Activism, outsiders and style: this is Fashion Week

Harriet Hall in London WHOEVER said Fashion Week wasn’t relevant to their lives might want to take a look at what’s been happening on and off the runways this season.

Last week’s New York Fashion Week saw the first ever transgender designer present their collection, it saw celebrities (including Game of Thrones’s Gwendoline Christie) hit the runway and Barry Manilow even performed at the Michael Kors show.

But London is where the real change is happening. Fashion Week commenced last Friday and along with the usual peacockery of the runway and the pageantry of streetstyle, was a new air of activism that the shows haven’t been party to in a long time.

The Friday of LFW often offers the most innovative and exciting shows — and also happens to be one of the quieter days, bringing relief to journalists and buyers alike.

The fashion industry has been under the microscope of late, following a UK government inquiry into the damaging effects of fast fashion, and the declaration that Fashion Week would be a fur-free affair for the first time in its 34-year history. This season, it’s already clear that people want to see a reckoning, as a wave of activism has marked the start of the London shows.

The AW19 collections were kicked off by a strikingly powerful on-catwalk protest by models and influencers including Adwoa Aboah, Clara Paget and DJ Becky Tong. Standing strong with hands held, the group wore T-shirts inspired by Martin McDonagh’s movie Three Billboards that read: “72 dead and still no arrests? How come?” in reference to the Grenfell Tower disaster of June 2017.

Outside the same spot, a group of body positivity activists made up of plus-size models and social media influencers staged a protest urging for more realistic portrayals of women’s bodies on the catwalk. They waved placards reading: “Fashion should empower us,” and “Our beauty is immeasurable.”

Today promises the most action — from direct-action environmental group extinction Rebellion — as a “swarming” of the streets intends to incite as much disruption as possible to shock the fashion industry into addressing downfalls. Watch this space.