The Power of the British Fashion House

British fashion houses have a global reputation in the fashion world, blending an impressive history alongside both classic and radical designs. The artistic variety of these collections is viewed with prestige as establishing the supremacy of British fashion.

When thinking about quintessentially British designs, a label that often comes to mind is Burberry, founded by Thomas Burberry in 1856. With humble beginnings originating in a town in Hampshire, the fashion house received its first breakthrough when, in 1879, Burberry developed a water-resistant fabric called ‘gabardine’. The British Army soon commissioned the label to create clothing for their soldiers, which eventually became the iconic trench coat, a staple on the Burberry runway for both men and women.

The introduction of a new creative director, Christopher Bailey, in 2001, in addition to revamped advertising campaigns featuring British models such as Kate Moss and Emma Watson ensured continued success, and has cemented Burberry’s high-end reputation as one of the world’s most powerful fashion houses.

Demonstrating British fashion’s diversity, another incredibly successful couturier is the late Alexander McQueen. Having graduated from the renowned Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, McQueen was soon offered work at Givenchy, a position he stayed at for five years, until 2001. Subsequently focusing on his own, eponymous label, the success of Alexander McQueen soared, with both critics and the general public eager to see his latest edgy, artistic creations.

Towards the end of the decade, McQueen had stores globally, and held an undeniable status within popular culture, including designs featured in Lady GaGa’s Bad Romance. His Spring/Summer 2010 collection, entitled Plato’s Atlantis and showcased at Paris Fashion Week in 2009, featured unique printed dresses (voted one of the 100 Best Dresses of the Decade by a U.S. magazine) and python-skin shoes measuring a staggering 12-inches in height. The collection received enormous media coverage and was met with critical acclaim.

The designer’s suicide in February 2010 caused Alexander McQueen to become a well-known name in households all over the world. McQueen’s replacement, Sarah Burton (another CSM graduate, and McQueen’s former personal assistant), was chosen to design the wedding dress for Kate Middleton and her maid of honour, her sister, for the Royal Wedding, an event viewed by an estimated two billion people worldwide, further illustrating British fashion’s global dominance.

Other notable designers from our very own British Isles include Vivienne Westwood, an OBE-awarded designer whose punk-influenced, alternative designs have encapsulated audiences since her first collection was unveiled in 1981, with designs being worn by Angelina Jolie and Kanye West, amongst many others. Also significant is Stella McCartney, daughter of Paul and the late Linda McCartney and another Central Saint Martins alumni, who worked as chief director of Parisian fashion house Chloé, before concentrating on her own, hugely successful line. McCartney’s designs have been striking due to her refusal to include animal derived products (both fur and leather) in her collections. These designers exemplify how British fashion isn’t afraid to take an anti-establishment stance, once again highlighting its diversity.

Today, British designs plays a crucial role in the fashion world through London Fashion Week, often considered to be one of the ‘big four’ fashion weeks, the other three being, of course, Paris, New York and Milan. LFW is held bi-annually with a busy schedule of designers showcasing both menswear and womenswear, usually in the historic Somerset House in central London.

The importance of British fashion is ever-expanding, and has recently been assisted through exposure in social media. Burberry, for example, used Twitter in their latest collection to devise a so-called ‘Tweetwalk’, an innovative concept in which photos were taken of the models and uploaded to Twitter, before they emerged on the runway. This means that, for the first time ever, the general public could view the designs, before the lucky few chosen to attend the unveiling could, including the formidable ‘front row’.

Likewise, Alexander McQueen’s groundbreaking Plato’s Atlantis was streamed live on the internet as it was unfolding. The modern-day accessibility of the industry means that many are able to access the world of fashion, those who previously would not have been able to. This will inevitably facilitate an increase in the exposure of the designers, a fact that is likely to heighten the popularity and dominance of British fashion more than ever before.