{"id":362,"date":"2012-02-21T15:53:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T14:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colindgordon.net\/?p=362"},"modified":"2012-08-25T14:45:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-25T13:45:29","slug":"london-fashion-week-the-return-of-made-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/02\/london-fashion-week-the-return-of-made-in-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"London Fashion Week: The Return of “Made in Britain”:"},"content":{"rendered":"

The famous Italian designer Elsa Shiaparelli\u00a0 (the great rival to France\u2019s Coco Chanel) once noted that \u201cIn difficult times, fashion is always outrageous\u201d. \u00a0The era in which she is reputed to have made this comment \u2013 the 1930\u2019s \u2013 was going through a period of economic turbulence reminiscent of the crisis now facing most Western nations. Both the problems and the proposed solutions sound familiar: High rates of unemployment, burgeoning trade deficits, huge national debts, panic in the financial markets \u2013 which in turn have resulted, across much of\u00a0 Europe, in sweeping public expenditure cuts and demands for (in cases such as Greece) the implementation of drastic austerity measures. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that UK media coverage of London Fashion Week\u00a0 (LFW: 17th<\/sup>-22nd<\/sup> February) has tended to focus (as in every year since the banking collapse of 2008)\u00a0 on the income generated for Britain by this bi-annual event. The \u201cGuardian\u201d estimates that \u201cThe fashion industry accounts for 1.7% of UK GDP (Gross Domestic Product) \u2013 twice as much as publishing, manufacturing or the chemical industry \u2013 and supports 816 jobs\u201d. The \u201cLondon Evening Standard (ES)\u201d journalist, Rosamund Urwin, puts the country\u2019s annual earnings from this source at \u00a321 billion and calculates that LFW itself \u201cbrings in some \u00a320 million\u201d. In an editorial on 17th<\/sup> February captioned \u201cNot Just A Pretty Face\u201d, her newspaper emphasised its view that LFW is not just about catwalks, flamboyant designers and attractive clothes but is also part of a \u201clucrative industry that Government Ministers must take seriously\u201d. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The British Fashion Council (BFC) has already reported that attendance from international buyers since Friday has been \u201c30% up\u201d on LFW in October 2011 (which showcased the collections for the Spring\/Summer 2012 season), leading the Guardian to anticipate that the 59 catwalks and approximate total audience of 5,000 will produce a distinct improvement on the \u00a3100 million worth of orders placed following the last occasion. Although both Jeremy Hunt (Secretary of State for Media, Culture & Sport) and Ed Vaizey (Minister for Culture & the Creative Industries) both turned up for the LFW launch, it was Sir Philip Green, the owner of BHS and Topshop \u00a0who got most of the press headlines. According to the ES, Sir Philip believes that London can become \u201cthe style capital of the world\u201d. He would like to see \u201cmore clothing made in the UK\u201d (The Daily Telegraph) and (as quoted in \u201cThe Independent\u201d),\u00a0 he \u00a0\u201chighlighted the potential for the UK of not just designing fashion-wear but producing it too\u201d. Indeed, according to the Daily Telegraph, that is already beginning to happen \u2013 once such example being Maria Grachvogel, the British fashion designer, who has moved production back\u00a0to this country because , \u201cdue to increased demand for her collections, the\u00a0 factory she uses in Poland can no longer cope\u201d. This encouraging development has led Marcus Leroux, Retail Correspondent for The Times, to declare that \u201c \u2018Made In Britain\u2019 is back in fashion\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although The \u201cObserver Magazine\u2019s edition of 19th<\/sup> February enthused about LFW \u201cturning its back on black\u201d and the \u201cblinding colours\u201d, bold prints ,textures and silhouettes on display \u2013 some shows ( for instance, Bora Aksu and Spijkers en Spijkers) did nonetheless feature a few somewhat subdued (though elegant) shades of grey ,brown \u2013 and black. Despite the continuing controversies about \u201csize zero\u201d models (many of whom were depicted by Guardian columnist Tanya Gold on 14th<\/sup> February as \u201c thin, starved, exploited ,exposed children who sell clothes\u201d some of those seen on the LFW catwalks definitely looked in need of a good meal and at risk (in the words of Dave Barry, the American humourist and writer) of slipping down between the grates in the street\u201d. A photojournalist at LFW remarked that he\u2019d seen some of the models smoking both before and after shows \u2013 presumably to stifle any temptation to eat and so avoid marginally increasing their weight. \u00a0One well-received innovation at the Jena Theo Show \u00a0(Embankment Gallery Show Space, 17th<\/sup> February) was that the models didn\u2019t just (as is usually the case) walk the length of the catwalk, pose for the mass of official photographers, then turn around and disappear. They paused at intervals so the audience (who had queued for at least half an hour to get in) could also take \u201cnon-blurred\u201d photos .<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catwalk shows last for an average of\u00a0 ten minutes \u2013 but , as writer Karen Dacre emphasised in her \u201cFashionomics\u201d article in the ES on February 16th<\/sup>\u00a0 – \u00a0they can be expensive to put on: Her\u00a0analysis of the probable total cost of \u00a379,240,00 \u00a0included \u00a0\u00a330,00 for \u201cdesign staff\u201d (models, casting director and stylist), \u00a36,000 (set design), \u00a312,100 (venue hire), \u00a313,000 (lighting\/ photography), \u00a34,500 for sound (PA system, radios ,DJs and music permit), \u00a35,500 (invites\/seating), \u00a32,750 ( backstage manager rails, mirrors , monitor, catering and carpet) and \u00a3750 for \u201cextras\u201d (wooden benches, fire extinguishers, fabric covers and seating plans). Two participants in the exhibition at Somerset House (the main LFW venue) who may not have received much media coverage but merit a mention were the innovative shoe designers Atalanta Weller and Kat Maconie. Meanwhile, \u00a0LFW continues with (among others) shows by Ozwald Boateng, Emilio de la Morena, Tata-Naka and a joint collaboration between Bally & Central Saint Martins College on Tuesday 21st<\/sup> February.\u00a0 The final day of this LFW (Wednesday 22nd<\/sup> February) will be totally dedicated to menswear and the latest in male fashion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The famous Italian designer Elsa Shiaparelli\u00a0 (the great rival to France\u2019s Coco Chanel) once noted that \u201cIn difficult times, fashion is always outrageous\u201d. \u00a0The era in which she is reputed to have made this comment \u2013 the 1930\u2019s \u2013 was going through a period of economic turbulence reminiscent of the crisis now facing most Western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","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=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}