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GENESIS MANNEQUINS | Manufacturer of Mannequins

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Based on the market's need for sustainable solutions in the industry and the increasing demand of customers for green alternatives, GENESIS developed BionicV®. It is our contribution to a greener industry and to a product that will define the future market.

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GENESIS MANNEQUINS | Manufacturer of Mannequins

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Based on the market's need for sustainable solutions in the industry and the increasing demand of customers for green alternatives, GENESIS developed BionicV®. It is our contribution to a greener industry and to a product that will define the future market. This website uses cookies to improve usability.

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Hangers of London is the leading supplier of a wide selection of luxury, premium and wholesale hangers serving customers in the UK and across the world.

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After the worst 18 months in retail history, luxury brands are making their new stores hyper local for the creative crowd. Hannah Marriott heads to Shoreditch's biggest openings to see how they live up to the eastern promise

This may sound like Bond Street behaviour but I'm watching this scene unfold in east London, where the mega-brand has recently popped up just off Redchurch Street, covering the Sir David Adjaye-designed former house of artist Sue Webster in yellow-and-turquoise monograms. But while it might be the most visible, Gucci is far from the only luxury brand making waves in the area.

Shore thing: Gucci's Shoreditch pop-up

"Customers might have that Berlin vibe, be more into industrial design. People who are affluent but are looking for a different energy"

Bottega Veneta's Shoreditch space at the Tea Building;

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Why London's high fashion stores are heading east

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After the worst 18 months in retail history, luxury brands are making their new stores hyper local for the creative crowd. Hannah Marriott heads to Shoreditch's biggest openings to see how they live up to the eastern promise

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Last May, H&M introduced new scorecards designed to grade and market the sustainability credentials of materials used in select garments to shoppers.

A little like nutrition labels that detail the fat, sugar and protein content in foods, the fast fashion giant's scorecards break down how fabrics perform in areas like global warming, fossil fuel use and water pollution. But there's one major difference: nutritional labels on food products are strictly regulated by government bodies; sustainable fashion isn't.

That's becoming more of a problem as sustainable fashion becomes big business.

Consumers, especially young ones, consistently rank sustainability as an important factor in purchasing decisions, even if price and cool factor remain bigger drivers. In response, brands have flooded the market with eco-claims and Earth Day capsules, but an absence of regulation has enabled a marketing free-for-all with plenty of space for greenwashing.

Sustainability labels like H&M's are part of a trend in marketing towards greater transparency and accountability. In early 2020, Allbirds introduced a carbon calorie count for its products; last year Zalando stocked more than 140,000 products in its sustainable assortment; and brands including Moncler, Burberry and Chloé have committed to roll out digital IDs containing sustainability information.

But the labels currently used by retailers lack common standards and may cover a broad and varied set of criteria, from greenhouse gas emissions to living wages.

Now, growing scrutiny from regulators is stoking an increasingly urgent debate over what "sustainable fashion" really means and how it should be measured.

The issue is coming to a head in Europe, where policymakers are set to lay out rules as soon as July governing how brands will be required to back up environmental claims.

Industry efforts to establish common standards have already embroiled brands, suppliers and trade groups in a battle for influence over how guidelines are framed. Meanwhile, industry watchdogs are campaigning to ensure issues like lack of independence, transparency and rigour that they say plague business-led standards don't become further entrenched.

Growing scrutiny from regulators is stoking an increasingly urgent debate over what "sustainable fashion" really means and how it should be measured.

The stakes are high: bad labelling fails consumers, erodes trust in brands and puts efforts to reduce the industry's impact at risk with misinformation that hampers attempts to drive real change. Rules governing the way claims are presented and the underlying metrics used to substantiate them also stand to create commercial winners and losers, with materials, products and brands that perform better gaining a positive green glow with consumers and those that underperform at risk of losing market share.

Ultimately, the debate comes down to a key question: what's green and what's greenwashing - and who gets to decide?
The Road to Regulation
For more than a decade, fashion's efforts to create a single approach to measure sustainability have been largely driven by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, an industry alliance established in 2010 thanks to the efforts of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and Walmart's chief merchandising officer at the time, John Fleming.

Back then, it was rare for brands in fashion's hyper-competitive market to collaborate or share information about their supply chains, but the pitch from Chouinard and Fleming was clear: the industry needed a standardised way to measure its social and environmental impact to get ahead of regulation, lower costs and barriers to change and ultimately reap the benefits through clear communication with consumers.

