{"id":1099,"date":"2017-09-18T18:20:54","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T17:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colindgordon.net\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2017-11-02T21:17:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T20:17:53","slug":"revolution-in-the-fashion-world-the-catwalks-face-up-to-the-social-media-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/09\/revolution-in-the-fashion-world-the-catwalks-face-up-to-the-social-media-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolution In the Fashion World: The Catwalks Face Up To the Social Media Challenge:"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1392\"<\/a>Has London Fashion Week (and the ones in New York, Milan and Paris) become an anachronism? The BBC clearly thinks it’s still important: It devoted at least half of its prestigious \u201cToday\u201d morning radio programme on Friday 15th<\/sup> September (the first day of the latest LFW, which finished on Tuesday 19th<\/sup> September) to the event, with one of it’s presenters, Mishal Husain, broadcasting from the venue at The Store Studios in the Strand. As she pointed out, British Fashion Council (BFC) statistics show that the fashion industry is worth around \u00a330 billion pounds to the country’s economy and that it supports 880,000 jobs in the UK.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1434\"<\/a>LFW is thus \u201c an international event that showcases British fashion and the global brands that choose to exhibit in London because of its reputation for creativity\u201d. However, the industry is all about \u201cbig business\u201d and so is evolving rapidly. Nearly 7 out of 10 women (as the BBC’s business reporter, Lucy Burton noted) have bought clothes online. Sian Westerman, the BFC’s President of Business & Investment, acknowledged to Husain that e-commerce has caused \u201ca great fashion revolution\u201d, that it has dramatically changed customers’ expectations in terms of speed, delivery and accessibility to fashion. The \u201cfast fashion brands\u201d now turn to social media platforms as much as to the fashion weeks for an indication of the latest trends.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1391\"<\/a>Richard Christofoli, Debenham’s Marketing Director, likewise accepts that it is \u201ca fluid, dynamic and challenging situation\u201d for the established high-street retailers: \u00a0Customers can now shop online and then collect at the store, or browse in the store then use their smartphone to decide what to buy and from whom. Christopher Bailey, formerly Burberry’s chief executive but now it’s chief creative officer, believes that LFW is all about \u201ctrying new things, experimenting and innovating, making sure we are talking to customers, media and buyers, pushing ourselves\u201d. He agrees, however, that the rise of social media has created a completely different way of looking at every industry, not just fashion and that it has had a disruptive impact on \u201cthe fairly rigid timetable of fashion weeks around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

This view is shared by Jo Ellison, Fashion Editor for the Financial Times, who pointed out to Husain that \u201cthe fashion industry has always been a very visual medium for most people, which makes Instagram the perfect platform for people to understand it\u201d. Brands can now deliver their messages to a global audience to whom they didn’t previously have access. People are now able to find out things for themselves \u2013 they don’t really need the \u201cordination\u201d of newspaper or magazine fashion editors anymore. Furthermore, brands are now offering \u201ctrans-seasonal\u201d clothes: customers are merely \u201cadding to their wardrobe each time, there’s not an abrupt change each season, there’s much more continuity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, as Christopher Bailey emphasizes, London continues to be \u201ca creative hub for the creative industries\u201d. That’s because we have \u201cthe best creative art schools in the world, which attract people who want to be educated here and then set up their businesses here\u201d. Bailey argues that this provides enormous potential for post-Brexit Britain, that \u201cBritishness\u201d resonates globally due to the combination of the country’s \u201cbeautiful, historic, almost Victorian values\u201d with its island culture, eccentricity and self-expression and that \u201cstreet style\u201d, which began here, is still \u201cthe strongest than anywhere else around the world\u201d . He desperately hopes, though, that the current \u201canti-immigration climate\u201d doesn’t undermine the openness with the rest of the world or inhibit \u201cthe collaboration with people of different cultures which is fundamental to any creative business\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bailey’s assertion that London is ideally placed to enhance its leading role in the global fashion industry is fully supported by the BFCs statistics: More than 5000 guests, including \u201cthe international press, buyers, broadcasters, influencers and industry insiders from 70 countries\u201d attended the latest LFW. There were 85 catwalk shows and presentations and 33 other events. Burberry presented its new collection, as did Versace’s VERSUS, Fashion East and House of Holland. New participants were Tommy Hilfiger (USA), Nicopanda (USA), Emporio Armani (Italy) and Ralph & Russo (UK). Also featuring prominently were \u201cinternationally celebrated British designers\u201d such as Emilia Wickstead, Fyodor Golan, Margaret Howell, Pringle of Scotland and Temperley London. The BFC described the diversity of the LFW schedule as \u201c a testament to the inclusive and innovative British fashion industry on display in London\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1376\"<\/a>\"IMG_1399\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1443\"<\/a>\"IMG_1377\"<\/a>\"IMG_1362\"<\/a>\"IMG_1370\"<\/a>\"IMG_1456\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has London Fashion Week (and the ones in New York, Milan and Paris) become an anachronism? The BBC clearly thinks it’s still important: It devoted at least half of its prestigious \u201cToday\u201d morning radio programme on Friday 15th September (the first day of the latest LFW, which finished on Tuesday 19th September) to the event, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}