LONDON – Reaching the big 4-0, London Fashion Week has certainly seen its share of drama, from Katharine Hamnett’s sex lessons to Queen Elizabeth II’s surprise visit to Richard Quinn in her only Fashion Week appearance. Here, WWD looks at nine moments that have lit up London’s catwalks over the past forty years.
Fall and rise: 16-year-old Naomi Campbell made headlines around the world when she tumbled down the runway on 9-inch platforms at Vivienne Westwood’s fall 1993 show, “Anglomania.” The show was a nod to Westwood’s English and Scottish heritage, with figure-hugging lace dresses and a long, red tartan skirt. John Galliano, Jean Paul Goude and Azzedine Alaïa watched from the front row. Campbell would, of course, become famous worldwide – and friends with Westwood, walking (without further incident) in many of her shows in London and Paris. Westwood would continue to fly the tartan flag, maintain her punk attitude and apply her passion for sustainability in future collections.
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Man versus nature: The greatest showman, Alexander McQueen, staged his performance in the spring of 1999 at the Gatliff Road warehouse, a former bus depot in London’s Victoria. Shalom Harlow stood on a spinning turntable surrounded by two dancing robotic arms that would spray-paint her white strapless dress with black and lime green paint. The collection is inspired by artist Rebecca Horn’s work ‘High Moon’, in which two shotguns are hung opposite each other in the air while a stream of blood flows across the floor. The show was memorable for other reasons too. Paralympian Aimee Mullins made her catwalk debut wearing prosthetic legs carved from elm wood, sparking conversations about diversity and inclusivity long before they became fashionable.
Woodwork: Hussein Chalayan’s autumn 2000 collection ‘After Words’ had a theatrical and philosophical slant, inspired by war refugees forced to leave their homes with only a few personal belongings. The stage was decorated like a living room and showed models hiding household objects in their coats and pockets or wearing covers like dresses. At one point, a model stepped into the middle of a table, which magically transformed into a long tiered skirt. “Technically, a lot of things could have gone wrong, but somehow they didn’t,” Chalayan told WWD in 2020. The designer was always experimenting: for his graduate collection at Central Saint Martins in 1993, he buried dresses in the ground with iron filings and left them there for months before digging them out and presenting them on the catwalk.
Sex education: Katharine Hamnett has always used fashion to achieve her goals. In 1984, she attended a fashion industry event in Downing Street wearing a large white T-shirt that read ’58 Percent Don’t Want Pershing’. The statement referred to a poll showing that most Britons objected to having US Pershing missiles in the country. According to Hamnett, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher screamed when she saw the T-shirt. Some twenty years later, during her spring 2004 collection and on the occasion of World AIDS Day, Hamnett was back on her soapbox. She dressed Naomi Campbell in a crystal-encrusted, sheer black top that read, “Use a condom.”
Big night: London Fashion Week has never been a celebrity magnet, but that all changed one evening in September 2006 when Giorgio Armani drove into town and showed his Spring 2007 Emporio Armani collection at Earl’s Court in West London. It was a TV extravaganza with performances by Beyoncé, Bryan Ferry, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli and 50 Cent. The event was held in aid of (Product) Red, a charity that raises awareness and funds to help eradicate HIV/AIDS in a number of African countries. The event had a long-lasting halo effect on London Fashion Week, which became a must-see showcase on the seasonal fashion circuit.
Hidden debut: The Central Saint Martins MA graduate show has long been a launching pad for some of the biggest names in the industry, but it often takes years for designers to catch the eye. Burberry’s chief creative officer Daniel Lee, who graduated from CSM in 2011, spent almost a decade behind the scenes, honing his skills as ready-to-wear director at Celine and previously at Maison Margiela, Balenciaga and Donna Karan. He impressed at Bottega Veneta, injecting a new and youthful spirit into the collections, and his zeitgeisty designs became the talk of social media and the wider fashion industry. Now, as creative director of Burberry, he is tasked with working his magic again and, in particular, boosting the brand’s accessories business.
Going green: From 2012 to early 2020, a host of British menswear brands took center stage at the biennial London Collections: Men event. One of the best brands to emerge was Craig Green, whose sense of whimsy and architectural designs captured the industry’s imagination. His solo runway debut in spring 2015 was a poetic and deeply emotional take on contemporary menswear with jackets that resembled samurai robes; ribbon closures on the sleeves; and visible stitching on the outside of garments. Later collections included clothes that doubled as a nomadic tent or flying machine, while Green’s wild imagination would earn him many accolades at the Fashion Awards in London.
Now you see it: When the “see now, buy now” trend began to emerge in 2016, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey made an early leap. With great ambition he organized a show in London and stocked the stores with the new collection. At 8pm, shortly after his ‘September 2016’ show wrapped, hundreds of customers were waiting in Burberry’s Regent Street store in London, ready to shop the 83 looks and more than 250 pieces. “It’s very much the company culture to move forward and try new things,” Bailey told WWD. “Nothing is forever, we are testing things and we certainly don’t have all the answers.” Burberry (and most other brands that tested ‘see now, buy now’) eventually returned to the previous seasonal format, but Bailey’s early move took courage and got the industry thinking and talking.
The Queen meets Quinn: In 2018, Queen Elizabeth attended her first – and last – fashion show and presented the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design to Richard Quinn. The award, which recognizes fashion’s role in society and diplomacy, has been presented in subsequent years to designers such as Bethany Williams, Rosh Mahtani of Alighieri and Priya Ahluwalia. But nothing could ever match the Queen’s surprise visit and the moment the Queen took to the stage to declare: “Our fashion industry has been renowned for excellent craftsmanship for many years and continues to produce world-class textiles and groundbreaking designs.” Four years later, Quinn and a host of London designers would pay tribute to Her Majesty in their fashion shows following her death in September 2022.
Launch gallery: The 40th London Fashion Week: a look at the most memorable moments
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