How I began London Fashion Week in a tent 40 years in the past

Months of planning had led to this second. Months of cajoling designers, fashions, ­sponsors and elegance watchers into lending their help — and money — to a hitherto unthought-of enterprise: that of showcasing the very best of British vogue below one roof.

Or quite, one patch of canvas. As I watched the ultimate touches being put to the large tent that may host the primary ever London Fashion Week, I felt a wave of satisfaction and pure pleasure. 

I knew some had been sceptical, but as I stood in the back of this nice new area, I hoped this may be the beginning of one thing unimaginable.

Now, 40 years later, my want has come true. London Fashion Week is an establishment that many take as a right. Yet again then, it felt like a dream to have one central catwalk venue the place younger British designers may present their modern collections, broadcasting the waves of creativity that have been rising from London’s streets.

Buyers from the very best New York shops had been coming to London for years to snap up items from our extra grown-up designers, such because the elegant Jean Muir, Bill Gibb and the sensible Zandra Rhodes.

 There have been upmarket teams exhibiting at totally different Park Lane accommodations, the place they’d do ­collective runway reveals throughout the day and some standalone gold-chaired salon occasions.

Yet nothing had the pizzazz of Paris or Milan, then the 2 vogue ­capitals of the world, each of which had been internet hosting reveals for many years.

Yes, we held one-off occasions for ­particular person designers; Wendy Dagworthy, a former consumer, jogged my memory how we selected the ­Playboy Club in Park Lane as a venue with a distinction for her first present in 1979, with the bunnies serving breakfast. A real one-off!

But I wished to showcase a lot extra of the design expertise London was buzzing with.

Running Britain’s greatest vogue PR company, I felt that if Paris may entice the worldwide media with their new catwalk tent exterior The Louvre, then we may, too.

Together with vogue present ­producer Mikel Rosen, I walked the streets in search of the precise venue for a tent. Finally, we determined that the large inexperienced garden in entrance of the Commonwealth Institute in Holland Park (now the Design Museum) can be an important location, with some further area inside for the smaller reveals. But the place would we discover the cash?

The newly-formed British Fashion Council, made up from the nice and the nice males in fits operating the trade, was in its infancy so didn’t have any price range to talk of.

Instead, I persuaded my consumer Mohan ­Murjani, the Hong Kong denims magnate behind Tommy Hilfiger and Gloria Vanderbilt to present me £20,000 for what turned generally known as the Murjani Tent at London Fashion Week.

The younger designers, now icons, who selected to indicate at that electrifying first Fashion Week included Wendy, Jasper Conran, Sheridan Barnett, Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett and BodyMap.

There have been about 25 reveals deliberate, and the one hiccup got here when each designer jostled for a similar prime slots. Eventually, they calmed down and agreed to ­cooperate, conscious that simply to participate in any respect was a thrill.

When the large day lastly got here, the worldwide vogue media have been ­combating for seats. We knew we had successful on our fingers after I needed to transfer pushy Italian patrons out of the entrance row seats saved for vital figures reminiscent of Vogue’s elegant Grace Coddington and Princess Diana’s favorite stylist Anna Harvey.

Backstage was frantic, with fashions operating late from one present to a different, needing to be remodeled in minutes. I felt like everybody’s mom, clucking round, and ­turning into a brand new outfit for every of my purchasers’ reveals.

My workforce and I had to make sure the earlier designers packed up shortly to let the following one in on time, and that was at all times difficult because the champagne was opened as quickly as every present was completed. But we didn’t social gathering in earnest till the tip of that first week, as everybody was far too drained — I keep in mind falling asleep on the desk in Langan’s Brasserie after a glass or two of wine.

Following our first couple of ­profitable catwalk seasons, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed to host common cocktail ­events for the abroad patrons and press at No 10. I keep in mind her husband ­Denis as soon as bought right into a heated argument with designer Jeff Banks. It should have been about politics!

The iconic shot of Katharine ­Hamnett shocking Mrs Thatcher in her protest T-shirt stating ‘58% Don’t Want Pershing’ (a reference to basing U.S. missiles in Britain) turned one of the vital used information pictures of the last decade.

Princess Diana was on the fore, too; she was, in any case, British vogue’s most vital ambassador, often sporting the most recent appears from her favorite designers Catherine Walker, Bruce Oldfield and my beloved buddy Jasper Conran.

She even threw her personal Fashion Week social gathering at Lancaster House in March 1985. We have been fairly intimidated as we queued as much as shake her hand and, a lot to our shock, the hand of younger Prince William, who appeared like he had simply been woken up and introduced downstairs to say hello to our unruly bunch of fashionistas. 

Sadly, the garden on the ­Commonwealth Institute began collapsing after a few seasons so we moved to the grounds of the Duke of York Barracks in Sloane Square, now the house of the Saatchi Gallery, which had area for 2 enormous tents, a café and rooms inside for smaller reveals.

By now, the paparazzi have been combating to {photograph} the entrance row, which had develop into the place for brand new younger celebrities to be seen. We have been all thrilled once we heard that Madonna was going to indicate up for the Joseph Show in 1986. She was almost an hour late, throwing the entire Fashion Week schedule out of sync, however there was no manner we have been beginning with out her.

Katharine Hamnett’s present in 1986 was pure leisure, with singer Sarah Jane Morris performing her hit with the Communards, Don’t Leave Me This Way, alongside mannequin Marie Helvin, Buddhist monks and African drummers. Roxy Music wore Wendy Dagworthy’s menswear assortment and Jerry Hall would at all times mannequin for her good buddy, Antony Price. Boy George was an everyday at BodyMap.

Yasmin Le Bon and her buddy Gayle Elliott have been everybody’s favorite fashions and the new ­American ladies of the time, Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn and Billie Blair, would pop in to look on the catwalk, in addition to social gathering on their strategy to Paris.

London Fashion Week was thrilling, thriving and noisy. The tents within the King’s Road virtually took off with all the thrill.

Sadly the magic was doomed to not final. By October 1986, after 5 seasons and almost 100 reveals, trade politics meant the ­catwalk tents have been compelled to maneuver to the automobile park at Olympia, which hosted the promoting exhibition for the remainder of the style enterprise.

Despite Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes already holding their reveals within the stunning Pillar Hall inside Olympia, availability was restricted and lots of the designers have been upset with the transfer.

As time glided by, a number of of our greatest names together with Vivienne and Katharine began exhibiting in Paris; Ghost went to New York; John Rocha to Milan. But new names reminiscent of Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney emerged.

Now, manufacturers from Alexander McQueen to Burberry and homegrown modelling expertise reminiscent of Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss show what I knew: that there’s nothing fairly like British vogue.

By comparability to the behemoth that London Fashion Week has develop into, the tented reveals of the Nineteen Eighties could appear small. But what a wonderful time we had in these first fledgling, however unforgettable, years.