How I launched London Fashion Week — in a tent Fashion Week — in a tent
Backstage boozing. Fights over the front row. And waiting hours for Madonna. Forty years on...
MONTHS of planning had led to this moment. Months of cajoling designers, models, sponsors and style watchers into lending their support — and cash — to a hitherto unthought of venture: that of showcasing the best of British fashion under one roof.
Or rather, one patch of canvas. As I watched the final touches being put to the gigantic tent that would host the first ever London Fashion Week, I felt a wave of pride and pure excitement. I knew some had been sceptical, yet as I stood at the back of this great new space, I hoped this would be the start of something incredible.
Now, 40 years later, my wish has come true. London Fashion Week is an institution that many take for granted. Yet back then, it felt like a dream to have one central catwalk venue where young British designers could show their innovative collections, broadcasting the waves of creativity that were rising g from London’s streets.
Buyers from the best New York stores had d been coming to London for years to snap up pieces from our more grown-up designers, such as the elegant Jean Muir, Bill Gibb and d the brilliant Zandra Rhodes. There were upmarket groups exhibiting at different Park Lane hotels, where they would do collective runway shows during the day and a few standalone gold-chaired salon events.
Yet nothing had the pizzazz of Paris or Milan, then the two fashion capitals of the world, both of which had been hosting shows for decades.
Yes, we held one- off events for individual designers; Wendy Dagworthy, a former client, reminded me how we chose the Playboy Club in Park Lane as a venue with a difference for her first show in 1979, with the bunnies serving breakfast. A true one-off!
But I wanted to showcase so much more of the design talent London was buzzing with.
Running Britain’s biggest fashion PR agency, I felt that if Paris could attract the international media with their new catwalk tent outside The Louvre, then we could, too.
Together with fashion show producer Mikel Rosen, I walked the streets looking for the right venue for a tent. Finally, we decided that the big green lawn in front of the Commonwealth Institute in Holland Park (now the Design Museum) would be a great location, with some extra space inside for the smaller shows. But where would we find the money?
THE newly-formed British Fashion Council, made up from the great and the good men in suits running the industry, was in its infancy so didn’t have any budget to speak of.
Instead, I persuaded my client Mohan Murjani, the Hong Kong jeans magnate behind Tommy Hilfiger and Gloria Vanderbilt to give me £20,000 for what became known as the Murjani Tent at London Fashion Week.
The young designers, now icons, who chose to show at that electrifying first Fashion Week included Wendy, Jasper Conran, Sheridan Barnett, Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett and BodyMap.
There were about 25 shows planned, and the only hiccup came when every designer jostled for the same prime slots. eventually, they calmed down and agreed to cooperate, aware that just to take part at all was a thrill.
When the big day finally came, the international fashion media were fighting for seats. We knew we had a success on our hands when I had to move pushy Italian buyers out of the front row seats saved for important figures such as Vogue’s elegant Grace Coddington and Princess Diana’s favourite stylist Anna Harvey.
Backstage was frantic, with models running late from one show to another, needing to be transformed in minutes. I felt like everyone’s mother, clucking around, and changing into a new outfit for each of my clients’ shows.
My team and I had to ensure the previous designers packed up quickly to let the next one in on time, and that was always challenging as the champagne was opened as soon as each show was finished. But we didn’t party in earnest until the end of that first week, as everyone was far too tired — I remember falling asleep at the table in Langan’s Brasserie after a glass or two of wine.
Following our first couple of successful catwalk seasons, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed to host regular cocktail parties for the overseas buyers and Press at No 10. I remember her husband Denis once got into a heated argument with designer Jeff Banks. It must have been about politics!
The iconic shot of Katharine Hamnett surprising Mrs Thatcher in her protest T-shirt stating ‘58% Don’t Want Pershing’ (a reference to basing U.S. missiles in Britain) became one of the most used news photographs of the decade.
Princess Diana was at the fore, too; she was, after all, British fashion’s most important ambassador, usually wearing the latest looks from her favourite designers Catherine Walker, Bruce Oldfield and my beloved friend Jasper Conran.
She even threw her own Fashion Week party at Lancaster House in March 1985. We were quite intimidated as we queued up to shake her hand and, much to our surprise, the hand of young Prince William, who looked like he had just been woken up and brought downstairs to say hi to our unruly bunch of fashionistas.
Sadly, the lawn at the Commonwealth Institute started collapsing after a couple of seasons so we moved to the grounds of the Duke of York Barracks in Sloane Square, now the home of the Saatchi Gallery, which had space for two huge tents, a café and rooms inside for smaller shows.
By now, the paparazzi were fighting to photograph the front row, which had become the place for new young celebrities to be seen. We were all thrilled when we heard that Madonna
was going to show up for the Joseph Show in 1986. She was nearly an hour late, throwing the whole Fashion Week schedule out of sync, but there was no way we were starting without her.
Katharine Hamnett’s show in 1986 was pure entertainment, with singer Sarah Jane Morris performing her hit with the Communards, Don’t Leave Me This Way, alongside model Marie Helvin, Buddhist monks and African drummers. Roxy Music wore Wendy Dagworthy’s menswear collection and Jerry Hall would always model for her good friend, Antony Price. Boy George was a regular at BodyMap.
Yasmin Le Bon and her friend Gayle Elliott were everyone’s favourite models and the hot American girls of the time, Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn and Billie Blair, would pop in to appear on the catwalk, as well as party on their way to Paris.
London Fashion Week was thrilling, thriving and noisy. The tents in the King’s Road almost took off with all the excitement. Sadly the magic was doomed not to last. By October 1986, after five seasons and nearly 100 shows, industry politics meant the catwalk tents were forced to move to the car park at Olympia, which hosted the selling exhibition for the rest of the fashion business.
Despite Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes already holding their shows in the beautiful Pillar Hall within Olympia, availability was limited and many of the designers were upset with the move.
As time went by, several of our biggest names including Vivienne and Katharine started showing in Paris; Ghost went to New York; John Rocha to Milan. But new names such as Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney emerged.
Now, brands from Alexander McQueen to Burberry and homegrown modelling talent such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss prove what I knew: that there’s nothing quite like British fashion.
By comparison to the behemoth that London Fashion Week has become, the tented shows of the 1980s may seem small. But what a glorious time we had in those first fledgling, but unforgettable, years.