4pm, Lueder, NewGen Catwalk Space, 180 Strand

Laura Weir and I are taking in the rather wonderful sight of the legendary London DJ Princess Julia posing for photographers while standing atop a white tablecloth-covered runway which is strewn with dinner party detritus and half drunk glasses of red wine; the Last Supper, but make it Hackney. We’re at the Lueder show on the Saturday afternoon of London Fashion Week, the first under the stewardship of Weir, who joined the British Fashion Council (BFC) as CEO this past April. I’m with her for a few hours to experience her debut season first hand.

The show has just finished, another of Berlin-London designer Marie Lueder’s inventive reinterpretations of club culture style. (Princess Julia was one of the select audience members invited to sit table-runway-side.) With its enveloping hoodies, cargo-ish trousers and curled-toe booties, I thought Lueder very rave-y Rumpelstiltskin, in a good way, while a journalist I walked into the venue with took one look at the uber cool crowd revved up to see it and pronounced Lueder to be part of the “dirty” fashion movement, which is about to have its moment in a new exhibition at the city’s Barbican Centre, Dirty Looks Desire and Decay In Fashion, opening September 25th. As for Weir, she was into it. “It was like something you’d see in the woods after an all-night rave,” she says. “Marie is very good at the signifiers, building a cultural well.” The vibe of the show captured the hardwiring together of the runway and the street, something London still does better than any other fashion capital.

“It’s my first time at a Lueder show, though she has been part of our NewGen program for two years,” Weir tells me. “I’ve heard great things [about her]. And I liked how she has really lent into the Pull&Bear partnership. What’s great about NewGen,” she went on to say of the BFC’s long-standing sponsorship and mentoring of young design talent and the brands who donate to it, “is that the designers are obviously financially supported, but when you are working with a big retailer like Pull&Bear, you’re also exposed to so much of the commerce operations. I really hope that that helps designers be set up for success. We’re so grateful for their financial support, and a big part of my strategy going forward is how we can use that to thrive creatively and build businesses that can be sustained.”

This is Weir’s mission now: To speak the language of creativity, craft, culture, and commerciality – and bring them all together. After a career working at British Vogue, ES magazine, and the department store Selfridges, she is intent on activating a strong and successful future for London Fashion Week, and the British fashion industry more generally, in a post-Covid, post-Brexit landscape. Not to mention the fact that we’re in an era where the industry is in the thrall of powerful global conglomerates like never before. What’s an independent designer, young, or not so young, to do?

Earlier this year, she launched for the BFC an ambitious, visionary plan for how to revitalise the week, and these past few days alone, her leadership has been very much to the fore. Not just going to shows since the schedule kicked off Thursday – she’s planning on being at around 39 or so this season – but also the likes of attending a parliamentary debate on London Fashion Week launched by Rosie Wrighting, the Labour MP for Kettering, Northants, who was once a buyer for ASOS, and, just last night, co-hosting a dinner with Jonathan Anderson, who’s re-imagining his JW Anderson label as he commences the Herculean task of Dior.

We’re currently being ushered out of the venue, which is just as well, as we have to hotfoot it to the Roksanda show. As we’re exiting, Weir mentions that Lueder’s show makes her think of another designer she saw that morning, YAKU, designed by Yaku Stapleton. (A year ago my colleague Sarah Mower urged me to go see his work, and as always, she was right; it was fantastic.) YAKU stood out for Weir because it was a presentation, she says, “which took us on a journey to witness his ancestors meeting one another, both in origin times, and the modern day. It was a really emotional performance piece. I’ve noticed a lot of world building this season,” she continues. “For me that sparks a lot of ideas around our connection into the broader culture and creative industries. I’m really keen to forge partnerships with film and art partners. Dance is something that could be interesting for lots of our designers in terms of costuming.”

5pm, Roksanda, The Chancery Rosewood

Appropriately enough, the Roksanda front row slap-bang opposite Weir and I is entirely representative of that cross disciplinary conversation, with Marina Abramović, Joely Richardson, Juergen Teller, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Jones and Afua Hirsch all in attendance to celebrate the twentieth year in business of this beloved designer, one of London’s leading proponents of artistic/conceptual glamour. On the way over to Roksanda’s show, Weir and I chatted about what it’s like to take on such a huge role at the BFC.