In the depths of the basement of Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square a fabric revolution is on the rise. This year sees the 8th Future Fabrics Expo move into their new 22,000 sq ft of space, having outgrown their original show space in the Eco complex Iris Studios in South West London. Future Fabrics Expo is curated by The Sustainable Angle, a Swiss not-for-profit organisation founded and run by Nina Marenzi. Starting in her native Switzerland in 2011, she has now made London her home because of the size and creative nature of the UK fashion market. The Sustainable Angle provides a conduit that brings manufacturers, consumers and designers together to seek best outcomes and practice through innovation and sustainability.
The Fashion Industry is awesome! It contributes over £1.4billion in GVA to East London alone. Fashion related jobs in Haringey north London, (where we are based) have increased by 136% between 2010 and 2015 and in East London and Upper Lea Valley there has been an increase of 10,900 jobs during that period too. Garment manufacturing is back and it’s here to stay!
However it’s been a long hard climb since we opened our factory almost ten years ago now.
As an ex Senior Buyer I can remember the heady days when M&S used to manufacture 94% of their garments in the UK. I used to visit the large scale factories based in Barnsley and Nottingham and I can distinctly recall the pride of British sewers expertly producing quality garments for a host of high street retailers. I didn't realise how amazing those factories were at that time; shame on me!
Will those days come back? Not necessarily to the same scale and size of the factories that I visited in the 1990s but the re-shoring of production is definitely occurring now and is set to grow as more and more retailers understand the importance of Speed to Market and reducing quantities of buys so the exit margin is key and not the intake margin.
Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) For Textiles and Fashion Dr Lisa Cameron MP said:
“The work of the EAC, has highlighted the need for fuller transparency in the supply chains of the fashion industry, both within the UK and our international trading partners. The APPG for Textiles and Fashion, (which includes as Vice Chair John McNally MP who sits on the EAC) support the findings of the committee and will do all we can to ensure our work within Parliament and with our fashion industry associates, highlights the recommendations and findings of this interim report.
Our Sustainable Fashion APPG meeting in December brought numerous leaders from sustainable, designer and fast-fashion components of the sector into Parliament to outline, share and discuss their concerns as well as offering key solutions. By bringing the fashion industry into Parliament, along with the work of the EAC, I hope that awareness amongst politicians, will lead to policy amendments and implementations which support long-term sustainable business practices.”
This will be a time of scarcity, economic contraction and yet businesses in the UK will need to find an angle, however narrow, to make themselves visible, distinguishable and recognizable. Building on their past and heritage will not be enough when competing in a global marketplace where talents migrate on a daily basis and governments compete to lavish innovators with financial support. Will the UK remain open to welcome new talents, will the government have the financial resources to find or retain innovators? Perhaps unlikely, but definitely uncertain.
Encourage Courageous Conversations by focusing on human connection and the concept of identification, educate ourselves on mental health and its diverse manifestations, to uncovering meaningful pathways to recovery for ourselves and others.
We know that the inclusion of diverse perspectives leads to a more creative, empathic and successful workforce. One where we can explore our unique gifts, so it’s about time that mental health was given space to be discussed in the fashion industry.
The role of the CEO in a brand is very important in making conscious transformations in the company. The barriers between CEO and shop floor create dominant social structures in house, which in turn hamper conscious structures of societies. Communication barriers and no personal involvement of the top team with shop floor pushes them to engage in practices that does not support transformative power of the organization in a positive way. All shop floors can hear is the economic growth driven voice of the CEO and they work towards luring customers to spend and consume unconsciously. Although one can argue that brands priorities are in keeping up with trends and current lifestyles of consumers, isn’t there a way they can use it towards transforming lifestyles? While sales driven autonomous corporations and economic growth driven governments think that fostering conspicuous consumers to buy more and more seems like a victory to them, it is not.
The British Retail Consortium recently published figures show a further 0.7% drop, year on year, of tough retail trading.
This continued pressure on our retailers has led to a dramatic change in landscape on our local High Streets. Having lived in the same area of North London all my life, I have witnessed the slow demise of the independent retailer, squeezed out by pernicious rents, online shopping and unreasonable competition from retail chains.
The European Commission is waiting for a result, there are no more negotiating rounds planned, in fact the negotiating team has gone back to their usual, non-Brexit related tasks. While there have been reports that the EU would be willing to extend the Article 50 deadline beyond March 29, it is only possible if there is a request for such a step and additionally, a well rounded reason for the extension. The EU is waiting for the UK to identify a future path they want to follow. In the absence of such a plan or strategy, the Commission will not be extending the deadline.
In the year that sustainable fashion is tipped to ‘go mainstream’, Eleanor O’Leary, The Better Brand Consultant gives us her top three tips on keeping the momentum, and making this complex topic accessible. “In ten years time, we're going to look at fast fashion in the same way we look at fast food"; this was the quote that I read in a Business Of Fashion article published in 2015 that cemented my belief that the future of fashion had to be sustainable." At the time I knew nothing of circular economies or closed loop manufacturing, but the simplicity of this statement told me everything I needed to know. I realised two things: 1) that a more sustainable fashion future was possible if we could reframe the current conversation and 2) to be successful, existing sustainable fashion brands were going to need to start ‘speaking the fashion language’ which included creating signature tone of voice, chicer more editorial-led styling, and an acceptance that often the ‘average consumer’ is probably put off by messages that champion science over style.
