Celebrate London Fashion Week
Lovers of London from the arts and fashion worlds pay tribute to the capital, mecca for the fashion forward writes Henrietta
Art and design funding is not an issue that politicians consider as much as they talk about maintaining London’s financial and banking eminence and yet design and fashion are a big and growing part of the UK’s economy and we need to maintain our edge in the creative arts — I believe that it contributes profoundly to London’s dynamism.
London Fashion Week is sponsored by the private bank Coutts & Co who offer wealth management to professionals, bankers and ivestors, entrepreneurs and landowners.
Coutts & Co been strong supporters of arts sponsorship for many years , and in the aftermath of another roaring London fashion Week we thought that rather than showing you the predictable line-up of designers and models showing a round-up of British designer fashion, we’d invite movers and shakers from London’s art, TV, finance and music scene to let you know what they thought. Would they be buying British and what do they love about London? All feel passionately about living in a capital that continues to retain its edge, not just in fashion. That’s why there’ll be an unprecedented number of international press and buyers at London Fashion week. So here’s a celebration of the capital.
What gives London its energy?
It’s mostly due to its genuinely large, immigrant population with very different tastes which have changed the city in the past 20 years. Even though cities such as Paris and New York have big immigrant populations, London retains its edge because there isn’t that same interest in street fashion or that relation between high fashion and what’s happening on the street. It’s why Paris feels very conservative.
In London I think it is possible to be completely yourself and that makes for more creative thinking.
Everywhere you look things are happening. Anything inspires me — from the Columbia Road flower market on a Sunday morning to sitting in La Fromagerie surrounded by all those cheeses. There are many wonderful restaurants opening with young cooks at the helm. I enjoy these smaller restaurants with personalities of their own.
