Veteran British designer Katharine Hamnett (picture on right) took a sobering anti-war stand among the frills and frippery of London Fashion Week on Tuesday, sending her models (Jodie Kidd is on Hamnett’s left in picture) down the catwalk in “Stop War, Blair Out” T-shirts.

Designers showing in London have so far largely steered clear of statements about US and British preparations for a possible war against Iraq.

But Hamnett was determined to speak out. “I’m saying to people: ‘Use the little shreds of democracy that you’ve got left to save yourselves before it’s too late’,” she said.

The shows began on Saturday as a massive anti-war rally in central London drew almost one million people, but Britain’s largest ever street protest merely drew grumbles about traffic congestion from the fashionistas. (Reuters)