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Residents Pamela Mansi and Joyce Linton outside The Dairy |
Mood sours over Dairy fashion bash
Sienna Miller’s glitzy Fashion Week launch brings chaos to King’s Cross, residents claim
IT has already been described as one of the fashion events of the year, with gushing critics falling over each other to praise the launch of celebrity actress Sienna Miller’s hip new designer label in a derelict dairy in King’s Cross.
But the glitzy London Fashion Week events held on Sunday and Monday night were not, it seems, universally in vogue.
Dozens of residents in Wakefield Street, King’s Cross, have complained of none-too-model behaviour, with noisy “rock chicks” spilling out of The Dairy building into the street and a fleet of four-wheel drives blocking parking bays and pavements during the rush hour and late into the night.
Labour councillor Jonathan Simpson said he was investigating how the high profile event was allowed to go ahead without any warning being given to neighbours.
Pamela Mansi, who lives in Wakefield Street, said: “They came buzzing out of The Dairy like flies. Then you had the hooters going off because cars were blocking the road – Wakefield Street was chock-a-block full of huge people carriers on the pavement and chauffeurs hanging about on the pavement. It was chaos.
“They all had London Fashion Week signs in the windows. It’s created havoc – it shouldn’t have happened.”
Ms Miller, who has been described as the best-dressed woman in the world and once dated the actor Jude Law, chose The Dairy to launch her and her sister Savannah Miller’s new range of of “boho-style” sparkly dresses and colourful tops.
The label, Twenty8Twelve, is named after Sienna’s birth date, December 28. According to style mags, the sisters walked out on stage to applause in low-key black belted dresses and shoe boots.
A spokeswoman for the label Twenty8Twelve said: “I don’t think it caused too much trouble. There were a lot of people leaving in the evening – until around 10pm. But we’ve had one show here before and no one has complained before.”
Now a trendy catwalk, The Dairy building has a more workmanlike history. Founded in 1898 by Sir George Barham, the Express Dairy Company delivered milk and a full range of other dairy products from its Wakefield Street headquarters.
The depot has been abandoned for seven years but a site-specific theatre event called The Diary of a Derelict Dairy was staged there as part of the London Festival of Architecture last July and it is often opened up for exhibitions.
Residents also claim the odd “rave in the milk shed” has taken place over the past few years.
Property developers WX Investments Ltd has applied to demolish the depot and build 14 luxury flats – but council chiefs have thrown out the plans three times.
Cllr Simpson said: “London Fashion Week is a great event – but I think the point is there is no planning permission for this kind of event. They’ve turned it into a function room without planning application.
“It seems the developer or owner is trying to make a fast buck. There was a huge amount of disruption this week and at other functions and I hope Camden Council takes strong action against them.”
A council spokeswoman said if the event was giving free alcohol it would be classed as a private party and would not need a licence. |
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