BFC launches London Fashion Week Festival, moves its 3 bi-annual events into one home

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The British Fashion Council (BFC) will move its two bi-annual events, London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Festival to join London Fashion Week Men's at The Store Studios, located at 180 Strand, WC2.

As part of the move, the event formerly known as London Fashion Weekend will be renamed London Fashion Week Festival and will give the public the opportunity to celebrate fashion over a period of ten days, twice a year, in February and September.

This is to recognise the BFC's ongoing commitment to building consumer engagement with British designers and has been at the core of the organisation's strategy since the first edition of London Fashion Weekend which took place in 1998.

The London Fashion Week Festival will drive a city-wide celebration of an industry worth £28 billion to the UK economy and which employs nearly 900,000 people across the country.



The London Fashion Week Festival will enable those in the industry (designers, retailers, culture institutions, industry partners) to engage with consumers and high-net worth individuals.

It will do this through digital engagement and events throughout the city, consolidating the fact that London is a fashion, business and cultural capital and is open for business.

The main focus of the London Fashion Week Festival is a ticketed event at The Store Studios, 180 Strand. The event gives access to catwalk shows, talks and a unique shopping experience, where designers and their teams host curated pop-up shops, from over 150 international and British brands.



Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, Justine Simons said: "London is a top fashion capital – we have brilliant fashion colleges, leading designers and established brands.

And Londoners of course have a great sense of style! London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men's have been blazing a trail on the world stage, and the brand new London Fashion Week Festival will up the game even more – cementing The Store Studios as the coolest new creative quarter in London and offering a fantastic opportunity for the public."

The move to The Store Studios will fulfil the BFC's ambition of creating a fashion and cultural hub in the heart of London. The Store Studios holds a strategic location at the intersection of North, South, East and West London and has easy access to the river as well as to main central areas such as Covent Garden and Southbank.



Caroline Rush CBE, Chief Executive British Fashion Council commented: "There is an increasingly big appetite from both brands and public to open up our industry to a wider audience. We saw this in September with the see-now-buy-now collections.

"The BFC has always encouraged this kind of innovation while making sure that our showcasing platforms remain strong opportunities for the designers to present their work to the industry.

"London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men's will still showcase the best talent to industry professionals, giving the designers the opportunity to expand their businesses and get incredible international media exposure. London Fashion Week Festival is a natural continuation of the increasingly popular London Fashion Weekend.

"Housing the Festival at The Store Studios will reinforce the importance of offering direct to consumer experiences and insights into the fashion industry and there will be a lot of different ways for the public and businesses to get involved."

Alex Eagle, Creative Director The Store Studios said: "The future of all space is both the physical experience of being in that space and broadcasting that experience to the world. With the fashion industry spearheading the shift from the direct experience of a runway show to broadcasting that experience around the world, The Store Studios is the perfect space for the London Fashion Week Festival."

Events at The Store Studios:

London Fashion Week Men's: 6-9 January 2017
London Fashion Week: 17-21 February 2017
London Fashion Week Festival: 23-26 February 2017
 
Tickets for the first London Fashion Week Festival at The Store Studios on sale from 1st November at:
londonfashionweekfestival.com
- British Fashion Council