Two years ago, Gareth Pugh had not sold one garment. His workrooms were so
inadequate that even on the coldest days, if he needed to steam-press a
garment, he had to switch off the heater to stop the electrics blowing. This
season, he has been invited to show in Paris. He is 27 years old.
Pugh joins a growing number of London designers whose exciting ideas and
radical attitudes have made them stars, not just in Paris, Milan and New
York, but across the globe. Vivienne Westwood, Julien Macdonald, Alexander
McQueen, Stella McCartney, Hussein Chalayan, John Galliano, Phoebe Philo,
Luella Bartley and Matthew Williamson: it’s an impressive roll call for any
city.
And it is London that has made such diverse designers world-class stars. Is it
something in the water? No, but it is certainly something in the air. On
every level, London is the most extraordinary fashion city in the world. Our
young, avant-garde designers exert huge influence on world creativity, even
when they are selling clothes in very small numbers, or, like Pugh in the
first year of his career, deliberately not selling their clothes at all, or
regularly going bankrupt, like John Galliano in his first 10 years as a
designer. So what is it that makes us so special? Why is our design genius
so much more exciting than anything found in other fashion capitals?
Well, although we are still acknowledged as the most class-conscious society
in the world, having — or even making — money is less important here than
anywhere else. Talent, eccentricity and originality are considered much more
valuable. Talent we know about, but our eccentricity plays an important
role. Not just in designers like Westwood, who really couldn’t give a damn
what people say about her, but also someone like Isabella Blow, whose genius
as a finder and nurturer of young talent was matched only by the extremes of
her wardrobe. Or what about the Duchess of Devonshire feeding her chickens
in a full-length evening gown?
Our city streets lead the world in a determination not to conform.
Fairy-wand-thin boys with their bums hanging out started here, along with
ripped jeans and torn T-shirts. Brit girls were the first to bear their
bellybuttons and to continue doing W so, regardless of falling temperatures.
Stylists such as Katie Grand and Katy England are famous for breaking all
the rules to create memorable images. And who but the Brits would ever come
up with magazine titles such as Dazed & Confused and Another Magazine?
Then think of our zany models, who have long been the stars of catwalks around
the world, starting with Twiggy 40 years ago. She was followed by Sarah
Stockbridge, who worked with Vivienne Westwood in the 1980s; Naomi Campbell,
falling over at a Westwood show and roaring with laughter; Kate Moss, whose
face can sell anything; and the latest, Agyness Deyn, currently the coolest
girl in the world. Each one an unrepeatable talisman for the mood of the
moment.
It’s all about confidence. And that knows no barriers — British fashion tribes
mix and match in ways simply impossible to imagine in Paris, Milan and even
New York. The melting pot that brings them all together is London’s amazing
nightlife, with pubs and clubs crammed with young people making strong
fashion statements and, more important, remaining open to all influences.
Upper-class girls who shop in Sloane Street have no problem shacking up with
a post-punk boyfriend brought up in Brixton. Add to this fluidity gay clubs
in Vauxhall, the shabby cool of Hoxton and the steely heat of Brick Lane —
areas open to everyone — and the sheer creative range of this city as an
entity becomes clear.
However, always the driving force is the subversion of our designers, fiercely
challenging the accepted norms of style, taste and possibility. Who but a
London designer (Chalayan) would make furniture that morphed into clothes?
Or stage shows (McQueen) where models in a glass cage were menaced by moths
or “raped” by a spray-gun attack?
And it has always been that way. Back in the 1960s, Mary Quant started a
revolution that made “swinging” (as in 1960s Britain and London) an
adjective understood across the globe. What was it based on? The simple
belief that young women didn’t want to dress like their mothers. The
subversive path she opened up was followed 15 years later by Westwood, the
single most important fashion catalyst to emerge in the past 30 years, whose
desire to shock has matured into a determination to redraw the parameters of
social, sexual and fashion freedom for women. Then came the drama of
Galliano and the intensity of McQueen. And the movement continues with
Christopher Kane, Basso & Brooke and Erdem: all of whom, in their very
young careers, already have world profiles.
But London’s magic isn’t just about designer names. We have the most vibrant
and diverse high-street fashion shopping in the world, way ahead even of
anything found in New York. And in it, you can see, first hand, the workings
of our unique fashion democracy. Topshop and Marks & Spencer are names
known and respected around the world — this year Philip Green takes his
Topshop brand to America, and with it the diffusion lines he commissions our
young designers to create. Ambassadorial, to say the least.
And finally to our art schools, an influence on fashion second only to the
clubbing scene. Hotbeds of nonconformity, they produce radical fashion
talent raring to go into battle to be the next big thing. Just as important,
they also produce a fashion crowd that any other city would kill for. The
aggressive young kids who gate-crash everywhere, from top shows to exclusive
parties, spend the whole of fashion week ligging free drinks and food in the
most extreme clothes (almost always designed by themselves) and rubbing
shoulders with everybody, from Anna Wintour to Philip Green, with total
insouciance.
London is the most creatively potent of all fashion brews — from the Queen in
a matching hat and gloves to trannies so extreme they make Carmen Miranda
look like Little Bo Peep. At all levels, London fashion is about stirring it
up — and long may it continue to do so.
Our greatest fashion moments. Ever
1 Vivienne Westwood flashing her minge when she collected her OBE.
2 Coleen in Wag uniform of tracksuit, fake tan, Ugg boots and a truckload of
designer shopping bags.
3 Geri Halliwell in her Union Jack dress.
4 Liz Hurley’s safety-pin dress.
5 Helen Mirren’s bikini-clad exit from the sea.
6 Margaret Thatcher’s handbag.
7 Naomi taking a tumble in her Westwood platforms.
8 Beckham’s metrosexually groundbreaking sarong.
9 Daniella Westbrook (and her baby) dressing head to toe in Burberry.
10 Princess Diana’s translucent skirt.
Great fashion moments 2008
1 Philip Green (far left, with Kate Moss) opens Topshop in New York.
2 Gareth Pugh is invited to show at Paris fashion week (middle).
3 Jourdan Dunn on the cover of Italian Vogue’s black issue.
4 Carrie Bradshaw wears Vivienne Westwood for her wedding.
5 Anna Wintour turns up to London fashion week!
6 Agyness Deyn (left) stars on every cover and in every campaign.
7 Stella McCartney launches an organic collection — a high-fashion
first.
8 Jonathan Saunders premieres in New York to huge acclaim.
9 Tamara Mellon gets the Olympic gold medal for most aspirational
shoes.
10 Jane Shepherdson resurrects Oxfam.
British Style Genius will appear on BBC Two this October.
