Rumours blazed like wild fires through the fashion industry all summer long, as a musical chair switch-up of designers at leading houses left the most influential jobs up for grabs: who would decide the future of Valentino, Givenchy, Chanel? Certainly Clare Waight Keller, one of Britain’s foremost designers — the former head of Pringle of Scotland, Chloé and Givenchy, where she designed Meghan Markle’s wedding dress — was a front runner.
But insiders were left aghast at the beginning of September, when news broke that Waight Keller was cheating on luxury and taking on the creative director role overseeing all men’s and women’s wear at Japanese high street behemoth Uniqlo. It consolidates part of a bigger industry shift towards the more affordable, with Sienna Miller and Kate Moss designing party collections for M&S and Zara respectively, Zac Posen taking the reins as creative director of Gap, and ASOS and Primark inviting guests to The Fashion Awards on Monday night.
