Devotees of home-grown fashion will be merry today following the news that quintessentially British label Burberry is to return to the catwalks of London Fashion Week to show its Prorsum spring/summer 2010 collection.
It has long been a bone of contention with LFW followers that many British labels leave the capital of cool for the (some say more ‘high-fashion’) catwalks of Milan and Paris. Luella, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen are among those designers who have chosen to show their collections on the continent instead of London.
Luckily for Brit label lovers, Luella and Westwood have recently returned to LFW, adding to the positive feeling that London is creeping up the fashion week radar to become THE city to show in. The return of the internationally successful Burberry brand is further proof of the new buzz surrounding the Brit capital.
The Burberry Prorsum collection has shown in Milan since creative director Christopher Bailey took over in 2001, but he has made his love for his home-country well known: “[London] is the heart of this global luxury brand and the centre of all our creativity” he told fashion bible WWD, “We are incredibly proud of our Britishness.”
The return to London coincides with the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week and the British Fashion Council, making it an especially exciting year for British labels to be showing in the capital. It is rumoured that the Burberry show will close LFW and be a staple part of the anniversary celebrations. Harold Tillman, chairman of the British Fashion Council, said: “We are delighted that [Burberry] are joining London Fashion Week to celebrate 25 years of British Fashion.” We expect the Prorsum show to be THE highlight of fashion week – but we’ll have to wait until September to find out!
Carli Humphries.
