The Show Must Go On

I don’t often use Facebook, largely because the ads it spews onto my feed seem to incite me either to gamble, sort out my pores or tong my hair with a device that looks like a death trap. But this week, they’ve reached a new low. “London Bridge has fallen! God save the Queen! Buy here!” they proclaim, as my screen floods with hideous merchandise featuring crowns, corgis and our dearly departed monarch. 

The Queen’s passing after 70 years on the throne leaves us all in an unprecedented situation. There is no protocol – and boy, does it show. While there’s zero compassion for avaricious entrepreneurs cashing in with cheap, tacky T-shirts, there’s a lot of compassion for the designers showing at London Fashion Week, particularly the less established ones, who have invested so much in presentations and other events which are now in doubt. While it is not the time for wild fashion week parties, many would argue that fashion shows, being business events, should go ahead, not least because the pandemic has already left many designers’ businesses at breaking point. Nobody wants to be disrespectful to the Queen, but as a supporter of the British fashion industry herself, and a firm believer in duty, perhaps she’d have taken the view that the best way to honour her memory would not be to cancel, but to show.