Because I can’t be at London Fashion Week (so bummed!), I thought it might be fun to pay homage to a few of the early British designers who helped to establish London as a wildly creative fashion mecca!
Pam Hogg got her Masters of Art at the Royal College of Art in London. Later, she pushed her way into the London fashion and music scenes with her outrageous creations. Kylie Minogue and Siouxsie Sioux are loyal fans and have worn Pam’s cat suits on tour and in music videos. Hogg still has a very successful shop in London’s Soho.
Zandra Rhodes has designed for a range of famous clients including Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury. She studied printed textile design at the Royal College of Art in London. Her early textile fashion designs were considered extravagant by the traditional British manufacturers. In 2001, the San Diego Opera commissioned her to design the costumes for the opera, The Magic Flute. Rhodes is the founder of the Fashion and Textile Museum in London which was opened in May 2003.
Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, the manager of the The Sex Pistols , lived together and had a son. In 1971, Malcolm decided to open a shop - Let It Rock (also known as Sex, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Seditionaries) where Westwood began to sell her brazen designs. Today, Westwood still owns this shop, which is now known as World's End. Her son Joseph (with McLaren), is the founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. Dame Vivienne Westwood is currently married to her former fashion student, Austrian-born Andreas Kronthaler. You go girl!!!