In the intervening years, that rationale has changed little, but its value to brands and retailers has become clearer as interest in sustainability has grown amongst consumers, investors and regulators alike.

Today, the SAC is one of fashion's most powerful sustainability-focused trade groups, with more than 250 members, including the industry's biggest brands and retailers, as well as manufacturers, academics and environmental groups. Its suite of tools, known as the Higg Index, is widely used throughout the sector. The scorecards H&M introduced last year, for example, are powered by the Higg materials module. The organisation is aiming to enable brands to plug in data about social and manufacturing impact to such labels too, with a goal for all its member brands, retailers and supplier to offer public-facing sustainability labels by 2025.

Critics say the tool is not fit for purpose and should not be used as a basis for making credible sustainability claims in marketing messages.

"The gap between the data that we have and what the companies and the public needs to know just keeps growing," said environmental scientist Linda Greer, who stepped down from the board of the SAC last year in frustration over a lack of focus on improving the quality of information available. "There are critical gaps and inaccuracies."

Natural and animal fibre producers like the wool and leather industries have also objected to the way materials are scored in the Higg.Last year, a group representing the silk industry wrote to the US Federal Trade Commission and the state attorney general in California claiming the Higg misrepresents the material's impact.

The SAC said it has not received any inquiry from either the FTC or California's attorney general. Its tools use a standard methodology to measure environmental impact and are based on the most up-to-date and robust data available, it said.

Now, these same tensions are playing out at a regulatory level, where the SAC is coordinating efforts to establish a tool intended to underpin green claims for clothing and footwear sold across Europe.
Measuring What Matters
For much of the last three years, Baptiste Carrière-Pradal has navigated the heart of the debate as chair of the multi-stakeholder group responsible for hashing out how the policy standard will work. It's part of a broader European push to regulate green claims across a variety of products and represents one of the most mature regulatory efforts to establish a standardised way to measure fashion's environmental impact.

For Carrière-Pradal, part of the challenge is that the tool he's working to create, known as the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), was not designed to measure sustainability defined broadly. Instead, the EU framework focuses on 16 specific areas of environmental impact. It doesn't take into account the conditions in which clothes were made, how workers were paid or other social impacts. It doesn't look at renewability or biodegradability. And for now it doesn't include a metric for biodiversity or consider microplastic pollution.

"If no one was calling it a sustainability tool, it would be less of a problem," said Carrière-Pradal. "It's not the alpha and omega of sustainability."

The debate comes down to a key question: what's green and what's greenwashing - and who gets to decide?

The challenge is that measuring fashion's impact is particularly complex and the consumer market the industry serves is used to simple messaging. While exactly how the PEF will be deployed is still part of policy negotiations, it's widely expected that it will be used to help back up consumer-facing product labels.In that context, the limits of what it measures risk misleading consumers, critics argue.

Last October, a coalition of brands, advocacy organisations and natural fibre trade groups - who worry the methodology used may mean their materials fare badly under the new rules - launched a campaign pushing to widen the scope to take into account metrics including social impact, microplastics and how long a product remains in use once it's sold.

"I don't think you have to be a marketing expert to know that products with a whiff of sustainability about them will appeal to consumers," said Emily Macintosh, policy officer for textiles at the European Environmental Bureau, a network of civil society organisations that has observer status on the PEF committee.
Bad Data, Bad Outcomes
In 2018, Veronica Bates Kassatly was living in Berlin, trying to build a sustainable fashion brand. It was a dizzying process, trying to navigate a maze of claims, counterclaims, industry-backed certifications and self-regulated standards. For Bates Kassatly, whose background included time as a financial analyst at the World Bank, there appeared to be alarmingly little basis for many of the impact assessments available.

"I kept reading LCAs and finding they don't say what people claim," Bates Kassatly said, referring to Life Cycle Assessments commonly used to measure environmental impact. She's spent the last four years researching the data the industry uses to support its sustainability claims, co-authoring a two-part report critiquing the current frameworks in play. The gaps, she said, are so significant that there just isn't robust enough information to support tools like the PEF.

"We can't possibly have people putting these kinds of made-up numbers into legislation," said Bates Kassatly. "It's misleading and unsubstantiated; it really is incredibly important and time is of the essence."

