London’s love-in: Anya Hindmarch’s passion project
As the fashion spotlight shifts to London, one designer is skipping the catwalk in favour of a more heartfelt spectacle, finds Caroline Leaper
If you spot a heart-shaped balloon flying over London today, it’s not the product of a Valentine’s Day date gone wrong, but a stunt by British designer Anya Hindmarch. Dozens of enormous, Hindmarch designed, chubby heart balloons will be fixed between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station, or squashed artfully under the Wellington Arch throughout London Fashion Week, which starts on Friday.
Creating a spectacle (as this will undoubtedly prove to be) is something Hindmarch knows all about. But this season, while she’s taking a break from shows to adjust to a new see-now-buy-now business model (where product goes on sale directly after the show, rather than a season later), she found herself with the time and resources to develop a not-for-profit, just-for-joy, art installation, without a handbag in sight.
“It’s a passion project,” said Hindmarch, and one that required co-operation from 13 London boroughs and the Mayor of London’s office to put into action. “By not doing a show this season, we had some capacity to do something that was not about fashion. At a time when everyone is uncertain about what’s going on [with Brexit] – with terrorism – this is a love-in. We’re using our platform to say our city is unbelievable, let’s be positive and we’ll find our way through all the tricky bits. I just hope the weather is fair and it will make people smile.”
As one of the British Fashion Council’s head girls, Hindmarch has flown the flag for London and its design talents since she founded her label in 1987, at the age of 18. She credited Thatcherism and entrepreneurial spirit as the factors that inspired her back then, values that she says still make up her ethic today, with sales of £41.3 million last year.
“The first words that come up when people talk about British fashion are creativity and bravery, so we don’t tend to follow, we lead with ideas,” she enthuses. “If you speak to any international buyer who comes to London, the thing they find unmissable about our fashion week is that raw ideas start here.”
Hindmarch was anti-brexit, joining designers including Christopher Bailey of Burberry and Erdem Moralıoğlu plus fashion business leaders to sign an open letter in favour of staying in the EU before the referendum. The overarching strategy now seems to be put on their best display of innovation and creativity, while companies and the British Fashion Council thrash it out behind the scenes to assess the challenges and opportunities.
As women in the British film industry prepare to wear black to the Baftas on Sunday in support of the Time’s Up campaign against sexual harassment and abuse, the messages fashion is sending out couldn’t be more relevant. Hindmarch thinks that #Metoo is a campaign capable of being promoted on the catwalk, as well. “Yes, [it will affect fashion], as there is a new confidence in women and a sense that they can press on and do it their way,” she says.
A decade has passed since Hindmarch’s most memorable social campaign. Her £5 eco-totes, made from unbleached canvas and declaring “I’m Not a Plastic Bag”, arguably kick-started the fashion industry’s conversation about sustainability in 2007, selling more than 20,000 on their launch day.
“It was very early, but it made a difference,” she says of the phenomenon now. “The consumption of plastic bags went down considerably. More than anything, the aim of that project was to raise awareness, which it undoubtedly did. I don’t think households were recycling, or domestically thinking about how they reuse or reduce waste at that point, so it was a game-changer.”
“There’s a lot of change in the world right now. The internet has caused an industrial revolution and changed everything, and if anything I think fashion has been quite slow to respond. While it’s frightening for some, it’s incredibly exciting and a time to be bold and brave.”
‘At a time when everyone is uncertain about what’s going on … let’s be positive’