A little fashion trivia before we delve into more details on what made and is still making London a distinct fashion capital, the city where “weird” is a creative compliment and something that no one seems to mind on that side of the English Channel.

London Fashion Week, as we know it, officially began in 1984 (in a West London car park, mind you) to great fanfare. But who was the first designer to receive the newly minted Designer of the Year Award, offered by the British Fashion Council? Answer: Katherine Hammet (when you see some of her ads, you get a feel for how different London’s creative perspective is from puritanical New York).

In this picture, from Vogue UK, Katharine Hamnett meets Margret Thatcher, wearing a '58% Don’t Want Pershing' t-shirt, referencing America’s controversial Pershing II guided missile

The first Designer of the Year award went to Katharine Hamnett, a well known protest T-shirt designer, in 1984

Katharine Hamnett advertisement

Ethical fashion designer Katharine Hamnett made a stylish statement in a Philip Treacy hat to collect her CBE from Queen Elizabeth II

The following year, 1985, with some lobbying by a select group of established designers supported by Vogue UK, the British government agreed to sponsor London Fashion Week and create support programs for British designers. Designers, including Betty Jackson, David Fielden, Ghost and John Galliano, became highlights of the collection week.

Betty Jackson designs helped bring back Victorian Romanticism to the mainstream

Betty Jackson, photograph by Phil Sayer

look by David Fielden

Bridal couture designer David Fielden, circa 1985. (Photo by David Montgomery: Getty Images)

A 24 year old, young John Galliano, walks the ramp after his Spring:Summer 1985 fashion show

John Galliano Spring-Summer 1985 collection resurrected the Merveilleuses

In 1989, John Galliano selected the newly discovered Kate Moss for the presentation of his new collection, launching a career that would make her one of the most successful and recognized models today. She became the face of Givenchy and Christian Dior under his tenure.

A young Kate Moss being coached backstage by a young John Galliano before his Paris runway show in 1995

The Kate Moss factor

Two peas in a pod - BBFs Kate Moss and John Galliano

In 1990, Princess Diana did the unthinkable, and actually attended a fashion show along with the public. Her attendance brought worldwide attention to London Fashion Week and the British fashion industry as a whole.

Princess Di (Lady Diana Spencer)

The sheer success of the initial shows forced the organizers to search for larger venues to accommodate the ever expending line-up (just look at what happened in New York with Bryant Park and now Lincoln Center?). The Museum of Natural History’s grounds were chosen to house the collections and became the ground zero for London Fashion Week by 1990.

London Fashion Week ate The Museum of Natural History

Model Lily Cole plays paparazzi at London Fashion Week - Autumn/Winter 2006 - Photocall

In 1993 the British Fashion Council introduced a new fashion week initiative providing the opportunity for vetted students to show their designs in special presentations during the collections.   The addition of these presentations gave London its unique personality within the Fashion calendar. Fashion Education in London has long fostered the kind of open and nurturing environment that encourages students to push the boundaries and allows them to realize over-the-top ideas, and, turn these creative eccentricities into lauded fashion creations.  As history would have it, Alexander McQueen was one of the first students to benefit from the program… and rather well, don’t you think?

Lee Alexander McQueen

The Nihilism collection, Spring-summer 1994, introduced McQueen’s infamous Bumster trousers which revealed buttock cleavage

Next: The Golden Touch (the Punk education behind the creations)