The European Commission is in the process of reviewing data that could be used to support the PEF and exactly what the tool will look like won't be finalised until 2024. But the scope of its influence is likely to become clearer in the coming months. In July, the European Commission is due to publish a proposal on how brands will be required to back up green claims, potentially laying the groundwork for the tool to become the backbone for how environmental impact is communicated to consumers.Such a move would put the PEF in pole position to become a template for global standards.

But even if underpinned with a solid tool, efforts to establish environmental labels risk simply enabling more consumption, which, for many at the heart of fashion's sustainability debate, is the underlying issue no matter how green garments become.

"We're wary of too much emphasis on trying to measure the environmental performance of products without any real attempt to reduce the numbers of those products in the first place," said Macintosh. "We can't label our way out of overproduction."

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Green or Greenwashing: Who Gets to Decide?

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Last May, H&M introduced new scorecards designed to grade and market the sustainability credentials of materials used in select garments to shoppers. A little like nutrition labels that detail the fat, sugar and protein content in foods, the fast fashion giant's scorecards break down how fabrics perform in areas like global warming, fossil fuel use and water pollution.

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1. Executive Summary

Image Description: A black female model wears a yellow dress with applique detail in blue, orange, green and black and white. She wears very big linked hoop earrings in patterned fabric.

The vision for the East London Fashion Cluster is of a 21st century innovation quarter where fashion, technology, business and education meet; where companies compete to outinnovate each other; where they collaborate to turn heads, all over the world.

East London has a rich fashion and craft heritage, which has, in recent years shown signs of revival. The originality and vibrancy of its design culture is a recognised factor in London's distinctiveness as a world fashion capital. And London as a fashion capital sits in the context of a world fashion industry worth an estimated US$3 trillion per annum.

This is a huge, export-driven sector of regional, national and global importance, but one that is sometimes perceived as an esoteric and 'cottage' industry. The direct value of the
UK fashion industry to the UK economy is estimated at £28.1 billion - twice that of the automotive or chemicals industries. Fashion's total contribution to GDP is in excess of £50 billion - equivalent to 2.7% of UK GDP.

The scale of this opportunity means that there is no better sectoral or industry candidate in which to undertake a value chain analysis and propose innovations across that chain.

Fashion in East London can capitalise on its location in the heart of the UK's knowledge economy to focus on its strengths in generation of IP. Bringing together fashion and
technology sectors will stimulate a 'pull through' of innovations in digital manufacturing that will have wider applications in other sectors. The current disruption of markets by digital technology and changing patterns of world trade means there will be no greater moment for the fashion industry to come together, demonstrate it understands its own structural issues and can bring forward innovative yet soundly based solutions for its own growth.

This report sets out how the fashion industry can skip a generation and lay the ground for London to be the undisputed world creative fashion capital by 2050.

London College of Fashion (LCF) is moving to East London as part of the development of a new Cultural Education District (CED) on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Building on the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the development consolidates LCF's six existing sites into one new, purpose-built campus. It is a fantastic opportunity to secure its position as a global leader in fashion education, research, business incubation and social responsibility. It also places a duty on the College to contribute to the positive place-making, participation, economic, educational and social outcomes that CED is expected to deliver in an area of continuing social and economic deprivation, in spite of the success of the Olympics.

LCF's move has triggered the opportunity to develop a wholly new environment for fashion innovation and a new destination for investment in fashion business in the UK. LCF will bring a global talent base to catalyse existing and emerging production corridors across East London and the Upper Lea Valley that are already witnessing the re-emergence of fashion manufacturing, reversing a trend of decades of decline.

The role of creative industries in driving economic growth, particularly in London, is well documented; less well understood is the scale, scope and potential of the UK fashion
sector. With annual output of £28 billion, it represents 22.2% of all retail GVA and 2.5% of UK manufacturing output. London is the centre of the UK industry, and a recognised
world fashion capital. It is the fulcrum of the UK's participation in a global market worth an estimated US$3 trillion a year. The purpose of this piece of work was therefore to explore these issues, and specifically to understand the perceived revival of fashion in East London; to explore how LCF's move might amplify some of these trends; and to see how the establishment of a dedicated organisation, the East London Fashion Cluster, could serve to accelerate growth and clear away the barriers to growth. The study was commissioned jointly by LCF and Greater London Authority (GLA), as both parties were interested in exploring how the rebirth of the fashion sector in East London could be accelerated by its proximity to other centres of knowledge capital.

