A London Fashion Scene Temperature Check

It’s money, right? The money’s not in London, the state of the economy is not in good shape, so why would a designer want to stay here when they can go to Paris or Milan? And there’s certainly more money if you can get a job at a luxury house in Paris or a big commercial giant in New York.

Is there a Brexit factor? Or have the effects of the split mostly been figured out and baked into the system at this point.

People don’t talk about it as much these days, but the scars from Brexit are always going to be here. A lot of designers talk about how import tariffs are insane now because we’re not in the EU. A lot of brands getting good quality clothing made in Portugal have found their costs have doubled. That falls onto the consumer, which has been the case in almost every single industry, not just fashion. But the flip side of losing talent to the continent is we’re also not attracting talent the same way we used to. London is no longer quite such an attractive prospect for creatives as it was pre-Brexit.

It’s actually quite good. If you go to Soho, there’s an energy, there are kids wearing designer clothes again. When I say kids, I mean 20-year-old guys who maybe are coming to London for the day and blowing their week’s salary on something from End Clothing. There’s a queue to get into End Clothing, which is mad. There’s like kids hanging around getting their photos taken again, which yeah, it’s a bit cheesy, but it’s nice. It’s nice to have that feeling back. People seem to be spending again. There’s a massive queue outside of the new Aimé Leon Dore store, and that’s good for all the little other shops around it. We were on Savile Row today talking to a few brands and they were saying it’s been a standout year.

It’s interesting, if you look at the women who design menswear, it’s brands that tend to be a lot more directional, right? Look at Martine Rose, look at Simone Rocha, which can be very visually striking. It’s quite easy to ID a Simone Rocha haunted Victorian school child jacket. Bianca Saunders, again, and Chopova Lowena, which won for emerging womenswear, these brands feel more fashion-y, for lack of a better word. These designers don’t play it safe, and I don’t know if you can say that for all the other London brands in the mix.

God, yeah. A successful politician will do the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program at Oxford. A successful fashion designer will do an MA at CSM, you know? And these designers talk about their time at CSM quite a lot. I remember interviewing Stella McCartney and she spoke about it at length. But she didn’t do it to brag, it was more humbling than that. CSM is where you learn. It’s where you knuckle down and it’s not an easy ride. So the CSM graduate show is still a legitimate thing, a lot of journalists and buyers still attend. No other fashion design course in the country has that kind of pull.

He’s being realistic though, right? He started JW Anderson out of school, but how many other JW Andersons are in the grave right now? Countless. You can follow your dreams, but it doesn’t always happen. And perhaps he has a responsibility as one of the most successful designers to come out of London for a very long time to provide some sound advice.

Were there any other moments that stood out to you?

Again, the general vibe was messy in a good way. Rihanna is at one table and somebody from Love Island season three is at the next. But my biggest takeaway, weirdly, was that it seems like a lot of fashion designers are more aware of their mortality than they were 10 or so years ago. I think with this whole assembly line of creative directors going through brands for two seasons, back then that would have been unthinkable, and now it’s standard practice. And I think that made winning these awards more special because it emphasizes that nothing is permanent. Everybody is aware that there’s maybe no such thing as a job for life anymore if you’re a designer. And it seemed to make everyone more humble, and make the whole thing feel more poignant and important.

So basically everyone is keeping calm and carrying on.

Exactly. Despite it all, London fashion people can still take a moment to enjoy themselves.