Thursday 23 February 2017

JD Williams says “Grow Up London Fashion Week”

On Friday 17th February, the JD Williams team organised a protest, titled #GrowUpLFW, to campaign against age discrimination on the catwalk at London Fashion Week.



Standing outside Fashion Week’s main venue on The Strand, five models over the age of 45, including former models Jilly Johnson (63) and Janie Felstead (65), called for a wider use of older models on the runway.

With the current average age of models at LFW being 17, our five models challenged this and asked why models workload decreases with age, particularly on the runways of the capital’s renowned fashion event.

The models stood with placards featuring slogans including ‘Grow Up LFW’ and ‘Fashion Has No Age Limit’ and encouraged the press and public to join in.


Jilly Johnson was quoted: “Women don’t suddenly stop wearing or buying clothes after their twenties, so why isn’t this reflected in the models used in fashion shows?  We’ve started to be more inclusive when it comes to ethnicities and disabilities on the runway – which is fantastic – but why not all ages?”



The atmosphere before, during and after the protest was fantastic, especially as the models really believed in what they were campaigning for. We hope that this had an impact on the fashion industry and we will see a wider use of older models on the SS18 catwalks.

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