Fashion has a front row; politics has a front bench.
Both operate on a clearly hierarchical system: one where there are constant threats of being dethroned from the back benches/row, as politics, fashion change.
As a stylist, I have long known that the power of clothes: to enhance sales for a brand, to make a designer relevant in a jaded (and saturated) market, and as a communication tool. Strangers assess all of us before we speak: in a matter of seconds what we wear communicates who we are. Not only is fashion a clearly valuable asset to the global market place, if it was a nation state, it would rank 7th in the world economies, understanding it as a means to decode who we are to target audiences is I believe vital to any seeking either a position in public life, or being considered for promotion. Knowing what you are saying with how you present yourself isn't simply an irrelevance, it is in fact vital.
The Department for Works and Pensions has announced that it will be recruiting a fashion industry disability champion to address the challenges disabled people encounter as consumers. Coinciding with International Day of Persons with Disabilities last Monday, the Government revealed that there will be six new disability champions across fashion, technology, countryside and heritage, website accessibility, food and drink and product design. These new recruits are set join the existing 14 champions who are currently driving improvements to the accessibility of services in a range of sectors, including banking, music, tourism, leisure and media.
A baseline survey on EU consumer attitudes to sustainability and supply chain transparency in the fashion industry
Fashion Revolution commissioned a survey of 5,000 people aged 16-75 in the five largest European markets, including Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, to find out how supply chain transparency and sustainability impacts EU consumers’ purchasing decisions when shopping for clothing, accessories and shoes.
So what should the British fashion business be doing to ensure that the industry retains both its economic clout and "soft power" in the wake of Brexit? Firstly, if you haven't started preparing for Brexit, this issue needs to move to the top of your agenda right now.
On Friday I attended the breakfast launch to Disrupting Patterns at Chelsea College of Art, to celebrate a two year project by designer Filippa K in collaboration with Mistra Future Fashion as well as Professor Rebecca Earley & Dr. Kate Goldsworthy from the Centre for Circular Design at UAL. "Circular Design Speeds" is a collection using the latest methods in innovation for production, the highlight of which is a dress which is 100% bio-based and biodegradable, after wearing it several times, you can compost it and it will fully decompose.The "Throw Away Dress" is created with non-woven Tencel material that avoids the costly processes of spinning and weaving, before being naturally dyed using food by Heart and Earth Production. Another highlight was "The Eternal Trench Coat" that is 100% recycled using polyester from plastic bottles. The dyeing process used also reduces water usage by 75 % and chemical usage by 90%. The coat is available at Filippa K stores and online.
We are in the final stretches of the Brexit negotiations. On 14th of November, the UK and the European Commission jointly published the draft Withdrawal Agreement (WA), the infamous 585 page document spelling out the terms of disengagement. The European Council, composed of the premiers of the 27 remaining EU member states, endorsed the agreement on Sunday.
Some of the withdrawal terms have been well known for almost a year, including the lump sum payment the UK will be making to honor its obligations towards the EU budget and other specific projects as well as citizen rights, which both parties will maintain according to existing EU regulations. On other issues such as customs, trade or the Northern Ireland (NI) border discussions were going back and forth as there were no adequate solutions. As it stands now NI will have a closer regulatory alignment with the EU and products coming from and going to NI will use the EU`s customs code, be subject to other single market rules including product certification and phytosanitary measures.
Within an article for Man Repeller last week, fashion journalist Pandora Sykes spoke about bringing a newfound eco-consciousness into her sartorial choices. Whilst admitting she is still not immune to the “new in” sections, her latest rule is ‘if I see something new that I like, I have to see if I can find the vintage version of it first.’ Now surely this is something all consumers could introduce into their mind-set? This weekend Fashion Roundtable hosted an event at The Festival of Sustainable Fashion to discuss fashion waste and the viable options to counteract its polluting impact. While Rafaella de Freitas covered the local, national and international governmental policies to combat waste, Jodi Muter-Hamilton offered tech solutions which could aid transparency and thereby reducing the cost and excess of overconsumption. Also speaking during the event, JJ Hudson aka Noki said: ‘the fast fashion brand is creating weapons of mass production, Brandalism is a solution. My practice as a solo customiser selling a custom built collection could be classed as a micro footprint in sustainability to create for a consumer.’
We might leave with a trade deal in place, we might not. There might be a transition period, there might not. But one thing is certain, now is the time to start preparing yourself for B-Day and what better way to do this than by attending a talk about how your intellectual property rights might be affected by the biggest political event of a generation?
Intellectual Property (IP) protects a brand, but the panel quickly understood that it is not fully grasped by those who would benefit the most from it - sole traders, micro and SMEs. CEO and Founder of Fashion Roundtable, Tamara Cincik, said: “we have not yet grasped that IP is a brands reputation”. In fashion as well as in any other creative industry, IP is central to the success of the company or brand, which by its very nature is dependent on its unique image. The originality of a design is what makes it stand out as exceptional and desirable from other collections, and ultimately, what defines the brand. As part of the EU, brands showcasing their collections in the UK for the first time are protected under the unregistered design right. However, in the midst of Brexit, designers wanting to launch their collections in the UK will have to find other ways to protect their creations.
