Amazon Launches London Fashion Week Shop To Support British Designers

The usual preparations would be sorting through stacks of gilt-edged envelopes, highlighting a complicated (and expertly colour-coordinated) spreadsheet and doing some serious outfit planning. But this time round, London Fashion Week promises to be rather different. As brands plan to show their collections via video or private appointments, in place of the usual pomp and performance of a catwalk show, it’s another stark reminder of how seriously the fashion industry has been affected by the pandemic.

Amazon Fashion is doing its bit to help champion our homegrown talent, partnering with the British Fashion Council to launch a digital storefront just in time for London Fashion Week. The initiative will enable small and mid-level fashion designers to showcase their collections to millions, in fact tens of millions, of customers from the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain who all shop on Amazon.

Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, of Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, will be selling its contemporary label, Preen Line. For their ‘show’ during London Fashion Week, which is inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, the designers will be hosting private appointments. ‘It started during lockdown and we were literally putting the pieces of Preen back together,’ says Thornton, who described the creative process as a ‘family project’. ‘This collection has been developed from what we could find and work on with our kids over the summer in the studio with a skeleton team.’

For Serena Rees, the founder of cult sleepwear brand Les Girls Les Boys, says she is ‘super excited’ about Amazon. ‘We’ve selected our most popular styles to wear from bed to street with plenty of sharable items that can be mixed and matched, dressed up and down,’ she says.

The shop also includes Grenson (whose hiking boot, the Nanette, went viral thanks to Holly Willoughby), Emilio De La Morena (the party dress king), Teija (purveyor of supremely sleek shirting) and De La Vali (another good time girl dress emporium). What are you waiting for?