The British Fashion Council, a not-for-profit organisation, exhibits the best of British fashion design to an international audience through a variety of consumer and industry facing events in London. London Fashion Week, one of the world’s highest profile events of its kind, is a biannual industry showcase of design at the vanguard of womenswear. London Fashion Week Men’s is the menswear equivalent, whilst London Fashion Week Festival is a biannual shopping event open to the public.
In 2016, the British Fashion Council announced that London Fashion Week would be relocated to the iconic Store Studios at 180 The Strand—where London Fashion Week Men's takes place—as part of the BFC's ambition of creating a fashion and cultural hub in the heart of London. This move presented a unique opportunity to unite the London Fashion Week events, which previously operated under three distinct and non-unified identities.
Pentagram were tasked with developing a solution that connects the three events, a brief made challenging by the differing audiences: London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men’s are primarily aimed at industry professionals where in contrast, London Fashion Week Festival speaks to consumers, looking to engage the general public at large in a celebration of fashion.
A key focus while developing the identity was to create a system that provides a coherent voice for the series, whilst retaining the individuality of each event. The concept devised by Pentagram employs the use of a graphic system—bespoke and tailored to each season—that utilises a repeating motif which serves as a linking device between events, evoking a sense of shared DNA.
The SS18 visual system is a manifestation of the creative process that fashion designers go through when conceiving their collections: cutting and slicing, ripping and weaving, contrasting materials and creating layered inspiration boards; instilling the energy of fashion creation into the event’s identity.
This dynamism was woven into the event experience itself, where Pentagram introduced a series of digital touchpoints. These were curated in a way that encouraged visitor interaction with the event space, in the form of selfies and social posts, whilst also serving a series of practical applications. For instance, London Fashion Week’s holographic treatment, which was represented digitally by replicating the identity’s motion behaviour, was brought to life on digital wayfinding systems and banners that dominated the event space.
In addition to this, Pentagram designed collateral such as bespoke invites, event passes and information guides where—in line with the British Fashion Council’s Positive Fashion initiative—an emphasis was placed on digital production.
