LONDON KICKED off the British leg of the fashion calendar yesterday, with designers eager to lift the gloom on the high street with the glitz of the catwalk through some of the edgiest shows in the season.
As per tradition Irish designer Paul Costelloe’s show kicked off the week, which runs until next Wednesday, with his spring/summer 2012 collection.
Princess Anne’s daughter-in-law Autumn Phillips and shoe designer Jimmy Choo were spotted in the front row of the show at Somerset House.
They saw models take to the catwalk in outfits inspired by the 1962 film What Ever Happened To Baby Jane.
The models donned voluminous dresses and skirts in neutral colours mixed with pastel coral, pink, green and gold.
This weekend, all eyes will be on Julien Macdonald, Vivienne Westwood, Matthew Williamson and Issa London, the designer of the navy silk-jersey dress Kate Middleton wore when her engagement was announced.
The dozens of British and international catwalk shows, presentations, including one by fashion darling Tom Ford, and parties cannot come soon enough for a capital city rocked by summer riots and a damaging phone-hacking scandal.
“In 2012 the eyes of the world will be upon us – we want to show the world that Britain is the leading force in the global creative sphere,” British Fashion Council Chairman Harold Tillman said in a statement.
London is best-known as a showcase for cutting edge talent and avant garde trends, mixing up-and-coming names like Erdem with established designers like Vivienne Westwood.
It has produced some of fashion’s biggest names but has struggled to maintain a global profile on a par with the other fashion capitals.
Sales growth in the fashion market stood at 1 per cent over the past 12 weeks, according to market research group Kantar Worldpanel. But with average prices rising 6 percent over the same period, it said inflation was affecting the market as volumes fall.
“The number of fashion items sold across the whole sector has not increased year-on-year since January 2009, the same month that the UK entered recession,” Ian Mitchell, insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, said.
“The economic downturn has certainly affected shoppers’ behaviour – fashion items are more expensive than they used to be so people can no longer afford to go on big shopping sprees and are buying less.” – (Reuters)