week became known for presenting extravagant and theatrical shows thanks to Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan (Mower 2024). McQueen’s shows become a part of fashion history, such as in Spring/Summer 1999 show when two robots spray-painted a dress worn by the model Shalom Harlow (Taylor and Gallagher 2024).

Burberry created an iconic brand moment at London Fashion Week during their A/W 1999/2000 show, when their then-new CEO Rosemary Bravo decided to launch the first Burberry trench with the check on the lining on the outer gabardine cloth of the raincoat (Steele 2021). This, combined with Kate Moss being photographed by paparazzi wearing the raincoat, launched an iconic style for the brand that is still loved today (Steele 2021).

Some other memorable pop culture moments that London Fashion Week has given the world involve the British Royal Family. Diana, Princess of Wales, attended a reception for London Fashion Week at Lancaster House in London in March 1988 in an outfit by Bellville Sassoon (Salmon 2024), and in 2018, Queen Elizabeth II sat next to Anna Wintour during a London Fashion Week show for British designer Richard Quinn.

An iconic music moment at London Fashion Week was when Prince performed at Matthew Williamson's 2007 show, jumping up from the front row to start singing his song 'Chelsea Rodgers'. (Taylor and Gallagher 2024).

London Fashion Week reflects the British spirit of rebellion and playfulness which is why it stands out from other fashion week events across the globe (Loftus 2024). It has evolved over the years alongside fashion trends and currently contributes to the ongoing conversation around fashion and sustainability. Since 2019, it also has embraced a more hybrid model, introducing the streaming of live shows online to increase its reach and accessibility (Loftus 2024).

In February of 2024 London Fashion Week opened at the London Stock Exchange, signifying the importance of the fashion industry to the UK economy after 40 years (‘London Stock Exchange Celebrates 40 Years of London Fashion Week’ 2024). London Fashion Week also contributes billions to the UK economy and employs more than 900,000 people, according to the British Fashion Council's latest industry report (Taylor and Gallagher 2024).

The FRA Library’s amazing collection includes comprehensive materials devoted to fashion history, covering fashion as it evolved through the centuries and decades, including London Fashion Week. The library’s digital collections include resources such as archived and annotated videos of historic fashion shows, including the Alexander McQueen show from A/W 1999 ‘No 13’ with the ground breaking robots decorating model Shalom Harlow’s dress.

SOURCES:

COPE, Jon and Dennis MALONEY. 2016. Fashion Promotion in Practice. [London]: Bloomsbury.

LOFTUS, Rikki. 2024. ‘Why There’s Still a Place for London Fashion Week in 2024’. The Independent [online]. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/london-katharine-hamnett-gdp-extinction-rebellion-margaret-thatcher-b2497378.html [accessed 9 Aug 2024].

‘London Stock Exchange Celebrates 40 Years of London Fashion Week’. 2024. London Stock Exchange [online]. Available at: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/discover/news-and-insights/about:blank [accessed 8 Aug 2024].

MOWER, Sarah. 2024. ‘Behind the Scenes of 40 Years of London Fashion Week’. [online]. Available at: https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/40-years-of-london-fashion-week-2qmxgt5cz [accessed 8 Aug 2024].

SKOV, Lise. 2010. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. New York: Berg.

STEELE, Valerie (ed.). 2021. The Berg Companion to Fashion. Eighth. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic.

STYLIST TEAM. 2017. ‘I Convinced Myself Edina Wasn’t Me’. [online]. Available at: https://www.stylist.co.uk/people/i-convinced-myself-edina-wasnt-me/13121 [accessed 9 Aug 2024].

TAYLOR, Alex and Charlotte GALLAGHER. 2024. ‘London Fashion Week: Celebrating 40 Years of Catwalks’. BBC News, 16 Feb [online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68306458 [accessed 8 Aug 2024].