The 13th edition of London Fashion Week Men’s (LFWM) launches tomorrow as a celebration of discovery and the creative diversity that has made London an international hub for menswear. The bi-annual showcase of the most creative and innovative names in the fashion industry takes place throughout the city from Saturday 5 - Monday 7 January 2019 and features over 40 designer businesses showcasing their latest collections. Celebrating London’s diversity, LFWM is a three-day city-wide celebration of creative talent, welcoming guests from over 35 countries.
Today, the British Fashion Council is delighted to announce new data for the menswear fashion industry:
Mintel estimates that consumer spending menswear has grown 5.1% to reach £15.9 billion in 2018.
Menswear now accounts for 26% of the total clothing market, whilst womenswear accounts for 51%
Consumer spending on clothing is forecast to rise 25% to £76 billion in the next five years to 2023
Mintel, 2018
During a time of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the creative sector is growing faster than any other sector in the UK economy and provides one in six jobs in London (london.gov.uk 2018). In 2019, London continues to stay one of the most culturally rich cities in the world, with world-class institutions and globally renowned talent, LFWM celebrates the diversity of our capital through an industry that directly contributes £32.3billion to the UK in GDP and employs 890,000 people (Oxford Economics 2018).
Over a quarter of our LFWM designers are non-British with representation from Europe 12.5% and rest of world at 15%, nationalities include Danish, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Emirati.
This January the hub of LFWM will be at a new location, the Truman Brewery, in the heart of London’s East End, located close to the home of many of our British designer businesses. Saturday and Sunday’s shows will be located around the East End and Monday’s schedule will be focused around central London. From music and art to creative communities and fashion, the LFWM schedule is a unique mix of catwalk shows, presentations, DiscoveryLAB, Designer Showrooms and events which will shine a light on the depth and breadth of our creative industry.
CRAIG GREEN, three-time winner of British Designer of the Year Menswear at the Fashion Awards in partnership with Swarovski, will present a catwalk show on Monday. All Fashion Awards 2018 British Emerging Talent Menswear nominees feature on the LFWM schedule. ART SCHOOL will kick-start the weekend with their first on schedule catwalk show on Saturday morning while British Emerging Talent Menswear winner A-COLD-WALL* will show on Monday. COTTWEILER, Kiko Kostadinov and PHOEBE ENGLISH will also be showing over the weekend.
The BFC’s NEWGEN initiative will see London’s brightest emerging menswear designers showcase their AW19 collections. Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY, Liam Hodges and NEWGEN One to Watch: Paria Farzaneh will host catwalk shows and Nicholas Daley will host a presentation. NEWGEN One to Watch: Bianca Saunders will host a presentation at 5 Carlos Place alongside visiting designers Boramy Viguier and Ludovic de Saint Sernin who will be showing a sneak preview of their latest collection ahead of Paris Fashion Week.
From British heritage to emerging labels and vibrant streetwear brands, this season pays homage to the ever-expanding creativity of the capital through a packed schedule of shows, presentations, installations and events. Returning to the schedule with catwalk shows are Alex Mullins, Astrid Andersen, Bobby Abley, Chalayan, E.Tautz, Edward Crutchley, Fashion East, ICEBERG, JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN, Kent & Curwen, Oliver Spencer, Per Götesson, PRIVATE POLICY presented by GQ China, PRONOUNCE, Qasimi, RÆBURN, Sharon Wauchob and Xander Zhou while Band of Outsiders, Barbour, Belstaff, Bethany Williams, Lou Dalton, Michiko Koshino and Wood Wood will host presentations. New to the LFWM schedule this season we welcome C2H4, DANSHAN, DELADA, Feng Chen Wang, JORDANLUCA and Studio ALCH.
The DiscoveryLAB will see presentations in the experiential space from Adam Jones, Lou Dalton, Omar Afridi, PHOEBE ENGLISH, Saul Nash and St. Henri. Adam Jones, Omar Afridi, Saul Nash and St. Henri collections will be on display in the Designer Showrooms following their presentations. The NEWGEN Pop-up Showroom will showcase collections from Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY, Liam Hodges, Nicholas Daley and Per Götesson
In 2019, the BFC continue to focus on their Positive Fashion initiative, a platform designed to promote and celebrate diversity, sustainability and openness; encouraging fashion to be used as a platform to promote a global positive change #PositiveFashion. Presentation and catwalk designers Bethany Williams and RÆBURN are showcasing Positive Fashion collections this season. Bethany Williams as with every season has produced a collection from recycled and organic materials, utilizing waste product from Clay’s book manufacturing in Suffolk. She has taken this book waste to San Patrignano in Italy and worked alongside the community to weave fabrics mixed from book waste, waste from San Patrignano and donated pre-production waste from mills in Italy. San Patrignano is an education and rehabilitation programme for people with drug dependency that teaches traditional Italian craft and a sense of community. RÆBURN will continue his pioneering work of re-using military fabrics and de-commissioned parachutes to create iconic outerwear.
In the Designer Showrooms, Adam Jones will showcase his up-cycled fabrications reminiscent of punk, using beer mats, vintage tea towels, blankets and ribbons pieced together and PHOEBE ENGLSIH shows her latest collection which is entirely ‘made in England’. Ahluwalia Studio launched by London-born Priya Ahluwalia a 2018 graduate from the MA Menswear Course at The University of Westminster and the winner of the H&M Design Award 2019 will be doing an installation in the Designer Showrooms highlighting her dual Indian-Nigerian heritage and exploring the life of second hand and dead stock clothing, using textile techniques to give them new life.
The generosity and commitment of our sponsors is more vital than ever. Please help us by acknowledging their support for LFWM 2019 - Official Sponsors: British GQ, Mercedes-Benz, Radisson Blu Edwardian London, TONI&GUY, and Official Suppliers: DHL, evian, Fashion and Beauty Monitor, Getty Images, Launchmetrics, Penhaligon’s, Propress and Warsteiner Lager; Official Supporters: The Department for International Trade, The European Regional Development Fund and The Mayor of London.