But, in common with the rest of the city, East London faces a range of structural issues around access to workspace, finance and skills. The success of other sectors of the knowledge economy has exacerbated the conflict between the need to increase the supply of housing and to safeguard business premises. Existing fashion businesses in East London face a real risk of displacement, and with it their dislocation from a local workforce with the specialist skills needed to support high-end fashion manufacturing. Brexit, and the threat it represents to freedom of movement for students and skilled workers coming from other EU countries is a real concern to employers.

Fashion operates in global markets that are impacted by current geopolitical volatility. The potential imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade with Europe, and threats to free trade arrangements elsewhere in the world, could impose real constraints on what is an export-led sector.

Failure to address these barriers could lead to further tightening of labour supply and increasing costs of inputs that threaten the survival of specialist fashion manufacturing in
East London. This would in turn have a negative impact on the ability of new designers to translate their creative ideas into new collections; and undermine the ability of LCF and other fashion colleges to continue to recruit the overseas students who are both a source of income, new ideas and new businesses. The ratchet effect of loss of capacity, opportunity and reputation could ultimately threaten London's status as a world fashion city.

Despite these risks, our research to date suggests that fashion design and retail are growing strongly in East London -more strongly than across the rest of the city - and that value added manufacturing is returning to growth after decades of decline. Fashion in East London and the Upper Lea Valley now contributes £1.4 billion to London's economy and employs more than 36,000 people. It's growing faster than the rest of London's economy - output increased by 57 percent over the period 2010 to 2015, whilst an additional 10,900 jobs were created. And East London is driving the growth of fashion design, retail and manufacturing for the city, with an ever-increasing proportion of the capital's fashion enterprises and employment now located in this quarter.

Recent initiatives could further accelerate some of these trends. Private sector investment in skills through projects such as the Fashion Technology Alliance and the Stitch Academy at Hackney Walk is being met by public sector support for the creation of new spaces for fashion retail and enterprise, including Hackney Walk itself, specialist manufacturing facilities at Building Bloqs in Enfield, and Fashioning Poplar, a project initiated by Poplar HARCA, LCF and The Trampery to convert disused garages into manufacturing space, studios, and training space for use by students, designers and ex-offenders to promote opportunities for local residents to develop craft and business skills and create new fashion enterprises. Plexal, an accelerator for fashion and Internet of Things start ups, established by the founders of successful fintech incubator Level 39, will open at Here East in June 2017.

GLA is now facilitating a cluster plan with clear benefits for the fashion sector and for the London communities in which it sits. The proposition for an East London Fashion Cluster (ELFC) has been arrived at in consultation with industry and local partners. It will work in partnership with industry, education and local authorities to address the structural challenges and information failures that limit productivity, investment and growth in many fashion businesses. It aims to accelerate the growth of the fashion sector in East London; secure the supply of local and graduate talent and focus the role of education, research and knowledge exchange on innovation and creative inputs.

There is an opportunity here to demonstrate 'smart specialisation' - reimagining London's fashion sector as a globally significant digital manufacturing cluster that outcompetes other cities, increases high value employment opportunities and drives inward investment.

The challenge of building and sustaining a productive, high-growth and job-creating fashion sector in London is to increase the absorptive capacity for innovation across
all parts of the fashion supply chain. To achieve this, ELFC will harness London's capacity as the knowledge and technology capital of the UK to its global reputation for excellence in fashion design and creativity. This will be achieved by increasing knowledge exchange both between fashion businesses and with other technology, creative and business service sectors. It will focus on the potential for interdisciplinary innovation and growth in fashion in East London as a way to multiply the opportunities for skilled employment and increasing wealth for its citizens.

Led by industry and incubated within UAL, the East London Fashion Cluster will represent businesses from every sub-sector of the UK fashion industry. ELFC will offer the unique combination of a dedicated world class hub for fashion education, design, business and technological innovation within an established cluster of educational, technology and cultural institutions.

The incubation of new companies, business models and support for innovation in products and services that result will emphasise that the design and creative inputs of fashion, and its huge global reach, are as much a driver of innovation in the development of new products and services as science and technology. This creates the opportunity to reimagine the fashion sector in London as a creatively-led digital manufacturing cluster; which in turn will help redefine it as a source of new opportunities for investment.

