London Fashion Week – it’s one of the biggest dates to hit the fashion calendar every February.
This weekend, a variety of top designers, editors and bloggers alike descended upon the capital, ready to showcase and review the latest trends for the upcoming season. The show schedule was certainly a demanding one – 51 catwalk shows and 32 presentations took place, which saw an attendance rate of an estimated 5000 guests from 49 countries in total.
Bankside has traditionally featured in London Fashion Week, with a number of venues playing host to an array of high profile runway shows. Making the best use of some interesting spaces, here’s some notable highlights from previous years featuring our venues.
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Tate Modern
Tate Modern is perhaps one of the most iconic galleries of modern and contemporary art, it’s cultural pulling power alone makes it the perfect host venue for London Fashion Week. The gallery’s Turbine Hall offers a magnificently urban setting for top labels to showcase their latest pieces. The space has seen the likes of Christopher Kane reveal his spring/summer collection and more recently, Topshop Unique hosted a show which allowed the public to watch from the viewing bridge above.
With the addition of Tate Modern’s new Switch House and the opening of The Tanks – the venue has gained an entirely new type of space. Raw, versatile, circular and unique, The Tanks is the world’s first gallery space dedicated to live art. It’s therefore no surprise that Topshop hosted their show here this weekend.
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Southwark Cathedral
Simone Rocha has evolved into an internationally renowned and award-winning brand. Back in September 2016, Southwark Cathedral provided the perfect Gothic backdrop for the Irish born designer’s Spring fashion show.
Held in the Nave of the cathedral, the centre aisle formed a natural runway and the glass-covered walkway ‘Lancelot’s Link’ proved to be a dramatic space for the models to line up against. Southwark Cathedral also managed to make use of their adjoining conference centre, which served as a convenient location for the show’s make-up and dressing room stations.
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Glaziers Hall
Glaziers Hall has hosted many London Fashion Week shows and their regal Banqueting Hall lends itself particularly well to runway shows. Last year however the venue hosted a rather special event for the high-street fashion brand, Reiss.
Reiss hosted their Annual Store Managers Conference at Glaziers Hall which comprised of an afternoon of team building exercises and workshops in the Banqueting Hall. As attendees enjoyed refreshments in the venue’s River Room which overlooks the Thames and the City skyline, the hall was dramatically transformed into a glamorous runway for an audience of 200 people, allowing Reiss to debut their latest collection.
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