London Fashion Week: Granny comes into fashion in 2013

Simone Rocha’s take on granny fashion during London Fashion Week (Simon Rochas)

Forget Cara Delevingne at London Fashion Week.

This year the rag-trade spotlight falls on the grandmother, according to the industry bible Vogue.

This month the magazine says the grandmother “has never been so inspirational” and 2013 is the “year of the matriarch”. Highlighted are the autumn/winter catwalks showcasing “a new silhouette that grandmama would approve of; twinsets and demure, calf-skimming skirts at Nina Ricci, Rochas and Prada”. And at LFW yesterday Sister By Sibling showed a “retro glamour” collection of sexy knitted suits, twinsets and skirts.

But the “year of the matriarch” isn’t all about twinsets and knitwear; on Tuesday, Channel 4’s Cutting Edge documentary Fabulous Fashionistas follows six women with the average age of 80, who are all looking fabulous and having fun without Botox or plastic surgery.

And later this year the fashion photographer Tim Walker’s book The Granny Alphabet will also celebrate the older woman. He told Vogue: “I’ve found the way an elderly women wears her clothes endlessly fascinating.”