A look back at London Fashion Week’s best ever front row moments

The first ever London Fashion Week took place in February 1984.

Not only were there a fraction of the number of designers on the schedule back then as there are today, but the shows were also more intimate affairs attended largely by industry insiders.

The Front Row of seating – or ‘FROW as it’s known in the biz – was saved for the most important editors and buyers (your Vogue and your Harrods, say), while less influential fashion industry folk were seated further back.

As the fashion industry has grown in size however, so too has the scale and of the shows, which often take place nowadays in giant venues like the Grand Palais in Paris and the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London, and are attended by hundreds of guests and livestreamed around the world.

The Front Row has evolved too. Sometime in the nineties it became commonplace for fashion designers to invite celebrities to sit alongside editors on the FROW. These supermodels, actors and popstars were chosen as friends and ambassadors of the brands, and the FROW served as a document of the biggest stars of that day.

The rise of Instagram has once again created a reshuffle, with fashion influencers now often pipping editors and buyers to the all-important front bench. Brands often pay for social media stars to attend their shows in order to maximise coverage and encourage customers to shop the collections straight off the catwalk, and the front-row influencers have become models in their own right; their outfit as forensically scrutinised as the ones on the catwalk.

This year the British Fashion Council made London Fashion week the first of the global fashion weeks (which include New York, Milan and Paris) to open its doors to the public, which likely means the FROW is destined to evolve still further.

For now though, scroll the gallery above to see some of the best celeb moments from the London Fashion Week FROW from years gone by.