London Fashion Week needs to decide what it wants
Second hand catwalks and sustainability messaging are incompatible with growing fast fashion representation
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Last month fashion fans flocked to the capital to enjoy previews of the Spring Summer 26 campaigns from a range of brands. The Sludge Mag team checked out Alex S. Yu, Ashish, Cedim School of Design and Wijnruit. It marked Laura Weir’s first LFW as CEO and she came in with a bold vision to reestablish London as a leading destination in the fashion calendar. With a career spanning experience in British Vogue, eS and Selfridges her credentials are inarguable and her ambition unquestionable. In waiving membership fees for designers and investing further in international buyers and media, Weir facilitated an 18% increase in on-schedule designers making for a broader and more interesting schedule. Anyone looking for a hit piece is going to be disappointed because we believe Laura Weir cares about the British fashion industry and has its best interests at heart. However…
LFW followed a growing trend of high-street fast fashion brand’s growing presence at shows. COS showed at NYFW. In August Topshop hosted their own show in Trafalgar Square and on the first day of LFW H&M hosted 3 consecutive talks and a catwalk show. On the same day Oxfam hosted their “catwalk for change” and eBay hosted their “endless runway”. H&M has, is and will continue to be a fast fashion brand. Ironically the advent of super fast fashion labels like SHEIN have taken negative attention away from brands like the returning Topshop, Zara, H&M and COS (a subsidiary of H&M alongside And Other Stories and WEEKDAY). For people outside of the industry, catwalks can serve as a symbol of legitimacy. But they have nothing to do with worker’s supply chains and manufacturing which is how sustainability should be measured. London Fashion Week, any fashion weeks, hosting fast fashion brands help to cleanse their public image. This outweighs the positive of them showcasing more ethical second hand alternatives.
Thinking more about fashion as a creative discipline, fast fashion brands cheapen the craft of it. London Fashion Week prides itself on being a proving ground for emerging British design talent. In 2022 Chet Lo publicly called out H&M for stealing his spiky dress design. This is not specific to H&M either. In 2016 Topshop were accused of stealing Azerbaijani artist, Faig Ahmed’s designs. The fashion industry is already largely unattainable for designers who aren’t from privileged backgrounds. Fashion weeks collaborating with companies who make that uphill battle even steeper, by stealing from independent creatives, is at odds with the ethos of supporting design creativity. As with everything it comes down to the economics. The British Fashion Council’s NewGen programme which offers young creatives mentorship, business insights and showcasing opportunities is in partnership with fast fashion brand Pull&Bear. They offer financial support which is crucial for aforementioned designers who need monetary backing to pursue fashion. Pull&Bear are part of the same wider conglomerate as Bershka and Zara. The latter of which has also been frequently accused of stealing from independent designers. The brands with the money to fund emerging creatives, have that money because of the exploitation that alienates emerging creatives in the first place. This mechanism isn’t fashion specific and is symptomatic of capitalism, but within fashion we should be vigilant about the motives of corporate backers. SHEIN has tried to infiltrate fashion design courses, sponsoring Graduate Fashion Week in 2019. They also awarded 12 student from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) $40’000 in scholarships. Super fast fashion brands take viral moments from social media and churn out cheap regurgitations as fast as possible. This mechanism is making the fashion “designer” as we understand it obsolete. We don’t blame struggling institutions or students for taking the money but long term it will further contribute to their own extinction.
There is another way. In 2023 Rushi Sunak’s government confirmed £2m for the funding of London Fashion Week to be spread across London Fashion Week for 2 years. The year before the British Fashion Council reported that research by Oxford Economics found the British fashion and textile industry’s contribution to UK GDP was nearly £68bn. £2m sounds like a lot, but spread over 4 fashion weeks it’s minimal. Especially considering how beneficial the industry is to the economy. Imagine if the current government made a meaningful contribution to the British Fashion Council instead of pursuing digital IDs which no one asked for. The status quo of the arts only surviving because of private benefactors (with ulterior motives) is a political choice. Government budgets are our money and we deserve for that to facilitate people’s creative expression and development.
Article by Martyn Ewoma
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