The inaugural London Collections: Men will see dozens of menswear shows and a cultural program run from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 June.

Christopher Bailey, Tom Ford and Mr Porter’s Jeremy Langmead will sit on the London Collections: Men steering committee. Designers who have already confirmed their participation include Aquascutum, Bunney, Christopher Raeburn, E.Tautz, Fashion East, James Long, J.W. Anderson, Lou Dalton, Margaret Howell, Oliver Spencer, Rake, Richard James, SIBLING and Topman.

The dedicated dates reflect a London menswear field that has ‘grown in stature and content despite sitting outside of the traditional menswear calendar,’ the BFC said.

Currently, menswear shows are squeezed into one day at the end of London Fashion Week’s womenswear shows. The crowded nature of the LFW schedule, and the overlap with the first women’s shows in Milan, often mean that men’s designers don’t receive due attention.

‘No longer shoe horned into one condensed hectic day, the newly established London Collections: Men, over three glorious days now has the space to breathe flourish and generate the buzz that will put its talented rising men’s fashion stars firmly on the international fashion map,’ Topman Design Director Gordon Richardson said.

The new event also brings London’s menswear dates in line with the men’s fashion buying schedule—it directly precedes Milan and Paris’s menswear presentation dates.

We’re sure the decision to establish separate men’s show days has nothing to do with the recent tussle over dates for the main show season. But it’s still heartening to see the BFC unilaterally schedule its men’s shows before Milan and Paris’s established menswear dates after bending over backwards to accommodate those cities’ preferences for the womenswear shows.

That, and the designers deserve it.

‘The menswear industry has been growing from strength to strength in past years and this is [a] true testament to this,’ Harold Tillman said. ‘London Collections: Men will not only be a showcase for brands and designers but will form a cross-cultural program creating a festival for men’s wear, in what will be a truly exciting year for the UK.’