Category: Editorial

ES Magazine: How will Brexit impact the UK fashion industry?

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The British fashion industry relies on international trade, thrives on a global pool of talent — and has made no secret of its desire to remain in the EU. So how is it preparing as we enter the final countdown to Brexit? Lucy Tobin investigates

12 December 2018

Britain’s fashion industry didn’t vote for Brexit: 90 per cent of designers told the British Fashion Council they were voting remain.

But with less than seven months to go before the UK formally cuts its ties with the European Union, this £28 billion sector has to get three very different looks ready to future-proof business. 

Richard Lim, chief executive of analyst Retail Economics, outlines the potential scenarios: ‘Hard Brexit — where existing trade deals disappear, and designers, retailers and manufacturers would have to pay to trade with the EU — would mean clothing and footwear tariffs of about 11 per cent, or just over £1 billion more each year.’ A second option is a free trade agreement, ‘but we don’t know what kind of strings will be attached — it’s hard for businesses to plan’. Third, the UK could remain part of the customs union, but that seems unlikely given that Theresa May has already rejected this path. 

‘Whatever happens, the price of a pair of jeans will, in all likeliness, go up after Brexit,’ says Lim. ‘It’s tariffs, and an exodus of [European] shop staff, designers, warehouse staff, delivery drivers… As we “take control of our borders”, the pool of available staff is likely to shrink, meaning an inflationary impact on wages. It’s likely to be massively disruptive.’

The UK imports almost £10 billion worth of clothes and shoes from Europe each year; more than 10,000 European staff work in the British fashion industry. It has become a microcosm of UK Plc’s struggle to deal with the referendum result.

Katharine Hamnett has sold thousands of her ‘CANCEL BREXIT’ T-shirts and has released a new version, ‘FASHION HATES BREXIT’. She is campaigning for a second referendum, but has a contingency plan, too. She has set up her own Italian company, near Venice, ‘to handle production and logistics, so we don’t get snarled up in complicated Brexit red tape and import and export problems for our manufacturing and shipments’.

Read more here https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/how-will-brexit-impact-the-uk-fashion-industry-a3931611.html

Huffington Post – London Fashion Week: Here’s What You Need To Know

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From Victoria Beckham coming home to the must-have Brexit T-shirt.

14 September 2018

When your Instagram explore page starts filling up with beautiful people getting out of black cabs with serious attitude, it’s probably London Fashion Week.

Yet this bi-annual event is still a mystery to the majority of us. What happens at fashion week, why is it here (again) and, crucially, who’s going to be there?

Fashion weeks are a chance for designers to showcase their collections before they hit the stores next season. Held all over the world, they’re primarily industry events, so the main people who attend are fashion editors, retail buyers, designers, of course – and the models and celebs who wear their clothes.

But with Brexit impacting the homegrown fashion industry, a range of emerging designers taking centre stage and some big-name international creatives returning to their roots in London, this season is worth watching. Here’s what you need to know.

Read more here https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/london-fashion-week-what-you-need-to-know_uk_5b9b998ee4b04d32ebf7779b?guccounter=1

WWD: London Designers Say It With T-shirts

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Riccardo Tisci, Victoria Beckham and Katharine Hamnett are all saying it with a unisex cotton T-shirt.

13 September 2018

Katharine Hamnett, the doyenne of T-shirt messaging, is also in the mix this season with a T-shirt that costs 25 pounds and says Fashion Hates Brexit. Hamnett’s been at the T-shirt game for years, famously flashing a black-and-white “58 Percent Don’t Want Pershing” slogan T-shirt when meeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at Downing Street in 1984.

The statement referred to a poll that showed most Britons objected to having Pershing missiles based in the country, and Hamnett recalled earlier this year how Thatcher reacted with a loud shriek when she saw it. It’s doubtful whether Prime Minister Theresa May will have the same reaction when she sees this one, as she’s got anti-Brexiteers in her face every day.

“I have always hated Brexit from the word go,” said Hamnett, when asked why she created the shirt this season. “We can’t possibly get a better deal with Europe than we have now, and Europe’s human rights and environmental laws are better than the U.K.’s. Fashion is an interconnected business with people and components coming from all over the planet.”

Read more here https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/london-designers-t-shirts-burberry-victoria-beckham-1202810313/\l

i-D Magazine: How to Save the World with Katharine Hamnett

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10 September 2018


Iconic fashion designer Katharine Hamnett has spent her career fighting to make the world a better place. From making fashion sustainable to cancelling Brexit, here’s her manifesto for change in 2018…

Fashion gave me a voice in the 80s, or rather I grabbed it, and I’ve used and abused it ever since. I started my career making slogan tees in an attempt to highlight key issues affecting the world. I wanted to make people stop and think and hopefully do the right thing. For this issue of i-D, I’ve highlighted four make or break areas we need to address now and asked key people operating within those areas for their advice on how we achieve a sustainable future…

Read the full feature here https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/ev8qzz/how-to-save-the-world-with-katharine-hamnett