We’ve all tried to be fashion leaders in our time. Jerry, an ex-colleague at Boriswatch HQ, once turned up for work wearing a sarong and Ugg boots which led to a short period where everyone in the office followed suit and turned up looking like they’d just rolled out of bed.
Now, it would be cruel to say that the Mayor is a man that spends a lot of his time looking like he has just rolled out of bed – the hair is actually carefully coiffured to look like a mad scientist – but he is an unlikely leader for London Fashion Week.
The Independent reports that ‘surrounded by some of the British Fashion Council’s “ambassadors”, among whom were former models Erin O’Connor and Laura Bailey, he said it was the most glamorous audience he had ever addressed, and joked about rescuing funding for the event from those in the Treasury who wished to use it to bail out Greece.’
Sadly, though, the Mayor may not really have the fashion lingo well and truly off pat. When a journalist asked “What are you wearing, Boris?” as he opened the event, the Mayor replied “A suit?”
At the London Fashion Week launch, Boris addressed a glamorous audience. “The fashion industry employs 80,000 people in London and gives £1bn to the economy every year. My message is serious and simple: if London fashion businesses can help and we can find the public funds … we can solve youth unemployment and lengthen our lead over the rest of the world.”