London Keeps Calling

London. Epicentre of revolution since the beginning of time. And revolution is what keeps ideas fresh and new. As young, opinionated designers keep pondering ‘why not?’ ‘If,’ ‘How...’ and perhaps the most important of statements that London designers are known is the very egocentric but genius, ‘I think it should be like this, so it will be’. Fearlessness and creativity fused is what permeates from the London Collections and London designers to the world, even if they show in a different country. Of the clothes that run away down the catwalks in the most famous capital in the world, none have more furore, wit or passion than the collections of Westwood, Kane, McCartney, Williamson, Miss Bartley or Master Pugh.
Design genius such as Marc Jacobs, Prada and Sonia Rykiel all have the famous English eclecticism in their work, but the difference is they have access to all the money they require to make ends meet. They would each blend in perfectly well alongside are current London design sensations. One of them even has conquered the French market as Creative Director of Louis Vuitton and last season chose to migrate for a season, to, you guessed it, London. This just goes to show while the rich make even bigger empires, we burn bigger holes in our pockets to keep up.
London is continually let down by the lack of funding it receives, so much so it had become infamous for creativity on a budget with designers living on a shoe string to maintain their ideas. Designers don’t even have a permanent area dedicated to the Catwalks each season. A building site emerges every season near to the natural History Museum in South Kensington to accommodate the catwalk. Milan, Paris and New York are taken more seriously because of their financial success and this in turn has allowed their brightest creative sparks to flourish into international superstars and caused the best British designers to flee their homeland with no other choice but to find richer pastures to flourish in.
As a creative spirit, London really comes into its own when it tenatious designers invent a new scene with outfits to represent how a whole generation feels. Look at the Swinging 60s with Mary Quant inventing carefree Mini skirts and psychedelic tights, the arrival of the seemingly anarchist Punk movement instigated by Vivienne Westwood in the 1970s, with head-to-toe leather and metal studs that screamed ‘keep off’. 2008 welcomes the development of our current innovators with third collections from Gareth Pugh and Christopher Kane. Other new comers are delighting by bringing British staples back to the fore, like Louise Goldin’s diverse knits and Danielle Scutt’s wild prints. That's the thing about us Brits, we certainly know how to cheer ourselves up.