When I started in fashion about a decade and a half ago – a time when street style and e-commerce were still young, editors were fighting with bloggers, and people were still taking books to fashion shows – there was one designer whose show was the hottest ticket, the hardest to find at London Fashion Week: Christopher Kane. He, along with his sister and muse Tammy Kane, have been the defining designers of my generation. Glasgow-born, Central Saint Martins-trained, Donatella Versace-approved, it was Christopher Kane who was the leader of a group of designers who restored London’s image as the pinnacle of all things cool, seductive and creative-so much so that Burberry returned to London Fashion Week in 2009, and designers such as Alexander Stella McCart followed McCart. Great Britannia, next!
So, when Kane closed his letter in 2023, tears were heard from women around the world who were waiting for his collection with the enthusiasm of football fans. It seemed that British fashion had lost one of its last true assets: a designer with a completely visual language, which could never be mistaken for anyone else’s. In an era where so much fashion has been destroyed by algorithms, market research, and the constant pressure to be commercially viable, Kane’s work has remained remarkably specific. You can recognize it immediately. Each collection had a unique look, a heartbeat.
Christopher Kane
Last week, the same shouts—at this time of joy!—could be heard last week when it was announced that Christopher and Tammy would take over the management of Mulberry, one of the great British heritage brands, which for many years has felt like it has been waiting for someone to restore its vision. She will be making her London Fashion Week debut in September, ready to wear and all.
For those of us who live in London and still love the city, his arrival at Mulberry could mean more than just a successful transition. It may indicate a renewed confidence in British fashion itself. At a time when many young British designers are struggling to survive or have left Paris, and much of the industry feels controlled by conglomerates and awareness, Kane’s return feels symbolic. It’s a reminder that British fashion still has room for wit, mischief, wit and danger.
Fall 2015
You see, there are designers who make beautiful clothes, and then there are designers who completely change the word beauty. Christopher Kane has always understood that beauty is best when it’s young error. His work did not simply ask whether something is good; it asked why we thought some things were bad in the first place. He took the dirty, the artificial, the pornographic, the fluorescent, the weird, and raised it until it glowed.
Long before Crocs were on the runway, it was Kane who made them furry and crystal-encrusted. Or his bags, for example, which had straps attached to the seat belt. I’ll never forget her Fall 2019 show, where I was sitting behind former first lady Samantha Cameron, as we all watched the play of elegant black dresses, trying to figure out what the fuss was about. Were those … jelly pockets, like the watery pencil cases of our youth? Yes, yes. Like childhood toys and firecrackers, the acid-coloured gel pochettes were rare and were picked up at Browns South Molton Street (RIP) later that year.
The year 2023
No one else could make gorillas, roadkill, surgical seams, or acid neon feel so easy. Christopher Kane’s genius was his refusal to obey the old rules of taste. He treated lace and plastic with equal respect. She understood that a woman could want to feel sleek and dangerous, polished and exotic, feminine and depressing all at the same time.
In fact, he once told me about meeting Miuccia Prada for the first time, and told her that they were the only collections he looked at during fashion week. It makes sense when you think about it—they’re both designers who understand that smart beauty isn’t perfection, but rather conflict. The conflict between sexuality and innocence. Between luxury and luxury. Between humor and seriousness. Between what fashion has taught us to desire and what fashion has taught us to reject.
British fashion, at best, has always been about contradictions. Vivienne Westwood turned rebellion into romance. Alexander McQueen turned violence into extreme elegance. Christopher Kane made the bad taste more felt. He took the visual language of pamphlets, high streets, courthouses, sex shops, inner city spaces, biology textbooks, witchcraft, and teenage girlhood, and elevated it to something not just luxurious but emotionally intelligent.
It seems strange to write this now, because many designers have been inspired by Kane’s work, and you can see his influence in many collections of different fashion themes. But there was always something deeply personal about his work. Despite all its evil, it never felt sad. Kane understood the complexity of women: the desire to be looked at, the desire to disappear, the desire to be scared, the desire to be protected, the desire to feel beautiful in ways that are hard to describe.
That’s why her Mulberry collection is so exciting. Mulberry under Christopher Kane can become something extraordinary: a heritage house with a sense of humor, a luxury brand with a vision, a British institution that feels alive rather than embalmed. Kane’s greatest gift has always been his ability to make the incredible desirable. And British fashion is in need of something surprising now more than ever.
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