ELFC will protect, grow and project London's reputation as a global fashion capital. In the process, it will initiate a model for change with the potential to transform the competitiveness and productivity of the fashion and textile industry in London and across the UK to allow the sector to be properly valued as part of a 21st century knowledge
economy. The partners have already begun to sound out regional partners to see if there is an appetite for a national sector / industry plan.

ELFC will coordinate and signal the different offers of specialist business support, skills development, network capability and funding available across East London. In doing so it will help provide fashion businesses with the workforce, premises, R&D capacity and working capital needed to retain talent, secure local growth and identify and exploit new intellectual property to produce the new products needed to compete in international markets and to ensure the sustained growth and profitability of the sector.

1.1 Vision Statement for ELFC

'A cluster where fashion, technology, business and education meet. Where companies compete to out-innovate each other; where they collaborate to turn heads, all over the world.

A cluster that enlivens our culture and expands our economy. And builds on our industrial heritage and the Olympic legacy to bring new life to London.

The East London Fashion Cluster will bring together manufacturers, surface decoration textile studios, garment technology labs, designer showrooms and ateliers, digital creative agencies, journalists, stylists, media labs, technology providers, and entrepreneurs.

As the distinction between technology, engineering and creative sectors becomes more blurred the potential becomes even more exciting. The intersection between these disciplines could reinvent the future of retail or take more UK brands into the smart materials market.'

The East London Fashion Cluster: Refashioning East London. Revitalising the UK
London College of Fashion, 2016

Its aim is to re-establish London as the World Creative Fashion Capital, reinforcing its global reputation for creativity through innovation and investment in the following way:

'Young designers and new, younger fashion consumers interact through 'omnichannel' retail experiences, playing to London's strengths in both creativity and digital industries.

'Increased collaboration between fashion designers and other creative and tech agencies transforms the sector's relationship with external investors, releasing capital for further
innovation and growth.

'Bolstered by the presence of world-leading resources to support technical and market innovation, London undergoes a creative fashion renaissance that cements its position as the world's Creative Fashion Capital.'

Image Description: A rendering of a vast warehouse space. The warehouse spans across two floors and has large windows along the top of the walls and the ceiling. There are people milling around.

2. Strategic Case

2.1 Introduction to the Commission

London is one of the world's acknowledged 'fashion capitals' - alongside Paris, Milan and New York. This is a huge, export-driven sector of regional, national and global importance, but one that is sometimes perceived as an esoteric and 'cottage' industry; and one whose importance has arguably been subsumed within discussion of the wider 'creative industries' in a policy context in London.

London has an international reputation for cutting edge design - reflected in the fact that three of the world's top five fashion schools are located in the capital1/, with a strong
international element: two-thirds of LCF fashion design students are non-UK nationals. There are twenty higher education institutions offering fashion design courses in London.

Historically, inner East London was home to 'the rag trade.' The 'move East' of London's creative industries, a trend accelerated in recent years by rising property prices in the West End and the development of Tech City, began fifty years ago as photographers, advertising agencies and other creative services began to explore warehouses and lofts in Clerkenwell and Shoreditch as a source of cheaper accommodation close to their fashion clients in the East End. That shift has been instrumental in London's emergence as the fulcrum of the UK's knowledge economy. East London now benefits from a blend of deep specialisms and global market penetration in finance, technology and creativity; attributes that can be recombined with centuries of heritage craft to produce new products, new processes and to reinforce the role of London as a global fashion hub.

2.2 LCF as a Catalyst

'It is as important for a region to have a strong story to tell about innovation (in order to attract the necessary mass of new inputs to achieve it) as to have a clear policy to support R&D.'
Charles Leadbeater

Global markets demand innovation. The relocation of LCF, its 5,700 students and three schools (Fashion Business School, School of Design & Technology and School of Media
& Communication) to an Educational / R&D hub, the Cultural Education District (CED) on Stratford Waterfront, will catalyse development of an international hub for design andfashion technology, and retail innovation. It provides East London with a great 'story' for the global fashion industry.

An £800 million public-private partnership, CED will transform the environment for fashion innovation in the UK. The short-term benefits of the relocation of LCF, alongside University College London, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and adding to the existing presence of education and research institutions on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park including Birkbeck, of Loughborough University London (LUL), Here East, BT Sport and Studio Wayne McGregor, will have a multiplier effect on the rest of East London. In the process it will underpin the status of London as a creative world fashion capital and act as the beacon of a new Thames Gateway Production Corridor.

