LONDON FOR FASHION LOVERS

Day 1 | Sunday 4 October
London’s Fashion Story Begins
Our tour begins in the heart of Marylebone with check-in at the Holmes Hotel, our convenient and stylish base for exploring the city and its surrounds over the coming days. Long before it became a global fashion capital, London’s identity was shaped by trade, court culture and craftsmanship – forces that continue to influence its designers today. We meet this evening for welcome drinks and an opening talk by tour leader Nicole Hayward, looking at how fashion in London reflects its history, politics and identity, setting the stage for the days ahead. Our talk is followed by dinner in a nearby restaurant.  Overnight London (D)

Day 2 | Monday 5 October
City as Catwalk – Tracing London’s Style Evolution
London’s fashion history is written not only in ateliers and salons, but in its streets. From the tailoring houses of Savile Row to the boutiques of the King’s Road and Carnaby Street, the city has continually reinvented itself through dress. Our guided walking tour this morning traces this rich narrative of London fashion, exploring the influence of British designers, tailors and dressmakers from the Victorian era to the present day and looking at how London’s streets have long doubled as runways of social expression. After a break for lunch, we visit the Fashion and Textile Museum, the only museum in the UK dedicated solely to contemporary fashion and textile design. Our visit coincides with the opening of a new exhibition on Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, the iconic duo whose visionary designs and prints helped shape the Swinging Sixties and early 1970s fashion in London. Our private guided tour of the exhibition will showcase the cultural influences that shaped the city’s style identity in that beloved era. The remainder of the afternoon is at leisure to explore nearby Marylebone and Regent’s Park. Overnight London (B)

Day 3 | Tuesday 6 October
Surreal Style – Elsa Schiaparelli at the V&A
Interwar Paris transformed fashion into a site of artistic experimentation, and few designers embodied this shift more boldly than Elsa Schiaparelli. One of the most influential figures in 20th-century couture, she fused art, performance and dress in creations that challenged convention and redefined elegance. Our focus this morning is the much-anticipated exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which examines her enduring impact on British design sensibilities and explores her collaborations and rivalries with contemporaries including Salvador Dalí and Coco Chanel. On display will be more than 200 carefully curated objects, including garments, accessories, jewellery, paintings, photographs, sculptures, furniture, perfumes, and archival material from the Schiaparelli house. Following our visit there is time to explore the museum’s extensive collection of historic and contemporary fashion, followed by a traditional afternoon tea nearby. We conclude the day back at our hotel with an evening talk exploring the dynamic intersection of fashion, sport and performance – where functionality meets spectacle on the global stage. Overnight London (B, AT)

Day 4 | Wednesday 7 October
Dressing for the Stage and the State
From theatrical illusion to royal ceremony, clothing has long shaped how Britain presents itself to the world. Our day begins with a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, showcasing how fashion functions at the intersection of spectacle and performance.  This iconic building is home to a myriad of costumes that are designed, stored and conserved on site. Our expert guide introduces us to many of the institution’s unique departments including the Archives, the Dye Department and the Revival Workroom. After lunch together nearby, the afternoon is at leisure before we reconvene for a private evening viewing at The King’s Gallery, after it has closed to the public. Following a 30-minute introductory talk by an expert guide, we view Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, the most comprehensive display of Queen Elizabeth II’s wardrobe ever assembled. Designs by couturiers including Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies reveal the craftsmanship and symbolism embedded in royal dress across seven decades of public life. We return to our hotel at the conclusion of our visit. Overnight London (B, L)

Day 5 | Thursday 8 October
Tudors to Regency – Fashion, Silk and Social Change
From the splendour of the Tudor court to the restraint of Regency drawing rooms, fashion both reflected and shaped England’s social order. Our full day excursion today takes us out of London, beginning at Hampton Court Palace, the magnificent royal residence once home to Henry VIII. Here we tour the palace’s extravagantly decorated rooms where rich tapestries and paintings of royalty and courtiers offer an insight into sumptuary laws, embroidery as political language, and the daily reality of clothing in a hierarchical court. Our next stop is Whitchurch Silk Mill in rural Hampshire, a rare example of a working Georgian silk mill on the River Test. Our private tour takes us through the mill’s machinery and weaving rooms, looking at the story of English silk production and its role in dressing Britain’s growing middle class. Our day concludes with a private after hours tour of the Jane Austen House Museum in nearby Chawton. Surrounded by the furnishings, letters and daily objects of the celebrated novelist, we reflect on how the refined simplicity of Regency fashion – with its empire-line silhouettes and delicate muslins – expressed  both social constraint and quiet rebellion in the lives of women like Austen. We then enjoy dinner at the charming Greyfriar Pub across the lane, soaking in the village atmosphere before returning to London in the early evening. Overnight London (B, D)

Day 6 | Friday 9 October
A Proper English Gentleman
The idea of the “English gentleman” has long been constructed through cloth, cut and restraint. Today we explore the rich and refined history of British menswear, beginning with a walking tour of Savile Row and Jermyn Street. Synonymous with the English gentleman’s wardrobe for over 200 years, these two streets are home to master tailors and shirtmakers catering to aristocrats, politicians, celebrities and subcultural style icons. As we walk, we trace the evolution of masculine dress – from the understated elegance of Beau Brummell, whose minimalist dandyism reshaped 19th-century fashion, to the flamboyance of David Bowie, who who challenged conventions of gender and performance through clothes. In the afternoon, we travel to Walthamstow to visit the William Morris Gallery, located in Morris’s childhood home. A designer, writer and social reformer, William Morris championed craftsmanship, workers’ dignity and the beauty of everyday objects. His advocacy for artisanal production and ethical labour laid intellectual foundations that continue to influence contemporary discussions around sustainable fashion and responsible textile production. Overnight London (B)

