Today, the British Fashion Council (BFC) is delighted to announce the provisional schedule for London Fashion Week (LFW) February 2021. Bringing together menswear and womenswear into one showcase which will run from Friday 19th to Tuesday 23rd February 2021 on www.londonfashionweek.co.uk, as a digital-only event, in response to UK government lockdown measures. Known for its exceptional creative talent, London Fashion Week will once again celebrate excellence in design and creativity while enabling growth for participating designers. The schedule will host 95 designers including 34 womenswear, 22 menswear, 29 menswear & womenswear and 10 accessories brands.
The digital platform, launched in June 2020, is the Official LFW Digital Hub, hosting evergreen multimedia designer content accessible to both industry professionals and global fashion consumers alike. New for this season, a focus on designers who are ‘Open for Wholesale’, the functionality will notify buyers of the brands to place wholesale orders from. For a third season, the BFC is working with JOOR to provide digital wholesale solutions for designers. The JOOR platform will host a LFW landing page with editorial categories for LONDON show ROOMS, Menswear and Womenswear.
LFW SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights this season include collection launches and digital events from established brands and international luxury houses MY WARDROBE HQ x Belstaff, dunhill, Emilia Wickstead, Edward Crutchley, Marques’ Almeida, Molly Goddard, OSMAN, palmer//harding, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, QASIMI, ROKSANDA, Simone Rocha, Temperley London, Tiger of Sweden, Tod’s and Central Saint Martins MA Fashion and Victoria Beckham. Further schedule highlights include digital events and collection launches from creative talent Ahluwalia, ART SCHOOL, Bethany Williams, Bianca Saunders, EFTYCHIA, ISOSCELES, Matty Bovan, Nicholas Daley, Per Götesson, Richard Quinn, ROKER and Supriya Lele.
New to the official schedule this season are APUJAN, av vattev, BMUET(TE), Completedworks, EIRINN HAYHOW, GEO, IA London, JENN LEE, Kaushik Velendra, Labrum London, MAXXIJ, Mithridate, Olubiyi Thomas, PUBLISHED BY, RAY CHU, Tokyo James & Yuhan Wang. The TOKYO FASHION AWARD will also bring their 2020 award recipients to the schedule this season for the first time, introducing them to a global fashion audience. These are FUMIE TANAKA, IHNN, meanswhile, RequaL≡, SHOOP & YUKI HASHIMOTO.
DISCOVERYLAB
For the first time, DiscoveryLAB is going digital, with the aim to support very emerging designers who do not yet meet the main schedule criteria. DiscoveryLAB was created as an experiential space where fashion meets art, technology and music and this will continue to evolve in a digital capacity. DiscoveryLAB will run over the duration of LFW with 2/3 daily 10-minute digital slots, resulting in 12 DiscoveryLAB slots throughout LFW. Participating with activations are: Carlota Barrera, Daniel Crabtree, Ingrid Kraftchenko, Linus Leonardsson, LUEDER, MASHA POPOVA, Miles George Daniel Studio N Palmer, Parnell Mooney, SABIRAH by DEBORAH LATOUCHE, The Backward Vendor & Tolu Coker.
TONI&GUY will be collaborating with the DiscoveryLAB series along with supporting the designers with session hair teams, expertise and providing studio space in their new Oxford Street academy. As well as supporting DiscoveryLAB designers, TONI&GUY will be hosting a daily overview on LFW hair trends created by the brand’s Session Team.
LONDON show ROOMS
There are 27 designers confirmed as part of LONDON show ROOMS this season. These designers will be supported with a dedicated stream on the Explore page. Participating designers are: av vattev, Bianca Saunders, Carlota Barrera, Completedworks, Cristiana Alagna, Daniel Crabtree, Danshan, Edward Crutchley, EFTYCHIA, Fashion East, Fiona O’Neill, Harem London, Helen Kirkum, Ingrid Kraftchenko, JORDANLUCA, Kaushik Velendra, Linus Leonardsson, LYPH, MASHA POPOVA, N Palmer, Nicholas Daley, Olubiyi Thomas, Parnell Mooney, QASIMI, SWEETLIMEJUICE, The Backward Vendor & Tolu Coker.
DESIGNER PROFILES
Over 100 additional designers will be activating their profile pages with introductions to the brands, their latest work, their social media activity and with links to line sheets and contacts for sales and press requests. Any LFW designers who have profiles on JOOR will have links on their designer profiles to access the digital wholesale platform.
THE EXPLORE SECTION
The Explore Section of the LFW digital platform tells the stories of London’s individuals and businesses, rich in creative freedom and culture. The section is curated with designer content, partner content and content created by the BFC. Make sure not to miss the below highlights:
BFC Fashion Forum Podcast: Now in its second series, each episode of the Fashion Forum Podcast welcomes a new host and a broad range of voices, discussing the biggest issues in fashion today relating to areas such as positive change, diversity, sustainability, education, culture and technology. Tune in and listen to inspiring conversations from guests including Hoor Al-Qasimi, Supriya Lele, Rosh Mahtani, Richard Malone and Stella McCartney OBE, here.
LFW Designer Diaries: Now in its third series, LFW Designer Diaries offers a unique insight into the lives of some of the most interesting designers today, giving the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process. The new series features 10 designers: E. Tautz, Spencer Badu, Edward Crutchley, Yuhan Wang, palmer//harding, Kaushik Velendra, PATRICK McDOWELL, Danshan and SWEETLIMEJUICE. Available here.
LFW Playlist Series ‘What Does Fashion Sound Like?’: The playlist series explore how music helps express individual styles and personal influences with designers, artists and DJ’s invited to co-curate playlists exploring key themes behind their work. The playlists feature artist and designers including Yuhan Wang, Jayda G, Eastwood Danso , Sinead Gorey, Tolu Coker with Little Simz, Emilia Wickstead, 16ARLINGTON, Charlotte Knowles, Katie Ann McGuigan, IDK and i-D, available to listen to here.
MTV: Launching on Tuesday 23rd at 4PM, MTV, British Fashion Council, River Island and James Long from ICEBERG announce the ‘Music Meets Fashion’ Competition winning collection by Lucy Saunders, with a special performance by Ivor-nominated sensation Griff. The collection is inspired by MTV and designed with gender neutrality, size inclusivity and sustainability in mind, it will be available online and in select UK stores with River Island.
Vanish: At 5.15PM on Tuesday 23 February, Vanish, Founding Partner of the Institute of Positive Fashion, will take part in the IPF Circular Fashion Eco-System Panel Discussion. Following this at 17:15, Vanish will take you behind the scenes of the creation of The Rewear Runway, an exclusive look at the true impact of clothing waste and our throwaway behaviour. The eye-opening film and partnership with the British Council is part of the brand’s mission to empower people everywhere to embrace the benefits of responsible clothing consumption.
The generosity and commitment of our partners, suppliers and supporters is more vital than ever. Please help us by acknowledging their support for LFW September 2020 alongside Official Partners: Evening Standard, FASHION ZOO, IBM, JD.COM, INC, JOOR, The May Fair Hotel, TONI&GUY and Vanish. Official Suppliers: Fashion & Beauty Monitor, Fora, Getty Images, JOOR, Launchmetrics, The May Fair Hotel. Official Supporters: The Department for International Trade, The European Regional Development Fund, The Mayor of London.
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