LCF's presence will be both a physical representation of the scale and ambition of London's fashion industries and a hub for their global expansion. And where LCF has led, others will follow. LCF will provide businesses with access to emerging technologies, attracting investment from fashion and technology companies (and new investors) with the scale and infrastructure to move quickly into new markets that will in turn create opportunities for fast-moving and innovative SMEs. The offer will encourage more of the thousands of fashion students who graduate each year in London to remain in the city, confident that they will enjoy a wealth and range of opportunities that match and go beyond those available to them in other 'fashion cities' worldwide.

Image Description: Hackney Walk Store Fronts. An overground train passes by overhead. The store surrounds are yellow with large windows showing mannequins. One of the shops is JOSEPH.

2.3 Proposals for an East London Fashion Cluster

Proposals to establish a dedicated organisation - ELFC - to coordinate fashion sector initiatives and communicate them to industry present an opportunity to look at whether the fashion sector in London is meeting its global potential.

To make the case for ELFC we need to reflect the discrete economic, structural and reputational factors that afford London the status of a world fashion capital, and indicate where there may be barriers to growth. This will take into account:

− Current economic performance: size and output of the sector, structural factors affecting its growth

− International reputation: London Fashion Weeks, major fashion brands, export performance, the penetration of UK fashion design, manufacturing and services in international markets

− Heritage of craft skills, design and high-end fashion manufacturing expertise in East London 'core': Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham

− Wider effects - how could that transformation result in inclusive growth in the Olympic Park and surrounding areas of East London and the Upper Lea Valley?

The strategy aims to:

− Create the right business and educational conditions for East London to become the UK and Europe's leading fashion district

− Stimulate the individual capacities of companies and institutions to create new possibilities, make new connections and tell a collective story

− Act as exemplar for sector development activity across London − Provide the hub of a network of UK fashion clusters

2.4 Rationale for Fashion

Fashion is a major global industry. The global apparel market is valued at between US$2.4 trillion2/ and US$3 trillion and accounts for 2 percent of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 57.8 million people are employed in clothing and textiles worldwide - 24.8 million of those in apparel manufacture.3/

This is a huge, export-driven sector of regional, national and global importance, but one that is sometimes perceived as an esoteric and 'cottage' industry. The direct value of the
UK fashion industry to the UK economy is estimated at £28.1 billion - twice that of the automotive or chemicals industries. Fashion's total contribution to GDP is more than £50 billion - equivalent to 2.7% of UK GDP.4/

Estimates of employment in fashion in the UK range from 555,000 (Fashion United) to 880,000 (BFC/ Oxford Economics 2016). Although retail makes up the largest proportion of this, that sub-sector includes a host of strategic, management, supply chain and design roles as well as the staff within high street stores. In the UK, 'the High Street', in the form of large, vertically integrated retail concerns, dominates the fashion landscape - we explore the implications of this in more detail below. Fashion's value chain covers education, design, manufacturing, distribution, textiles, wider creative, media and marketing service sectors and links to innovation in physical and online experiences, materials and technology (see Figure 1, below).

London is not only the creative and commercial centre of the UK's fashion industry; it is one of the world's acknowledged 'fashion capitals', renowned for the originality of its design.

2.5 Definition of Fashion Industry

Our definition of the fashion sector is based on the methodology developed by Oxford Economics for the British Fashion Council's Value of Fashion report:
The role of the High Street in UK fashion
High Street retailers play a central and critical role in the UK fashion industry. Their influence, and price-driven competition between domestically-owned household names such as Arcadia (Top Shop), John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Next, along with foreign-owned groups such as Inditex (Zara), shapes the UK fashion supply chain. This means that London as a fashion capital is structurally different from other centres, such as Milan and Paris, where fashion and luxury goods labels - and the major conglomerates that own them, such as LVMH, Kering and Richemont - are the major driver of trends and demand.
An export-led sector
Although separate figures for London are not available, UK textiles and apparel exports were worth £8.5 billion in 2015, up from £6.2bn in 2010. Apparel exports, with strong growth in Asian and North American markets increased to almost £5.8bn - a £2.1 billion (37 percent) increase on 2010.5/

In comparison, only 6% of the value of UK fashion retail sales is domestically manufactured.

