London Fashion Week forges on without big ticket names

London Fashion Week officially starts today and notably absent from the schedule is the UK’s biggest luxury brand, Burberry. While the company best known for its infamous check hasn’t made an exodus to another fashion capital – Burberry is due to present its AW22 collection on 11 March in London with a live runway show – it has chosen to present on its own terms and timing outside of fashion week.

The draw that big ticket names have to attract media, buyers and investors, should not be underestimated. With names like Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Christopher Kane, Mulberry and Alexander McQueen missing, London Fashion week, like New York (which lost Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne and Marc Jacobs from its official schedule) has to fill the gaps with emerging talents.

While fashion weeks are a great time to shine a much needed light on up and coming designers, they do not tend to have sizeable businesses to attract the industry’s heavyweights. This is why in Paris and Milan the majority of orders are placed. The economic implications also mean that the boost to the city is less, with hotel rooms and restaurants empty of the thousands of executives, buyers, models and industry folk that visit during a hot ticket week.

Focus on emerging talent

Unlike New York, London has always been synonymous with emerging talent, experimentation and a more avant garde approach to the show season. Platforms like NewGen, Fashion Fringe, Fashion East and Graduate Fashion Week have allowed for raw talent, innovation and creativity unmarred by commercial constraints to have a voice.

This season there is high anticipation for LVMH prize winner Nensi Dojaka, Conner Ives and Simone Rocha. Around town, Anya Hindmarch is hosting a vegan nail bar, Browns is transforming their Immersive Room into a Soniferous Forest and MatchesFashion is the perfect place to take a break from the shows with its zero-waste pop-up café in collaboration with Raey and Silo.