Claire Barrow announces plan to reject fashion week schedule

London-based designer and Dazed 100 star Claire Barrow has announced that she will be no longer showing as part of the fashion week schedule, or designing collections according to the traditional seasonal model. According to a press release, Barrow has made this decision so she can “focus more intently on her creative work,” which includes her artwork.

“Claire will continue to work on a range of her own creative projects in both worlds,” the press release reads, “and is looking to take the chance to really look at the way her work is presented and how she can develop in myriad ways, for the moment outside of the fashion week cycle.”

This year, we’ve seen a number of brands and designers question or outright reject the fashion system. In February, Burberry and Tom Ford announced that they would be mixing their men’s and women’s collections and be making them available to shop immediately after the show. Similarly, Vetements announced they would be staging two mixed-gender shows a year, outside of the fashion week schedule, while Nasir Mazhar said he would be taking everything in-house and setting up a shop in his studio. 

These brands and designers are breaking free from the constraints of a now decades old system. Barrow is another example of this; she’s doing things in her own way and in her own time. It’s brave and, ultimately, makes a whole load of sense.

Last season, saw Barrow blur the lines between fashion and art in a presentation that resembled an exhibition. “The question is always, ‘Is it fashion or art?’” the designer said in a recent Dazed interview. “Everything’s a big mess, but I wanted it to feel like that – very confused, very experimental.”

Vote for Claire Barrow in the Dazed 100 here