2.6 Global trends
Trends
There are a number of 'macro' inluences on the strategy:
Fashion is a global business
Analysis of current trends identiies a number of key international markets:

− Established trading partners in North America and Western Europe
− Developed and innovative fashion markets in Japan and South Korea
− Emerging nations of China and India
− Growth in 'megacities' with populations of 25 million or more across Asia, Africa and South America
− 'Gateway' markets and potential collaborators in other emerging fashion cities such as Dubai
Digital disruption, converging platforms, diverse audiences
Digital technologies reshape markets and value chains for fashion content and information, leading to an opportunity for innovative businesses to create value added services, applications and products. ICT forms the enabling element that brings to market these services, applications and products across all sectors through production, distribution and e-commerce.

International studies reveal changing patterns of consumer behaviour. The response of 'physical' and online retailers pulls innovation through the fashion supply chain, and drives the creation of new business models for brands and designers. Consumers now engage with a mixture of physical and online retail environments. These vary from dedicated resource - high street and independent retailers and online platforms such as Asos, Boohoo and Farfetch, all targeted on discrete market sub-sectors - to other social media platforms that now represent an important part of the 'real estate' for fashion retail: eg Pinterest, Instagram hashtags.

As much as a physical product, fashion is now part of the 'experience economy'. Consumers - particularly younger ones - expect online and high street retail environments to reflect one another, and to see new product each time they visit either the website or a physical store. The increased frequency of visits is relected in a much faster cycle of new product development and launches. This means that the supply chain needs to respond more quickly and accurately to signals of consumer demand; with physical product distributed over a more dispersed range of platforms and market sub-sectors.

This convergence of online and physical 'channels', and of physical and digital content, disrupts the entire business model and value chain of fashion. Designers and producers need access to up to date information and sophisticated analysis of trends and demand within increasingly specialised and divergent sub-sectors of the fashion market in order to respond quickly enough to take advantage of these market signals and to move themselves up the value chain in order to become more proitable. This presents a huge challenge to the existing fashion supply chain in London, whose digital skills and use of technology are inadequate to the challenge.
Digital technology and making
Digital technologies and 'making' are strategic drivers for the fashion sector. The increasing influence of technology and the rise of co-working and membership model workspaces such as Impact Hubs and Makerversity is reflected in the emergence of a new generation of fashion start ups using 3D printing, big data and wearable technology. These include:

− Unmade, whose high-tech knitwear is inspired by 3D printing;
− Fits.me, an online service that takes details of a customer's body shape and creates a 3D model to help people igure out how clothes will it their body shape without having to actually try them on in the real world, was purchased by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten in 2015;
− Vinaya, whose Altruis X bracelet promises 'wearable wellbeing'.

The development of London's fashion sector is interdependent with continuing innovation in and application of software, digital technology and advanced materials technology at all levels, from education to design to production to innovation.
Leveraging East London's digital and creative cluster
Digital content and branding are increasingly important in establishing a competitive - which, for UK designers means international - market presence. (UK produced fashion currently represents only 6% of the total value of UK fashion sales.) The need for collaboration with creative and digital marketing agencies to create this 'omni-channel' customer experience goes far beyond marketing and PR for 'traditional' stores and twice-yearly seasonal collections. Continuing adoption of digital technology and development of a range of software skills across the supply chain is essential to growth and sustainability of the fashion industry.

Whilst they represent part of the competition for space and talent for the fashion industry, the growth of TechCity and the resulting agglomeration of creative services businesses and digital agencies are also an opportunity and a potential model for development of the fashion sector. Designers and producers can beneit from proximity to their expertise in creating the technology and assets to drive growth through business models in which platforms for manufacturing and distribution are converging whilst market sub-sectors are diverging. In the process, this engagement can help address digital skills gaps in fashion.
Innovation on the high street
Not all retail innovation happens online. High Street stores recognise that the remaining cost savings to be driven out of 'offshoring' are marginal - but in a time of soaring business rates and inlationary pressures are still trying to ind ways to reduce costs, whilst competing with online platforms. The case study below illustrates one way in which major retailers are adopting 'omni-channel' strategies:

The resulting smaller environment may feel more like an independent store, with a more 'curated' approach that could generate demand for 'affordable quality' and leading-edge pieces that could favour independent UK designers.
World Class Skills
"The creative industries now probably involve greater complexity, and greater management input, than any traditional sector. They are the antithesis of 'Fordism' - traditional mass production for a uniform consumer market - and, increasingly, the focus of large-scale capital investment. This suggests that important as are creative industries outputs - creative products - what may in the long-term be most notable are the creative industries processes involving innovation and customisation. Creative industries inputs - notably creative labour itself - may be the key factor."
(GLA, 2004)

London has long understood that availability of a skilled workforce is the key factor in inward investment decisions in this sector. In order to compete in a global market for talent, London will have to attract and retain individuals with high level qualifications and relevant specialist skills. In this, the region's Higher Education Institutions will play a critical role.

