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STORY: London has been renowned for men's fashion for hundreds of years with the famous tailors' street Savile Row making bespoke suits for the likes of Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson and Napoleon historically.
London also began numerous other men's styles since the 1950s from punk to gothic. However, until summer last year, there has not been a fashion week for men - it was simply an add-on to the women's weeks.
London Collections: Men launched in June last year to show off specifically mens catwalk shows and exhibitions of new work, and Monday (January 7, 2013) marked the first ever Autumn/Winter fashion week for men.
The event, which is centred around The Hospital Club in Covent Garden, features over 60 menswear designers, with 30 ready-to-wear and accessories designers also showing off their wares. London Collection: Men has a committe of well known British names synonymous with fashion including Tom Ford, Tom Hiddleston, David Furnish and male supermodel David Gandy.
The Chair of the committe is Dylan Jones, who is also the editor of men's style magazine GQ. He explained why now was the right time to make this move: "I think it's taken this long to have a proper men's fashion week because there's now proper enthusiasm for it."
According to market research company Mintel, the men's fashion market grew by 3.2% in 2011 to £9.9 billion and the market is predicted to continue growing up to 16% between 2011 and 2016.
Monday saw Topman Design show off their latest styles, followed by the collection from Man. Hackett London are also doing a catwalk show in the crypt at St Paul's Cathedral.
Over the next two days, there will be shows from fashion houses such as Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Tom Ford - the latter two are newcomers to showing their menswear collections in London.
Another celebrity giving a boost to the week was Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, who turned alongside his bride of less than a month, Sally Humphreys. When asked by Reuters TV if fashion weeks really make a difference to the fashion industry, he replied: "I don't know. It's got to help in some ways - just the mere presence of it and the way it's presented is great."
London Collections: Men continues until Wednesday January 9.
