Guide to London Fashion Week

London Fashion Week marks the second fashion week of the international fashion calendar and takes place in September soon after the New York Fashion Week. The event takes place twice each year with a winter and summer version of the show, featuring winter collections in February and another in September to mark the spring and summer designs. Both fashion weeks showcase haute couture for men and women by highlighting the latest styles in clothing, footwear, accessories and installations like catwalks.

The spring event covers both men and women's fashion and is scheduled to begin on the 17th of September and finish on the 22nd of the month. Somerset House on the Strand in London will serve as the venue for the London Fashion Week. For those of you who have never visited Somerset House before, this is a neo-classical building and venue and one which sits in a lovely location close to the Thames River and near to the exclusive Strand area of London: A wonderful venue for a show which generated million of pounds of business each year.

The September London Fashion Week is a high profile event that will outline the latest fashion trends in the industry and feature the spring and summer collections by renowned designers from Europe and the UK. Catwalk designers, installation designers and upcoming fashion designers will be in attendance.

In addition to featuring fashion shows by several designers, London Fashion Week also features schemes to support upcoming designers. NEWGEN is a prominent factor here and is a system that serves to launch new fashion designers, catwalk designers and fashion talent in the UK. Sponsored by Topshop, this event allows designers to garner worldwide media attention along with a sponsored catwalk space by the British Fashion Council, who will also work to mentor the new designers. The event also features NEWGEN Men, a show that exclusively promotes menswear and new designers in the UK, offering the top 10 designers at the show several business opportunities and an opportunity to get into the media spotlight.

If you are interested in fashion and looking to get into the industry, there are many excellent courses in the UK and in a number of different universities and colleges. London College of Fashion and Schools of Design such as Leeds and Northampton school of design at their respective universities are good starting points when looking for a course.