Day 7 | Saturday 10 October
Reconstructing Historic Dress – Hands-on with the Past
British fashion developed through a dynamic tension between industrial manufacture and enduring artisanal skill. This morning we travel by train to Nottingham, once a global centre for lace and knitwear production, where workshops and mechanised factories supplied garments for royalty, the military and an expanding ready-to-wear market. By the 19th century, Nottingham lace had become a major international export, sustaining local livelihoods while contributing to Britain’s reputation for textile innovation and design. Our time here includes a behind-the-scenes visit to the studio of historical costumer Ninya Mikhaila – from the well-known BBC series, ‘A Stitch in Time’ – where we have a hands-on opportunity to learn about the skills, resources and technologies involved in reconstructing replicas of historic dress. After a break for lunch we then visit the Framework Knitters Museum, a unique surviving example of a 19th-century framework knitters’ yard, which tells the story of mechanised knitting and working-class life from the Industrial Revolution to the Luddite protests. We return to London by fast train in the early evening. Overnight London (B)

Day 8 | Sunday 11 October
Silk and the City – Huguenots in Spitalfields | Six
In the late 17th century, thousands of Huguenots – French Protestant refugees fleeing religious persecution – settled in London’s East End, bringing with them highly specialised skills in silk weaving, dyeing and textile design. Their arrival transformed Spitalfields into the centre of Britain’s silk industry, where elegant weavers’ houses with large garret windows were built to admit the light needed for delicate loom work. Today we travel by tube to Spitalfields, arriving mid-morning to explore the covered market and surrounding streets. With an introduction from Nicole and a map highlighting notable boutiques, fabric stores and independent designers, there is time to browse and shop before breaking for lunch in the market. In the afternoon we are joined by a specialist guide for a walking tour exploring the Huguenot legacy in Spitalfields. Moving through the area’s narrow streets and historic squares, we examine the surviving architecture of the silk-weaving community. Returning to the hotel in the late afternoon, there is time to freshen up before our performance of the acclaimed musical Six, which reimagines the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives with contemporary flair as they form a pop group to tell their stories. Overnight London (B)

Day 9 | Monday 12 October
London’s Fabric Emporiums & Atelier Craft
Behind every finished garment lies a network of suppliers, makers and specialist artisans. Today celebrates the materials and craftsmanship that underpin London’s fashion industry, beginning with a morning walking tour to some of the city’s most respected purveyors of cloth and trimming, including MacCulloch & Wallis, VV Rouleaux and Liberty. These world-renowned shops offer an insight into Britain’s dedication to quality materials and detailed workmanship. After lunch together at the instore restaurant of Liberty’s, we continue to Hand & Lock, a prestigious embroidery house established in 1767. On our private visit, we step behind the scenes to discover how centuries-old techniques are kept alive, from intricate goldwork and bead embroidery to hand-stitching for couture houses, military regalia and ecclesiastical vestments. The tour will offer a glimpse into the precision and artistry that define this enduring craft. Overnight London (B, L)

Day 10 | Tuesday 13 October
Conserving Couture – Behind the Glass
The preservation of fashion demands both scholarship and technical expertise, and when the vast V&A East Storehouse opened in May 2025, it made one of Britain’s most significant decorative arts archives publicly accessible for the first time. This purpose-built facility – spanning four levels, and bigger than 30 basketball courts – reimagines how museum collections are encountered, with more than 100 micro-exhibitions embedded among open storage racks. The sheer scale of Storehouse means it is now possible to see other huge artefacts, including The Kaufmann Office (the only complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside of the US) and the spectacular 15th-century gilded wooden ceiling from the now-lost Torrijos Palace in Toledo, Spain. We begin our visit here at the David Bowie Centre, where costumes, photographs and archival material trace Bowie’s influence on fashion, identity and performance. We then continue into the vast Collections Hall, exploring objects visible in situ and gaining insight into how garments and textiles are catalogued, stored and interpreted beyond the gallery setting. After a break for lunch, we travel to Tate Britain to view The 90s – an exhibition examining how subculture, experimentation and creative rebellion shaped the final decade of the 20th century. Curated by Edward Enninful, it brings together art, photography, fashion and popular culture. The exhibition explores the dialogue between designers, artists and musicians during a period when London reasserted itself as a centre of global style. Overnight London (B)

Day 11 | Wednesday 14 October
The Future of Fashion – Innovation and Identity in London
London has long been a laboratory for fashion innovation, blending rebellion with refinement to produce bold new visions of style. Today our guided walking tour takes us through some of the capital’s most forward-thinking design neighbourhoods. Beginning in Mayfair, our tour explores the latest in London design, shaped by the city’s iconic fashion schools, tailoring traditions, and its vibrant street and club culture. The afternoon is then free to enjoy at your leisure, with time for shopping, individual visits, or simply soaking up the city’s creative energy. This evening we gather for a farewell dinner as we reflect on the themes that have run through the tour – identity, craft, innovation and heritage – and how London continues to stitch these elements together in new and provocative ways. Overnight London (B, D)

Day 12 | Thursday 15 October
Departure
Our tour concludes after breakfast. Those departing today will be transferred to the airport, while others may choose to continue their stay independently. (B)