Daily Front Row

2010 February 23

A Moment With...Alexandra Shulman

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Alexandra Shulman
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(LONDON) A steadfast subject of Daily fascination, Alexandra Shulman remains one of the most laid-back EICs in the business. A chronic bicycle commuter, steadfast reader of literature and even a newspaper columnist, she manages to chronicle the glossiest possible life while leading a remarkably authentic one. The Daily caught up with Shulman before Marios Schwab. BY EMILY GYBEN

What do you look for at a show?
Slightly different things in different places. In London, I look for confidence and a vision and well-made clothes—because sometimes you have lots of ideas but the clothes aren’t made so well. Somewhere like New York, you know the clothes are going to be well-manufactured, so then you’re more excited about innovation.

Why has London has grown so much in the last few years? 
I think that creative talent goes in waves. It has been really good here in the last two or three years, but there’s always a kind of ebb and flow. I also think that a lot of work has gone into the structure of London Fashion Week. The British Fashion Council has restructured it, and there’re quite a lot of initiatives to help designers with money, to help them put on the show, to make Fashion Week work better. That’s all come to fruition recently.

Is British fashion underrated in the global fashion community?
I don’t think it’s underrated. I think there’s a great admiration for British fashion. But I think that it’s hard for a lot of these designers who tend to be small and independent to do the big numbers, and I think they’re very vulnerable. If people pay late, or they cut their orders, all of those things really damage little people, and we’re a lot of little people here.

Should Stella McCartney return to LFW?
Oh yeah. I keep asking Stella to come back. I think she should show here. She’d be brilliant. It's wonderful that Burberry’s back. They’ve been here twice and I really hope they stay. Pringle as well. You know, it’s a good mixture at the moment, really. We have our new guys, like Marios Schwab, and the generation below, like Meadham Kirchhoff and Peter Pilotto, but then we’ve also got houses like Aquascutum and Jaeger. It’s a really good mix now in London, it’s not just only quirk and tiny. 

How has Alexander McQueen's death affected the British fashion community?
I think everybody is really shocked by it. Obviously, not everybody in the fashion community really knew him. Life goes on.