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Along with designers’ fascination with the puffball and why barely pubescent girls are the best mannequins for selling clothes to older women, one of the fashion world’s many mysteries is why women’s fashion is dominated by male designers.
However, Britain bucks this trend more than most, from Mary Quant in the 60s to Vivienne Westwood today, with Biba’s Barbara Hulanicki, Celia Birtwell and Katharine Hamnett in between. All wield influence that far exceeds or exceeded their company size.
At London fashion week this theme continued with shows by two of Britain’s best-loved female designers — Betty Jackson, who showed a characteristically feminine and wearable collection and, making her return after a gap of 20 years, Zandra Rhodes.
However, the female designer who caused the most stir was not showing any collection near the catwalk, although she knows that area well. Kate Moss, it was announced, is to design a capsule collection for Topshop. The deal, a spokesman for the store said, had been signed only recently, although there have been rumours for some time. Moss’s appearance at the Topshop fashion show on Sunday, chatting with Philip Green, owner of the Arcadia Group, of which Topshop is part, seemed to confirm them.
The collection, which will be launched next April and called “Kate Moss for Topshop”, was described by the store’s spokesman as “Kate’s basics - things you’d expect her to wear, like jeans, vest tops, bags. Pieces that are just very her, in other words.”
This collaboration seems to mark the final stage in Moss’s public image rehabilitation. Almost a year ago photos were published appearing to show her taking drugs. After a period of isolation, she has since acquired more contracts with fashion brands than before and tripled her annual earnings.
Topshop’s brand director, Jane Shepherdson, said: “We have considered this very carefully, and feel that on balance, most people do some things they aren’t necessarily proud of in their lives, but that it shouldn’t get in the way of the fact that she is very talented and a lot of people will want to buy her collection.”
Hadley Freeman
