By PAGE Editor

The British Fashion Council (BFC) is delighted to announce the launch of London Fashion Week Presented by Clearpay (LFW). Running from Saturday 12th to Monday 14th June 2021, as digital-first on www.londonfashionweek.co.uk, the event brings together 32 womenswear, menswear & accessories brands into one schedule, with 28 digital activations and 4 physical evening events, adhering to social distancing Government guidelines. 

Known for its exceptional creative talent, LFW celebrates excellence in design and creativity while enabling growth for participating designers. The digital platform, which launched in June 2020, is the Official LFW Hub, hosting evergreen multimedia designer content accessible to both industry professionals and global fashion consumers alike.

Kicking off the event is the Official Digital Opening, entitled ‘Everything Is Temporary’. The BFC commissioned a performance by dancer, artist, trans activist and NEW WAVE: Creative Sakeema Peng Crook. Directed by creative studio DBLG for LFW, the short film is a meditation on the rebirth of British fashion and cultural arts and explores the re-emergence of the creative arts as part of the cultural re-opening of London.

The film features a captivating performance from Sakeema, styled by fellow NEW WAVE: Creative artist Betsy Johnson. The statement piece supports emerging talent from the UK inspired by finding freedom in nature and dreaming of a new future. The full performance will be available here, on Saturday 12th June from 10.45am BST.

LFW DESIGNERS 

Highlights this season will include 14 main schedule digital activations, including 2womenswear, 6 menswear, 4 menswear & womenswear and 2 accessories brands. Main schedule collection launches and digital events include Ahluwalia (NEWGEN) | Ben Sherman x Team GB | Bethany Williams | Dilara Findikoglu | JORDANLUCA | LYPH | Nicholas Daley | Per Götesson (NEWGEN) | Preen by Thornton Bregazzi | PUBLISHED BY | QASIMI | ROBYN LYNCH (NEWGEN) | STAXX | University of Westminster

The DiscoveryLAB in collaboration with TONI&GUY is going digital for its second season with the aim to support very emerging designers. There are 14 designers activating as part of the digital DiscoveryLAB this season including:  ABIGAIL AJOBI | AUROBOROS | Azura Lovisa | BÉHEN | Ben Osborn | CHLOE BAINES | DJOKIC | INGRID KRAFTCHENKO | MAXIME | MAYYAAGAYEVA | NOIRGAZE | Paolo Carzana (NEWGEN) | PARC | SHEK LEUNG

There are 4 physical evening events on the schedule. “Installation 1.0 - InnateGEAR 2021 Exhibition & Showcasing” will run on Saturday and Sunday evenings followed by “Reuben Selby Show & Party” on Saturday. Monday night will see “The London Seven Collective. LCF Graduate Screening” followed by “‘Cut from the Same Cloth’ - A collaboration with Daniel A Hanson”.

In addition to the schedule, another 37 designers will activate through their LFW profiles, with over 130 additional profiles also live on the platform.

The LONDONshowROOMS will continue to support designers with a dedicated stream on the website’s Explore page and inclusion in a dedicated sales email campaign to retailers. Participating designers include: Cristiana Alagna | JORDANLUCA | Lou Dalton | LYPH | Olubiyi Thomas | Paolo Carzana | QASIMI

BFC & Clearpay

The Clearpay Quarter at The Kings Road: At the core of the partnership between the BFC and Clearpay is the inclusion of dynamic interactive concepts making the best of the British fashion accessible  to consumers, helping ensure British designers continue to lead in innovation, creativity, accessibility and can build responsible and sustainable businesses. In line with this key objective and to celebrate LFW, the BFC and Clearpay, will unveil Clearpay Quarter, a unique and stylish event to get Brits shopping again, located on London’s famous King’s Road in Chelsea. 

From Friday 11th to Monday 14thJune, the pop-up will feature streamed runway shows, fashion-themed films, exclusive food and drink menus, and LFW offers from over 30 fashion and beauty boutiques, restaurants and bars in the neighbourhood including TONI&GUY, RIXO, Kiehl’s, Copit, Bluebird and The Fashion School.

The State of Retail Report: To coincide with LFW and following on from the IPF Forum that took place digitally yesterday, the BFC and Clearpay conducted  a report commissioned with Oxford Economics around the state of UK retail, specifically for the fashion and beauty sectors. While this has been a challenging year for retail, especially with the backdrop of Covid-19, there has been an uplift in digital shopping and with restrictions gradually lifting and retail opening up, fashion is poised for rebound. 

While the retail industry and consumers have been impacted by the global pandemic, consumers have consistently shown strong support for local and small businesses in their communities which has been so critical during these challenging times. Findings from the report were shared during Clearpay’s panel discussion at the IPF Forum, and additional findings will be shared in the coming weeks. Content from the IPF Forum is available on demand via instituteofpositivefashion.com

BFC Fashion Forum Podcast: Re-launching this June, is the third instalment of the BFC Fashion Forum Podcast, with conversations focusing on the biggest issues in fashion today, relating to areas such as positive change, diversity, sustainability, education, culture, and technology. Episode One and Two are now available to stream on londonfashionweek.co.uk, Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts and features Trey Gaskin, Olubiyi Thomas and KK Obi, as well as a conversation between Harris Reed and Tim Blanks. 

Class of 2021: As part of the BFC’s continued efforts to support excellence in design by nurturing the next generation of creative talent, this June, the BFC is pleased to spotlight the work of its Colleges Council membership universities and scholarship recipients. In full circle to last June, under the name Class of 2021, the BFC invited fifteen graduating scholarship recipients, both BA and MA students, to create content for LFW, all depicting their own unique voices, showcasing work which focuses on their graduate collections. In conjunction to this, fourteen of the BFC Colleges Council member universities will also be represented across the platform, spotlighting a range of work from their top graduating fashion students. To explore the content, visit the LFW platform here. 

Generation Rewear: Created by Vanish in partnership with the British Fashion Council, Generation Rewear is a documentary series celebrating a new generation of up-and-coming talent pioneering creative, sustainable fashion. The documentary, which has previously run as a three-episode series exclusively on Amazon properties, features a group of innovative designers, companies and ordinary people seeking to reduce fashion’s impact on the environment. The full documentary will launch exclusively during LFW as part of the official schedule at 14.00 on Saturday 12th June 2021. To see Generation Rewear on the LFW schedule, visit here.

London City of Creativity: This BFC-produced film will explore how London-based designers, talent and industry professionals have embraced new methodologies, processes and ground-breaking mediums. The film shines a light on London, as the capital of creativity and re-affirms the city’s global creative power. The story is told through 4 participants: Bora Aksu, James Massiah, Ida Petersson and Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi of QASIMI. Explore the content here.

The generosity and commitment of our partners, suppliers and government supporters is more vital than ever. Please help us by acknowledging their support for LFW June 2021. Principal Partner: Clearpay. Official Partners: Evening Standard, JD.COM, INC, JOOR, TONI&GUY and Vanish. Official Suppliers: Fashion & Beauty Monitor, Fora, Getty Images, Launchmetrics, The May Fair Hotel. Official Supporters: Department for International Trade, European Regional Development Fund and the Mayor of London.

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