London Fashion Week opened last night with a Harris Reed show kicking off more 40th anniversary celebrations. The designer’s catwalk show at Tate Modern, which saw the Central Saint Martins graduate join the official schedule for the first time, began six days of events in the capital.
There will be 72 on-schedule designers and 48 physical runway shows taking place across the city until Tuesday. It will see the culmination of 40th anniversary celebrations that began in February’s fashion week. They include a Downing Street event when PM Sir Keir Starmer will host the British Fashion Council and their guests. The BFC hopes it will provide “an invaluable opportunity to introduce the sector’s priorities to the new government”, and aims to drum up more support for the industry.
The UK fashion industry is facing challenging times. Following the general election in July, BFC chief executive Caroline Rush said the sector had previously been “underestimated and underfunded by government”.
Figures provided by the BFC show the industry was worth an estimated £28.9billion gross value-added contribution to the UK economy in 2021. Reed, who is best known for his extravagantly sculptural designs beloved by Florence Pugh, Iman and Harry Styles, said: “It felt very much like the right time to join the official schedule. Forty years of London Fashion Week felt like a really big opportunity to celebrate the creativity we have in this country. “It was very important to come together with my fellow London designers to say: London will not be skipped and will not be missed.”
Ms Rush said: “LFW has a significant impact beyond fashion and it’s more important than ever to back and support our designers due to the current economic climate. “LFW is a global cultural platform that champions British fashion and international brands to global audiences. “We will close LFW and our year-long celebration of LFW40 with what London does best — an epic party [on Monday night]. We are hosting this party in collaboration with Burberry… and we have the iconic Naomi Campbell hosting the evening.”
Headline shows from the spring/ summer 2025 schedule of LFW — this year with principal partner 1664 Blanc — are led by Burberry, which will show on Monday afternoon, as well as JW Anderson and Simone Rocha on Sunday, and rising star S.S. Daley, who will show his new collection to international buyers and editors tomorrow.
Joining Reed for the on-schedule debuts are upcoming designers Charlie Constantinou, Patrick McDowell, Johanna Parv, Karoline Vitto, LUEDER, Pauline Dujancourt and YAKU. They join veterans Erdem, Emilia Wickstead, Roksanda and David Koma, among others, in showing this week.