For a moment it looked like London Fashion Week might not happen. Primarily falling in the official mourning period following the Queen’s death, two of the schedule’s biggest names - Burberry and Raf Simons - promptly postponed their shows. All events and parties were cancelled. Anyone due to show yesterday had to promptly change their plans.

But the show(s) did go on. And I for one am glad they did. Yes, because our capital’s designers - particularly the new and mid-level names - have, like businesses in so many industries, had a rotten run of luck already on the back of Covid and Brexit and would not necessarily have the capacity to weather the cost of a cancellation. But not only because of that. I think there is a compelling argument that a fashion week felt more pertinent now than ever.

Despite the charges made at the industry being elitist and exclusionary (and, sure, it can be), it has also been a place where misfits find their home, their people. And what is London if not a creative hub? A place brought alive by its art and its people? Aren’t our subcultures - our punks and goths and actors and artists - as much a part of the London landscape as our palaces and statues?

I am so familiar with defending the purpose and relevance of fashion and clothes and getting dressed that it is part of my shtick. But I do think at a time of grieving and mourning - personal or national - clothes do matter. It is not just that they are expressions of self, nor that they are gestures of respect (to ourselves, to the world) but that they offer us all a moment to appreciate the daily beauty of the unremarkable.

Maybe it was just my period (ladies you know) but the Erdem and Simone Rocha shows both brough a tear to my eye this Sunday. As did my friend Marco Capaldo’s 16 Arlington show - who felt it not just appropriate, but necessary, to carry on his label after the loss of his partner in life and work Kikka Cavenati last year. What was every liquid sequin dipped dress and sassy snakeskin coat if not a celebration of being here, now?

I had the privilege of seeing that collection through a friend’s eyes who was attending her first ever show. Her delight reminded me of the seeing the Queen’s joy when she attended her first fashion show, Richard Quinn in 2018. Who really knows ‘what she would have wanted’? But I'm glad that the delight was allowed to continue.

Laura

Image: Backstage at 16 Arlington, courtesy of 16 Arlington