How the UK changed the world of fashion

September 2012 is London Fashion Week, one of the most prestigious events in the world of fashion. Now that London has just been voted the world’s most fashionable city by Global Language Monitor, it’s clear that all eyes are on the English capital this year. As top designers show off their designs on London’s catwalks, we take a look at the many ways the UK has revolutionized the world of fashion.

Without a doubt, one of Britain’s greatest contributions to the world of fashion is making black the color of fashion. Although Coco Gabrielle popularized the color in the 1920s, Queen Victoria is believed to have been the first person to push the timelessly elegant color into the mainstream. Before Queen Victoria, black was widely associated with mourning and when her husband, Albert, died in 1861, she too struck the traditional tone of mourning as she wept for him. However, while most of her only wore the color for a short time, Victoria continued to wear black until her death 40 years later, once again putting it in the public eye.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Britain is also responsible for injecting some trendy color as the birthplace of artificial dye. Of course, dyes had been used to color clothing for millennia, but all of these dyes had their origins in the natural world. However, in 1848, the young London chemist William Henry Perkin was working on an artificial treatment for malaria and instead created a synthetic dye called Mauveine. He later nicknamed the color ‘mauve’ and began mass-producing the dye with great success.

Colorful outfits are all over the gamut these days with pop stars like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj raising eyebrows with bold and eccentric designs. While their fashion choices may turn heads, they’re not the first to challenge the fashion status quo. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon of London, better known as Lucile, shocked the world with her radical designs. Instead of following the current trend, she Lucile created bold fashions that she designed for individuals, not the masses. She was also one of the first to show her products in fashion shows and shocked the society with her daring lingerie. The House of Lucile was a huge success, becoming one of the first truly global fashion brands and has recently been revived by Lucile’s great-great-granddaughter, Camilla Blois.

So while London Fashion Week will showcase many of the UK’s best contemporary designs, remember that Britain’s contributions to the world of fashion go back much, much further.