It’s been about 37 years since the first London Fashion Week took place in a West London car park. Within this short period, it made great progress and grew from just 15 catwalk shows to 72, which becomes nearly five times the total when it first started.

With the event attracting more influential designers from around the world, London Fashion Week is now held in central London, a more befitting location for its high-end clientele. It also brings more income compared to Paris and Milan, with the famous British clothing trade show earning £269m every season. It is also more popular than the French and Italian fashion weeks, for it attracts around 105,000 to the capital every year.

1- Chalayan’s genius

Anyone who follows fashion regularly is likely to have heard the name of Hussein Chalayan, the famous Turkish Cypriot designer who received the MBE in 2006 and also won the British Designer of the Year twice.

Chalayan grabbed the attention of the whole world when he showed a model turning a coffee table into a skirt on the runway. It was quite a powerful depiction and earned him praises from many people.

The Turkish Cypriot genius first showed the spectators four chairs and a coffee table before sending some models on the stage that put on the chair covers as dresses. Then, another model is depicted as stepping into the coffee table and using it as a crisp tiered skirt.

Chalayan also made headlines around the world when he showed headscarves wearing models in various stages of nudity.

2- Westwood’s bold statements 

Vivienne Westwood is one of the best fashion designers in the world, who played a great role in bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

She is known for using the runway as a platform for voicing her opinions. The famous fashion designer has made statements about many worldwide issues related to human rights.

3- Philip Treacy

Philip Treacy is regarded as the greatest living milliner who received British Accessory Designer of the Year for an incredible five times. The famous Irish hat designer’s intertest in fashion began when he was only five years old. He was discovered by Isabella Blow who helped and guided him to become such a prodigious success in the fashion world.

Treacy hit headlines at his London Fashion Week debut in 1993 after sending a Naomi Campbell down the runway topless. He also caused quite a stir when his SS01 show saw the entry of a dancing Grace Jones on top of a black limousine. The world’s premier milliner also received an honorary OBE in 2007 in recognition of his services to the British Fashion industry.

4- McQueen’s outrageous outfits 

McQueen is a Londoner & the youngest of six siblings. His mother was a teacher & Scottish father was a taxi driver. Having Scottish heritage he made use of theatrical elements in his shows & collection showing his love for theatrical imagery. Due to this the critics often call him the hooligan of fashion, maybe also referring to his typical look just like a fan of English premier league’s most famous football player of all time.

Alexander McQueen carved out a big name for himself in the fashion world. Starting from humble beginnings, the English designer went on to fascinate the whole world with his genius; winning four British Designer of the Year awards 1996 to 2003.

In Highland Rape, McQueen showed models in some of the most outrageous outfits, with women wearing torn clothing and posing in a distraught fashion. Such a portrayal of women earned him a lot of criticism from many commentators who branded him as a misogynist. However, his defence was that he was making a reference to England’s rape of Scotland.

McQueen also made a big impression on the spectators when he showed robots spray painting a model wearing a white dress. This way, he delivered quite a powerful message about the rising power of technology.