How do Britain’s leading breakthrough fashion designers like to celebrate? Moët & Chandon brought them together to find out
IT’S MAGIC HOUR, AND STYLIST HARRY LAMBERT AND DESIGNERS Saul Nash and Feben are squeezed into a hot-air balloon hovering over the Champagne region of France. Below the balloon, more designers – Foday Dumbuya, Annie Doble and Marco Capaldo – chatter in excitement as Château de Saran looms behind them.
Built as a hunting lodge in 1801 by Jean-Rémy Moët, the private stately home now only opens its doors to friends of Moët & Chandon, including Kate Moss and Jay-Z.
But tonight, it’s all about raising a glass to British fashion – the group has been brought together to celebrate the future of London’s thriving creative industry. It’s a fitting venue, considering Moët & Chandon’s legacy in the fashion world: from supermodels sipping from mini bottles backstage at iconic Nineties shows to its ongoing programme championing up-and-coming and established industry talent.
The balloon comes down, and Annie Doble of Annie’s Ibiza can’t wait to jump in and have a turn. Visited by everyone from Adwoa Aboah to Aimee Lou Wood, Doble’s boutiques are full of one-of-a-kind vintage pieces and her own repurposed designs, one of which she’s wearing today. It’s a pink-corseted princess dress that requires a number of helpers to get her into the basket. It has been a big year for Annie Doble: she showed on schedule at London Fashion Week for the first time in February, a moment she pinpoints as her favourite of 2023. ‘We had 250 guests at St Paul’s Cathedral and celebrated at The Dorchester afterwards; it was a really special moment,’ she recalls.
Doble is not the only designer to be celebrating a landmark year. The north-London menswear designer Saul Nash showed independently at London Fashion Week Men’s in June for the first time. ‘It felt like a massive celebration for us. We all went straight to the pub to celebrate. We’re not great at planning the after-parties, but the whole team were there, so it was really nice,’ he says. Nash’s 2023 had a lot to live up to; in 2022 he was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design by t
