BFC unveils details about new LFW home

London Fashion Week kicks off in just over a week, five days filled with designers showcasing their spring/summer 2016 collections, and this season also marks a change in venue, with the British Fashion Council swapping the tent space at Somerset House for a car park on Brewer Street in the middle of Soho - so what can we expect from the new home of LFW?

When the announcement was made earlier this year, the car park, even with its Art Deco detailing it wasn’t received well. Somerset House had the heritage, the glamour and the space, a car park on the other hand, even with its proximity to the shops on Regent and Oxford Street, was still at the end of the day a car park.

Well the BFC has hired David Collins Studio, the guys behind many of the Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Choo retail stores to create a design that reflects the urban nature of the building and works with the concrete structure of the 1,600 square foot space at Brewer Street Car Park to create a functional and contemporary open layout space.

So what can we expect? Well, for a start a 70 metre long mirrored ceiling catwalk, which will see models strutting designer’s SS16 collections down the full length of the space. According to the BFC, the space plays with “volume, light and reflection,” while imposing “symmetry on the space”.

Catwalk goers will also be able to view exhibitors from the central runway space, which the BFC hopes will encourage movement and exploration within the space. Meaning people might not be jetting straight off after shows but instead looking around the designer showrooms, which this season will feature more than 150 womenswear designers.

David Collins Studio design director, Lewis Taylor explains: “Collaborating with the British Fashion Council, we wanted to embrace the urban nature of London Fashion Week’s new home at the Brewer Street Car Park whilst playing with the rigidity and form of traditional exhibition design to create a functional show space which appears to be very simple, but in fact performs as a mini-department store.”

What to expect from LFW’s new home at Brewer Street car park

I think we can all admit even though we loved the catwalk tents at Somerset House the designer showrooms inside Somerset House were a bit of a maze to navigate, well this season the open space showroom floor has been divided into product categories: ready-to-wear, emerging ready-to-wear, shoes, bags, accessories and multi-label showrooms, to make it easier to see the relevant designers.

It has also had a classy makeover, with David Collins Studio using semi-transparent dividers to allow designers to exhibit within spaces that are private and yet have a connection with the wider showroom, with floating shelves and showcase plinths being used to bring a subtle uniformity to the space.

The showroom line-up is also pretty impressive with this season adding John Smedley, Rejina Pyo, Self-Portrait and Zandra Rhodes for the first time, along with on-schedule designers Fyodor Golan, Holly Fulton, and Jean-Pierre Braganza. There will also be a pop-up showroom for the NewGen sponsored designers within which 1205, Ashley Williams, Claire Barrow, Danielle Romeril, Faustine Steinmetz, Marta Jakubowski, Molly Goddard, Sadie Williams and Ryan Lo will present their collections to buyers and press.

Other areas include the BFC’s millinery initiative, Headonism, which will present Emma Yeo, Harvy Santos, Keely Hunter and Sophie Beale in a space co-curated by Stephen Jones OBE, while fine jewellery designers Beth Gilmour, CompletedWorks, Jacqueline Cullen, Lily Kamper, Ornella Iannuzzi, Rachel Boston, Ruifier, Shimell & Madden, The House of Ana de Costa and Yunus & Eliza will showcase in the Rock Vault area co-curated by Stephen Webster.

While the second floor will play host to pop-ups open to accredited guests of LFW, including a press and buyers lounge sponsored by the Sunglass Hut, a concierge service, the Amex Insiders offering guest tips and directors, as well as a make-up space by Maybelline New York and a hair studio by Toni & Guy.

There will also be a pop-up restaurant, the Hix Café by Mark His, which will serve a unique menu designed exclusively for London Fashion Week with deli classics, healthy salads and snacks with a Hix twist, alongside LFW sponsors including Alpro soy, almond and coconut yogurts, Lavazza coffee and Scavi and Ray Prosecco.

London Fashion Week spring/summer 2016 runs from September 18-22.

Image: LFW Brewer Street Car Park