London Fashion Week gears up for coed shift and returning labels
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With just over a month to go to London Fashion Week, an increasing number of showing designers and labels have announced changes to their catwalk strategies to reflect the changing times. One of the biggest shifts seen this season is the merging of women's wear and men's wear shows into a single event.
The latest British designer brand to unify its men's wear and women's wear collection shows into a single event is London-based label Teatum Jones. Created by design duo Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones, the label is set to debut its men's wear collection during its first women's wear catwalk show at London Fashion Week.
Teatum Jones latest label to show women's and men's together at LFW
The design duo , who were crowned the winners of this year's International Woolmark Prize for the women's wear category, previously presented their collections in a static format during London Fashion Week. However, next month Teatum Jones will stage its debut LFW show on September 16, at the BFC Show Space in Brewer Street Car Park.
"It’s always been on our wish list to add men’s wear and also part of the bigger picture for Teatum Jones," said Jones to Women's Wear Daily in an interview. "As we are showing our first official scheduled catwalk show, it felt now was right. We are starting with a really curated edit to get a feeling for the men’s wear, and the plan is to grow it over the coming seasons."
Part of the reasoning behind their coed showing is also linked to the rise of unisex fashion and the blurring of gender boundaries. "We also are designing some of the key pieces to be unisex as we feel this is how people are dressing, swapping and switching it up," added Jones. "We’ve always had a masculine feel to our women’s wear, and a lot of our key outerwear shapes have come from men’s wear, so it felt only right to sit them alongside each other in the show."
Teatum Jones join the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Anya Hindmarch and Burberry in hosting a coed show during LFW, who decided to combine their women's wear and men's wear shows as part of a wider effort to streamline their product offering and further define their brands. The move follows on from London Fashion Week Men's in June, during which a series of designers showed women's wear and men's wear together or used female models to present their collections.
This season of LFW will also see the return of Versus Versace to London, alongside of Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, Topshop Unique and Mulberry, who were absent from the schedule last season.
Photo: Teatum Jones AW 2016/17, website