10 British Fashion Moments That Defined The Last Decade
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9 hours ago
Style statements that changed culture
Lisa Armstrong chooses ten instances from the past decade where fashion transcended its boundaries and became a defining cultural moment. Here are the key fashion moments that defined the modern era.
10 Key Moments From Modern British Fashion
2015: Alison Moyet and an orchestra at Burberry’s SS16 show
Christopher Bailey was at his peak and so was Burberry, when in 2015 Alison Moyet performed Only You, live, in front of an audience that included Benedict Cumberbatch, Cara Delevingne, Baz Luhrmann, Anna Wintour, Holliday Grainger and Harry Treadaway. As the sun streamed through the dappled autumn leaves into Burberry’s customary transparent marquee, and supermodels circled the catwalk in Bailey’s easy-on-the-eye collection, it was easy to believe that London Fashion Week was on an unassailable high.
2016: Alexa Chung at Glastonbury
Kate, Sienna, Alexa, mud, wellies and acres of tanned female legs… the British cultural and fashion scenes, along with a zillion websites, might possibly selfimmolate without Glastonbury. (In 2020 and 2021 this theory was put to the test when the big daddy of festivals was cancelled because of the pandemic – and look what happened to fashion; two years of nap dresses and increasingly tepid florals.) Glasto style has glamour and grit. The French do chic, the Italians luxury, but no one wears sequins, twig infested hair and a Barbour with the maddening insouciance of the Brits.
2017: Royal family balcony scene
Much has changed since this, one of the last images of the royal family in its pre-slimmed down expansiveness, was taken. With the late Queen at its centre, it represents peak British royal fashion. Unabashed colour runs rampant, with Kate, then still Duchess of Cambridge in a hot pink draped neck dress by her go-to designer, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. A year later Meghan would join the balcony. Two years on, she and Prince Harry left the UK. In 2023, Sarah Burton ended 27 years at McQueen. Today’s slimmed-down family could slot into a fraction of the space.
2018: Queen at Richard Quinn
The late Queen’s planned attendance at the inaugural presentation of The Queen Elizabeth ll Award for British Design to newcomer Richard Quinn came at the end of London Fashion Week and was a closely guarded secret. Consequently, a number of big names in the industry missed it because they were already en route for Milan Fashion Week. Cue gnashing of teeth and tears in some quarters. This left the path clear for Dame Anna Wintour to sit next to Her Majesty in a picture that dominated the news agenda for days.
2018: Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer in pink Molly Goddard
A little known Liverpudlian actress wearing a little known London designer burned through our TV screens in 2018 and made a psychopath if not sympathetic, compellingly stylish. The one woman British vortex of talent, Phoebe Waller-Bridge scripted the first season of Killing Eve; Emerald Fennell the next. Comer was crowned a major global star, Molly Goddard became a must-see on the London Fashion Week schedule and the (ironic) inner fairy tale princess was unleashed in thousands of women across the world.
2019: Lashana Lynch at the Marvel premiere London
With the London premier of Captain Marvel in 2019, British newcomer Lashana Lynch blew predictable out of the water. Resplendent in a bubblegum pink dress, split to the thigh, by American reality star Michael Costello, Lynch added a casual pair of Bulgari drop earrings and matched her cats’ eyes liner to the dress. No faux wall flower, the first female star of a Marvel film has since proved her value on red carpets the world over, as well as providing can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her on-screen performances.
2020: Harry Styles cardigan goes to the V&A
Men’s cardigans never seemed the same after Harry Styles wore this patchwork show pony from JW Anderson’s SS20 collection during rehearsals for the Today show in February 2020. Two months later, the world went into lockdown and many filled their time learning to knit and sew. Liv Huffman crocheted a version of the Styles cardi, posting a video that inspired thousands of Styles fans to share their own interpretations. In similar spirit, JW Anderson shared a few downloadable patterns and tutorials for the cardi. In November of 2020, the V&A acquired the cardigan for its permanent collection.
2022: Sarah Burton for McQueen show, Greenwich
The magnificent neo-classical skyline of Greenwich’s world-renowned naval college, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, no less, has been the backdrop in many films as well as the 2012 London Olympics. But until Sarah Burton showed Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer collection there in the autumn of 2022, it hadn’t played host to a major fashion show. Normally a Paris fixture, the McQueen team took advantage of the turmoil caused by the pandemic to fashion month by bringing things home, temporarily, to London. Huge prints of the human eye and complex angular tailoring on models who walked in a big transportant bubble under a sparkling blue sky, paid homage to Greenwich’s stellar contributions to science.
2023: Vivienne Westwood’s memorial
Vivienne Westwood would have adored her memorial in the autumn of 2023. A perfect pitch of the monumental, the wild and the very British elements, the service featured Helena Bonham Carter (left) on form in the pulpit, Nick Cave on piano and Chrissie Hynde on guitar. Plus, a who’s who of British (and global) fashion wearing their favourite Westwood pieces. Think Richard E Grant in a veiled pillbox, sleek Stormzy, Christina Hendricks in tartan and Bianca Jagger and Elle Fanning in Victorian mourning.
2024: Dior in Scotland
In the space of 12 months, three big international brands chose to show in the UK. In December 2023, Chanel transformed a street in Manchester into a picturesque, twinkly vignette of northern café society. Six months later, Gucci took over Tate Modern in London and created a front row moment with Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kate Moss. But it was Dior’s Scotland show at Drummond Castle that provided the most romantic images, sealing a love affair between the house and Scotland that goes back more than half a century.
