School children replaced the Queen at Richard Quinn's latest London Fashion Week show

The designer who enticed the Queen to attend her first London Fashion Week show in February broke another set of boundaries today, inviting scores of pupils from the schools he attended to watch his catwalk showcase.

Joining the children, who study art at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar school and St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive, were a host of students from Central Saint Martin’s, where Quinn completed his degree.

Sitting front row in their school colours, budding artists watched as Quinn unveiled a homage to true romanticism with giant puff ball gowns, upholstery prints and an retrospective take on silhouette. They were inspiring scenes.

For the designer - who was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Award for Design last season and, has in the months since, caught the eye Amal Clooney - this was no media stunt but an important exercise devised to create maximum awareness to the plight of arts education in the UK. Accordingly, Quinn’s show notes bypassed the usual flowery fashion lexicon in favour of a direct message.

“At a time when real damage is occurring to arts education I want to point to how substantially its creative power lights the path to our future. There has been a 30 per cent drop in arts GCSE entries between 2010 and 2018”.

Backstage Quinn said he hoped that inviting the artists of tomorrow to his showcase might help them “join the dots” towards a career in fashion. “Art education is the foundation to our £32 billion industry - it seems crazy that we don’t encourage it more. If I can make one pupil believe in themselves it would be amazing.”

In what will serve as a rallying cry for Bacc For The Future - the pan-arts organisation making the case to keep arts in schools, Quinn looked to inspire at grass roots level.

There was certainly much to marvel at with Quinn shunning the sterile environment that has become typical for fashion shows in favour of cascading floral installations and music from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The designer has a vested interest in community. He runs his studio out of a railway arch in Peckham, just a few doors down from his father’s scaffolding yard and uses cash from a bursary to run a print studio which allows young designers the opportunity to print their work at an affordable cost.