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London Fashion Week: 13 most shocking moments ever

As S/S 2014 kicks off, we pick out LFW’s most dramatic moments over the years…

1. PETA protesters carried dead skinned foxes
In Little Black Dresses, it took a second glance at the arms of the PETA protesters during London Fashion Week in 2012 to see that what was in their arms was not this season’s clutch, but dead, skinned foxes. The women carried a sign saying ‘Here’s the rest of your fur coat’.



2. Katherine Hamnett’s t-shirts
It’s not that fashion never becomes political, but it rarely becomes so explicitly political as this. In 2003, designer and ethical fashion pioneer Hamnett conveyed her thoughts quite clearly by sending models including Jodie Kidd down the catwalk in t-shirts emblazoned with the words ‘Stop War Blair Out’.



3. McQueen’s Debut
Setting out early in his career that he was far more than your average fashion designer, Alexander McQueen’s debut collection in 1992 was entitled ‘Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims’. 

4. THAT fall, 2013
There have been numerous shoe-based disasters since Naomi Campbell fell on the Paris catwalk in 1993, but when a model at Ekaterina Kukhareva’s show in 2013 went over on some huge heels, it was London Fashion Week’s own GASP moment. And the moment we all gave our ankles a quiet, appreciative stroke for not giving up on us and our ludicrous heels.



5. Andrej Pejic
There was something very different about the model of the moment at London Fashion Week, 2011, and that was that ‘she’ was actually male.



6. Fashion Went Plus-Sized
It shouldn’t have been shocking, but it was. Especially because when Sophie Dahl and her amazing curves made their catwalk debut in 1997, we were right in the middle of the ‘heroin chic’ movement.

7. Chloe Memisevic at Erdem
Sadly, the fashion industry has become so used to seeing skinny models that it barely registers the fact that they are not representative of a usual female sample. But when Chloe Memisevic took to the catwalk at Erdem in 2011, she was so painfully thin that the skinny debate hit the headlines once more.

8. Pam Hogg’s Naked Catwalk
Because how better to show off clothes than some full-frontal nudity? Pam’s 2013 show saw capes and shoes worn with, erm, breasts and vaginas.



9. Charlie Le Mindu’s mouse and rat carcass headwear
Yes, you heard correctly. On the fringes of London Fashion Week in 2009, designer Charlie Le Mindu dressed a model in a full-face head dress made of rat and mouse carcasses. It was as hideous as it sounds.

10. Anna Wintour got flashed
When designer Meadham Kirchhoff had mini Courtney Love sashaying up and down his catwalk, we couldn’t really be surprised when one of them lived up to her name and cheekily - no, literally - exposed her bottom to Anna on the FROW.

11.Vivienne Westwood went pirate
Just when we thought she couldn’t surprise us any more, the legend appeared on the catwalk after her 2012 show wearing a drawn on eye patch and moustache. She’s 71. We bow down.



12.  Andrew Groves’ flies
A designed who liked to shock, in 1997 Andrew sent a model down the catwalk with a jacket full of flies - she opened it to release them all into a pretty horrified crowd.



13. Fashion tried plus size... again
Of course flies and dead mice are one thing, but what truly shocks the fashion crowd is voluptuous flesh. So when university student Hayley Morley - a size 14 - headed down the catwalk for designer Mark Fast in 2010, she was the talk of Fashion Week. The debate was reignited but the most shocking thing? People LOVED her...