London Fashion Week Spring 2009: Avant-Garde to Seriously Edgy
Sep 14 – 19, 2008

David Tennant
David Tennant

DALLAS, Aug 2, 2008 / FW/ — Watching the season’s finale of Doctor Who where David Tennant play the lead role, then reading at the London Telegraph later that the British actor is going to play Hamlet, the most famous role in Shakespeare made me think of where London Fashion Week is going.

Since the turn of the century, it was fashionable to ‘skip’ London when doing the international fashion circuit; but last season, London started to regain its importance as budding fashionistas leaned towards the city’s ‘edgy and individualistic type of dressing.’

As a fan of sci-fi and Shakespeare (those two are not mutually exclusive, you know), I can see the symmetry wherein London was so avant-garde that it bordered sci-fi in terms of fashion, and now it is moving towards a more serious tone, like Shakespeare.

But, don’t think that London is going to be boring, because, you see, Shakespeare is never boring. Thanks to the very popular 2004 film, ‘The Prince & Me’ starring Julia Stiles and Luke Mably, the young generation now knows that when it comes to Shakespeare they have to look beyond the obvious.

London designers in general have always found the perfect balance between high concept and the obvious when it comes to fashion. So, like Scottish David Tennant, who by the way was voted Scotland’s most stylish male in 2006 in the Scottish Style Awards, parking the Tardis to jump on stage as Hamlet actually makes a lot of sense.

[MARI DAVIS]

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