London Fashion Week, Friday 15th – Tuesday 19th February, will showcase over 100 businesses leading in creativity and innovation with visitors from 49 countries. This season the British Fashion Council are putting a focus on a move towards more sustainable practices and their Positive Fashion initiative through a partnership with BBC Earth and designer Amy Powney of Mother of Pearl. The collaboration will explore the impact fashion industry has on the planet while highlighting the positive tangible opportunity for sustainable fashion choices by businesses and mindful consumer behaviour.
On Tuesday 19th February, the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design will be presented to Bethany Williams by the Duchess of Cornwall. The Award recognises creativity in design while embedding sustainability and community practices within the business.
February 2019 will mark the second London Fashion Week that the catwalks and designer showrooms at the event will be fur free. The BFC survey around use of fur continues to reflect what is seen as a cultural change with more designer businesses and international brands choosing not to show fur as part of their collections and increasingly more moving to being completely fur free businesses.
FACTS & FIGURES
The show schedule features over 100 catwalk shows, presentations and events. This season, there are 52 designers on the LFW Show Schedule, 31 presentations, 17 events, over 60 designers exhibiting in the Designer Showrooms and 7 NEWGEN designers in the NEWGEN Designer Pop-up.
Today the British Fashion Council announces new data on the British Fashion Industry:
Consumer spending on womenswear rose 5.5% to £30.9billion in 2018.
Womenswear now accounts for 51% of the total clothing market, whilst menswear accounts for 26%.
Consumer spending on clothing is forecast to rise 25% to £76 billion in the next five years to 2023.
(Mintel, 2018)
Further stats:
- The fashion industry directly contributed £32.3billion to the UK GDP in 2017 ($41.8billion). This represents a 5.4% increase after 2016; a growth rate 1.6% higher than the rest of the economy. The Fashion industry employs almost as many people as the financial sector with 890,000 jobs (Oxford Economics, 2018)
- £42bn contributed by culture and creativity to London’s economy per year (london.gov.uk)
- £10m generated every hour by the Creative Industries (london.gov.uk)
- 1 in 11 of all UK jobs are in the UK creative economy. This comprises jobs in the creative industries and creative jobs which are in non-creative organisations (e.g. design or marketing teams within manufacturers). (Creative Industries Council, July 2018)
- 1 in 6 jobs in London are in the creative economy (london.gov.uk)
LONDON FASHION WEEK FEBRUARY 2019 SCHEDULE
The London Fashion Week catwalk and presentation schedule, Designer Showrooms and DiscoveryLAB at The Store X, 180 Strand feature the very best of emerging and established names within the industry.
This season we are delighted to welcome back to London Vivienne Westwood, winner of the Swarovski Award for Positive Change at The Fashion Awards 2018. Victoria Beckham will show in London for the second season and following last season’s much anticipated first collection under new Chief Creative Officer Riccardo Tisci, Burberry host their catwalk show on Sunday 17th February. London’s New Establishment continue to be a key draw with shows including Erdem, JW Anderson, Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha, Roksanda, Emilia Wickstead, Peter Pilotto and Mary Katrantzou.
The NEWGEN 2018/19 line-up, the internationally celebrated BFC talent identification scheme includes catwalk shows from Kiko Kostadinov and Matty Bovan on Friday, Halpern on Saturday and Richard Malone on Monday as well as Supriya Lele and Paula Knorr who host presentations on Saturday 16 and Monday 18 respectively. Wales Bonner will be joining the womenswear schedule for the first time presenting a co-ed show whilst Richard Quinn, British Emerging Talent Womenswear winner at The Fashion Awards 2018 in partnership with Swarovski will show on Tuesday. NEWGEN Accessories designer ISOSCELES Lingerie will showcase her collection within the DiscoveryLAB and Alighieri and The Season Hats will both have a dedicated space in the Designer Showrooms.
The DiscoveryLAB is an experiential zone for thinkers, makers, explorers and innovators across the landscape of fashion, art, technology and performance will include presentations from Fabian Kis-Juhasz, HANGER, Katie Ann McGuigan, Miló Maria, NABIL NAYAL, NATALIEBCOLEMAN, POSTER GIRL, Renata Brenha, Rue-L, STEVE O SMITH, UNDERAGE and Wesley Harriott.
New additions to the schedule include 16Arlington, Asai and Symonds Pearmain. Other internationally celebrated designers include Adidas x Ji Won Choi, A.W.A.K.E Mode, Alexa Chung, Alice Archer, Amanda Wakeley, Ashish, Ashley Williams, Aspinal of London, Bora Aksu, Chalayan, David Koma, Edeline Lee, Emma Charles, ERRORTIQUE, Eudon Choi, Fashion East, Fyodor Golan, Gayeon Lee, House of Holland, Huishan Zhang, International Woolmark Prize, IZZUE, Jamie Wei Huang, Jasper Conran, Jenny Packham, Johnstons of Elgin, Malene Oddershede Bach, Margaret Howell, Markus Lupfer, Marta Jakubowski, Molly Goddard, Mother of Pearl, N atasha Zinko, On/Off, Pam Hogg, Paul Costelloe, Ports 1961, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, Pringle of Scotland, Push Button, RIXO London, Rejina Pyo, Roberta Einer, Roberts Wood, Roland Mouret, Ryan LO, Shrimps, Tara Lilly, Tata Naka, Toga, OSMAN, Toogood, Xiao Li, Xu Zhi and Zandra Rhodes will be on schedule to showcase their latest collections.
London Fashion Week Partnerships
The generosity and commitment of our sponsors, suppliers and supporters is more vital than ever. Please help us by acknowledging their support for London Fashion Week September 2018: Official Sponsors Code 8, Evening Standard, JD.com, Inc., Lavazza, The May Fair Hotel, Mercedes-Benz, Nivea, The Store X, TONI&GUY; Official Suppliers Bags of Ethics, DHL, evian, Fashion & Beauty Monitor, The Gel Bottle, Getty Images, Lärabar, Launchmetrics, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, PROPERCORN, Propress, Scavi & Ray Prosecco, S by Sloggi; Official Supporters: The Department for International Trade, The European Regional Development Fund and The Mayor of London.
Partner stories in numbers:
- 32,000 miles driven between shows by a luxurious fleet of fuel-efficient chauffeured Mercedes-Benz cars
- 20,000 cups of espresso served and 200kg of Lavazza coffee consumed
- There were 3,000 cocktails consumed in May Fair Bar between 14-18th September 2018.
- 17,000 Larabars sampled onsite
- 9,000 cans of new NIVEA Black & White Invisible Silky Smooth deodorant sampled
- 7,014 products used by TONI&GUY and label.m backstage
- 4,000 Festival Tote Bags and Pouches will be produced by Bags of EthicsTM which have been made with ethically sourced cotton, non-toxic inks in an award-winning factory in Pondicherry, South India in which 90% of the workforce are women. The bag can be reused 5,000 times.
- 3000 copies of the ES Magazine Fashion Edition handed out at LFW
- 1000+ The GelBottle Inc nail tips to be used to create nail designs for Shrimps, Ashish and Ashley Williams.