The British Fashion Council announced yesterday that London will get its own menswear week — well, more like weekend — this summer. Running from Friday, June 15 to Sunday, June 17, it’ll immediately precede the Milan and Paris spring 2013 menswear shows; this hopefully means it’ll have better attendance than London’s previous arrangement, which involved squeezing all the menswear collections into the day after London Fashion Week (when most editors have already jetted off to Milan). The BFC states that they’ll stick to a similar schedule moving forward, showing their menswear collections each January and June.
Leading the crusade to establish a London men’s week is British GQ editor Dylan Jones, who’s backed up by a committee including Tom Ford, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey, and David Furnish, the advertising executive turned filmmaker who’s perhaps best known as Elton John’s longtime partner. The BFC’s announcement that the weekend’s collections will be accompanied by a “cultural program” has also spurred speculation about an Elton John concert (ooh!). And as London will be gearing up for the Olympics, it’ll surely be a nice time to visit before the crowds descend.