Advertisement
Queen Elizabeth’s death loomed large over London Fashion Week – black veils, cancelled parties and, on the day of her funeral, no shows
- The September 2022 edition of London Fashion Week was supposed to be a comeback of sorts after years of digital events. Then Queen Elizabeth died
- Despite talk that the event would be cancelled, it continued – with many designers paying homage to a monarch who was very connected to British fashion
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Two years ago Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, and her team came up with a contingency plan in case Queen Elizabeth died during London Fashion Week, the twice-yearly event that displays the best in British style.
Advertisement
Little did they know that their foresight would prove to be invaluable when the queen died on September 8, days before the beginning of the spring/summer 2023 London shows. The season was supposed to be a comeback of sorts after more than two years of digital events and few physical shows because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had fashion weeks during Covid but not to the extent we were going to [this season],” says Rush in an interview in London. “Burberry was back on the calendar, Raf Simons was showing, Gucci, Prada and Boss had planned events …
“It was going to be a fun, citywide activation and have the consumers involved. The city was going to absolutely go off and we were getting ready for these long days of amazing creativity and then we started hearing news that the queen wasn’t well.”
As soon as Burberry, the United Kingdom’s top luxury brand, announced that it would cancel its show, there were rumours that the whole event would be scrapped, but that would have been a very painful outcome, explains Rush.
Advertisement
Advertisement