Every fashion editor has a cherished first front-row memory. It might be the sight of a major A-lister surrounded by flustered fashion PRs and flashing cameras as they are escorted to their seat. Or perhaps it’s the moment they witnessed a junior magazine staff member confidently plopping themselves down in a more senior seating allocation, only to be asked to reposition themselves a row (or several!) back due to the sudden arrival of the aforementioned A-lister. There’s the inevitable shuffling and bustling when bench seating proves too narrow, the frantic hustle when a guest expresses dissatisfaction with their seat (no one wants to be behind a roving videographer), and the exasperated tutting when a selfie stick obstructs the view of the catwalk.
My first front-row memory involved saving a seat. As an intern at Fashion East in 2011, I was tasked with holding a seat for Anna Wintour, just in case of unforeseen congestion. At 21 years old, a seasoned Vogue Runway scroller, I couldn’t believe I was sitting so close to a real London Fashion Week catwalk, even if it was simply part of a seat-saving strategy.
The early days of London Fashion Week, however, were a far cry from the tightly controlled, media-saturated affair it is today. Fashion PR Lynne Franks, who represented iconic designers like Katharine Hamnett, Wendy Dagworthy, Jasper Conran, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, and BodyMap, and is believed to have inspired the character of Edina Monsoon in ‘Absolutely Fabulous,’ played a crucial role in shaping those early years.
“There was always a front row for the main fashion buyers and top journalists, and then you’d fit celebrities in between,” Franks recalls. This was an era before brand ambassadors, sponsored seats, and social media anxieties. Music icons flocked to the runways of their favorite labels simply for the love of the clothes. The exits and entrances were always flanked by photographers capturing the spectacle.
“These were the years of Boy George, Spandau Ballet, and Bananarama,” Franks says, “and even Madonna at a Joseph show, which was a great thrill.” Her most challenging clients? “I’d always have to extract Italian buyers who pretended they couldn’t speak English from the front row!”
Instead of the current sea of catwalk photographers, the runway was lined with flashing cameras back in the 80s. Each designer attracted their own unique celebrity following. Wendy Dagworthy designed for Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, BodyMap collaborated with renowned Scottish choreographer and recent JW Anderson collaborator, Michael Clark, and Boy George strutted down the brand’s catwalk in 1985.
“BodyMap had transvestites, grannies and kids in their shows. Katharine Hamnett had African drummers, Tibetan monks, my children and her children… the shows were a lot more entertaining and a lot less serious,” Franks says. “I shouldn’t just keep repeating the word fun, but it was really just enormous fun!”
From its inception, London Fashion Week has been synonymous with an eccentricity and grassroots grit that still resonates today. Franks agrees. “The shows then came out of the streets, the clubs, the art colleges,” she says. “We were using live DJs, it was like a party.”
The rise of toxic tabloid culture in the 2000s brought a renewed frenzy for front-row frolics, as A-list stars became prime targets for the flashing bulbs of the paparazzi. Fashion’s party certainly wasn’t over, and it was guaranteed to make headlines. Remember Sporty Spice screaming with visible glee as she watched Mel B strut down a mirrored runway in a sparkling bubblegum-pink gown at the Julian McDonald show in September 1999, before the ceiling rained with balloons? Or the front-row formations that became the epitome of British cool at the Topshop Unique and Burberry Prorsum shows, frequented in the mid-Noughties by the likes of Kate Moss, Victoria and David Beckham, Alexa Chung, Agyness Deyn, and Emma Watson?
But the most famous front-rowers of all? Princess Diana, who graced the front row at the Joe Casely-Hayford show in 1985 (after attending a Lancaster House launch event for the March 1985 edition of LFW), and Queen Elizabeth II, who attended London Fashion Week in 2018 to mark the inauguration of the Queen Elizabeth II Award, which was won by Richard Quinn.
Here, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of London Fashion Week, Vogue pays tribute to some of its most iconic front-row moments, highlighting the evolution of the event from a fun and rebellious gathering to a more formal, media-driven spectacle.
