Six designers out of Fashion Week but show goes on

Reactions

Six designers have pulled out of London Fashion Week, which opens today in the grounds of the Natural History Museum despite suggestions that going ahead with the event might be insensitive.

Katharine Hamnett and Paul Smith were the first to announce the cancellation of their displays due to last week's terrorist attacks in Manhattan, which abruptly stopped the New York shows then in full swing. Over the weekend Burberry, Britain's only global designer brand, and Nicole Farhi, were said to have done the same. The husband-and-wife team of Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro came next, saying they would show in Paris at the beginning of next month. Justin Oh has also cancelled his London show and a number of other young designers are rumoured to be pulling out.

Hamnett, who in the Eighties wore a T-shirt of her own design emblazoned with "58% DON'T WANT PERSHING" before an audience that included Margaret Thatcher, said it would be "completely inappropriate" to go ahead. "Fashion shows are happy events. They're entirely frivolous and it's not the right time for that now."

A statement from Smith's office echoed these sentiments. "Paul Smith does not feel it is appropriate to show so soon after these tragic events."

After an emergency meeting late on Friday between the British Fashion Council and the 40-odd remaining designers scheduled to show, the decision was made to proceed. Britain's younger designers would face financial problems if the event was cancelled, it was said.

Nicholas Coleridge, chairman of the council, said: "There was a very strong feeling that the other designers want to continue. The view we're taking is that this is a business. New York will be open for business by Monday and we will be too. Obviously, there will be a more sombre atmosphere than is usual but the mood is that we shouldn't cave in."

He said all parties would be cancelled. He respected the decision of designers not to show. "This is an international tragedy that we're going through and people react in different ways," he added.