UK Fashion Week's major loss
2010-02-19 11:02
London - The champagne may taste a little flat when London Fashion Week opens on Friday, just eight days after the death of Alexander McQueen, one of the most vital British designers of the last 20 years.
There is no getting around the fact that McQueen's apparent suicide, which followed the death of his mother by several days, will darken fashion week, normally a time of air kisses, frivolity, and good will, real or faked.
How do you give a seven-day party when one of the shining stars of your industry has taken his own life? That is the dilemma.
"It will be incredibly difficult," said Hilary Alexander, fashion director of The Telegraph newspaper. "McQueen totally revolutionised London Fashion Week, he put it back on the map. He was the most talked about designer we've ever had."
But the gowns are ready, the invitations are printed, and hundreds of photographers are standing by to catch the thin and the beautiful. The show will go on - organisers are promising a "tasteful" tribute to McQueen and catwalk shows by a raft of top talents.
McQueen
The list includes many of the greats who, like McQueen, have helped raise the profile of British fashion, giving London a reputation as a place where young designers are celebrated and nurtured.
Flame-haired Vivienne Westwood will show her latest Red Label designs, taking control of the neo-Gothic Royal Courts of Justice for her influential, punk-oriented designs. The doyenne of the fashion scene always draws the hottest pop stars to her theatrical shows.
Paul Smith - perhaps her male counterpart as a long-time veteran of the fashion wars - will be showing his autumn and winter collection, as will Matthew Williamson, one of the rising stars whose dresses have become a major status symbol.
The Burberry show with creative director Christopher Bailey is expected to be the hottest ticket of the week. Last fall, Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria Beckham, Emma Watson and other high tone fashionistas lined the front row. That show marked a long-awaited return to London by the fashion house once known for its predictable plaids but now seen as cutting edge.
The week of catwalks shows - spiced with dozens of parties in London's pricier clubs and restaurants - mixes venerable British names like Aquascutum, Mulberry and Pringle of Scotland with rising talents like Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders and still others looking for their first real commercial break.
Twenty8Twelve
The final day, Wednesday, will be mostly given over to menswear, with some of the Savile Row giants like Hardy Amies, E Tautz and Gieves & Hawkes showing traditional British suits - often hailed as the most elegant in the world - and innovative works.
There is also a touch of movie star glamour, with actress Sienna Miller and her sister Savannah Miller presenting their Twenty8Twelve designs.
Savannah Miller has turned the company's website into something of a tribute to McQueen as she laments his death and thanks him for the role he played in her development - and that of the entire generation of designers who followed him. She said McQueen had been demanding and, at times, difficult to work with but taught his peers and younger designers to pursue their creative version.
"Nothing will be the same again and I don't believe the young people studying fashion will be as inspired as we were studying by such an extraordinary man," she said, reminiscing about earlier London Fashion Weeks in which McQueen's spectacular creations were worn by models Kate Moss and Erin O'Connor.
McQueen built his international reputation in the 1990s during London Fashion Week presentations, but he had not shown in London in recent years.
His representatives announced in Paris on Thursday that the Alexander McQueen label will be continued, and his team is finishing the collection he was completing at the time of his death, with a show expected in Paris early next month.
"At least we will be able to see his last work," said Alexander.
- AP