Fashion Roundtable have highlighted the key issues, impacts and unforeseen consequences of Brexit in our ​open letter​ to UK government. Read our concise roundup of the key areas threatening the UK fashion industry.

A template letter to your MP highlighting Fashion Roundtable’s plea to Government, which urges action that will protect the future of the UK fashion industry.

Helen Brocklebank, CEO, Walpole: “Prior to the pandemic, the British luxury sector was in rude health with a value of £48bn to the UK economy and strong annual growth of nearly 10%. Very much a British success story, the sector supported more than 160,000 jobs throughout the UK. However, international visitors to the UK are a crucial revenue driver, and the last 11 months has put severe pressure on their businesses. On top of the pandemic, the eleventh hour Brexit deal has compounded the sector's problems, making chances of swift recovery for British luxury recede compared to their European counterparts. With 42% of all British luxury export sales coming from the EU, the costs and administrative burdens of trading in continental Europe mean many of our members, not least the SME's, have concluded they simply can’t afford to continue selling to those countries.

Please see the latest Government updates, with some reminders of links to available guidance on Northern Ireland below.

News to Reuse, a youth-led anti-fast-fashion campaign that sits within the social enterprise “I Have a Voice”, is advocating for Government policy to be introduced that would encourage fashion companies to create product labels that inform customers about their clothes’ environmental footprint and the human rights conditions of workers in their supply chains.

On Wednesday 20th January, Fashion Roundtable CEO Tamara Cincik hosted a meeting via Zoom to bring together key voices from the sector. The aim of the meeting was to work on a coherent strategy that will advocate for the sector post-Brexit, whilst navigating the pandemic and beyond. We heard from a selection of representatives from the fashion and textiles industry.

The online fashion retailer Boohoo has purchased the Debenhams brand and website for £55m. However, the agreed deal will still put up to 12,000 jobs at risk— with Boohoo stipulating that they only wanted the labels, not the Debenhams high street units. This poses yet another threat to the survival of traditional bricks-and-mortar retail in the UK. At Fashion Roundtable we are incredibly concerned to hear of the continued loss of fashion retail jobs—an unemployment situation that will disproportionately affect women due to the higher number female retail workers.

We are currently collating names of signatories for our open letter to the Government regarding Brexit and the UK fashion industry. Please sign by emailing Sarah at Fashion Roundtable with confirmation of your name and job title.

The latest information and updates for your businesses or members and supply chains including hauliers. The resources cover: GB-NI trade, International Road Haulage and Rest of World trade: Sanctions.

Sojo is on a mission to help make our relationship with fashion more sustainable by ensuring that getting our clothes altered or repaired is a hassle-free process. Deliveroo but make it fashion.

Last season, we saw Fashion Week embrace a new normal— cutting down on jet setting emissions, nearly eliminating the front row, or using deadstock material. Many brands even pulled out of Fashion Week altogether. The circus that Fashion Week became is now a digital offering that is helping to nudge fashion toward a more sustainable and equitable future.

Join Fashion Roundtable as we unite the sector during these troubling and challenging times.

Contact information for the support provided by HMRC.

Fashion Roundtable's Tamara Cincik in conversation with the iconic Katharine Hamnett CBE - the First Lady of fashion activism and a loyal supporter of Fashion Roundtable. In this episode, Hamnett and Cincik talk about everything from Brexit to sustainability.

According to the Centre for Retail Research an estimated 180,000 retail jobs were lost in the UK in 2020. As retailers continue to face rent-charges and a cash-flow crisis, 200,000 more jobs are also in jeopardy as we enter 2021. This has been accelerated by the Arcadia Group’s administration which put thousands of jobs at risk on-the-spot, highlighting the death of the traditional high-street as we know it. It’s now fundamental for the surviving stores to provide what consumers want and need, as we learn to live in this new era.

A ‘New You’ has long been synonymous with a slimmer version of yourself — one that befits fashion’s historically rigid body standards. In the last few years the fashion industry has tasked itself to become more inclusive and diverse. Changes have therefore been made when it comes to the promotion of diet culture in fashion. But is the pivot to ‘wellness’ and ‘fitness’ just the same old agenda wrapped up in a different package?

Since March 2020, the Emergency Designer Network (EDN) have been working with a team of volunteer London-based designers to produce PPE and key garments for hospitals. Fashion Roundtable alongside other groups is supporting EDN. Here’s how you can help…