However, the sector is now seeing indications of shortages in essential creative, production and technical disciplines - notably around specialised manufacturing skills. - that are only likely to be exacerbated by the threat to free movement of labour raised by Brexit. At present, London is a global entrepot for fashion design, with 67% of LCF's fashion students arriving here from other countries. Many graduates are attracted by the greater breadth of career opportunities currently available to them in London, including the potential to set up their own businesses. Skills developed in London are also in demand from other established fashion capitals, and from fast-growing clusters in emerging markets such as Dubai.
Changing workplaces
The fashion hub at Hackney Walk is an example of commercial development that is looking to encourage more lexible use of spaces to support the growth of new fashion brands. Increasing utilisation of pop-up stores and shared workspace helps reduce cost and risk for new designers - whilst also giving them a foothold for more experimental collections in the midst of a retail environment anchored by major brands such as Burberry and Nike.
Competitor cities
Rival cities are not resting on their laurels, of course - major fashion cities are all seeking to grow their share of the global market. New York is directly investing large sums at city and national level, and leveraging signiicant private investment in the process, in attempts to grow an innovative fashion design and manufacturing cluster. Dubai is investing heavily in its Digital Design District, seeking to identify itself as a global hub for design-led IP and retail innovation. Istanbul is accessing EU funding to move their apparel and textile sectors away from the associations of being a 'low cost' producer and up the value chain through increasing the quality and design input of their end product. And cities like Milan and Los Angeles, which in their different ways demonstrate the beneits of decades of industry-led coordination of a vertically-integrated fashion sector, are seeking to adopt the benefits of new technology and a start-up mentality from their neighbouring tech clusters.

At the same time, low-cost producers in emerging economies are facing pressures including rising commodity costs, rising middle class staff costs and increased scrutiny of labour practices and supply chain sustainability. Their response is to steer a course away from 'red oceans' of intense competition for low cost production. The desire of the Chinese government to increase the design content of locally manufactured goods, and efforts of cities like Istanbul to capture more of the added value within the garments they produce, are a conscious attempt by competitors to move up the value chain - a potential competitive threat to the perception of London as the fashion capital that adds most value through design.
Ethical and sustainable fashion
Concerns around the sustainability and work conditions associated with 'fast fashion' have led to the emergence of a new type of consumer type, increasingly conscious and inquisitive of where and how their clothes are made.

This is relected in different forms across the fashion supply chain:

− Specialist brands such as People Tree, producing Fair Trade and environmentally sustainable clothing
− Mainstream brands including Monsoon are keen to promote 'ethical trading' - Monsoon has its own ethical compliance team and a Code of Conduct which sets out minimum requirements on working conditions, pay and employment rights for its suppliers;
− Online fashion brands have sought to delect criticism of the negative environmental and social impacts of 'fast fashion' by creating niche brands, such as ASOS Eco Edit, that promote 'ethically conscious' British brands, craft goods and 'upcycled' vintage clothing under a 'sustainable banner'
Disciplines
− The trends above all highlight the global and interconnected workings of the fashion industry. That emphasises the need for all elements of the fashion sector in East London to come together in a concerted way to address challenges and market opportunities. Many of these require a hybrid response - simply addressing technology, design, brand, or manufacturing in isolation will not provide a solution.
− McKinsey6/ identiies three disciplines in which fashion companies need to succeed:
− Global-local brand management - the internationalisation plan within the strategy depends on the ability of London and its fashion companies need to clearly differentiate their offer, to re-invest in the brand value of London as the world's creative fashion capital.
− New shopping experience - changing the concept, design and even location of stores (cf John Lewis case study above)
− Multichannel strategy - our illustration of omnichannel retailing (below) highlights some of the behavioural changes that result

Together, these challenges clearly demonstrate that fashion companies need to expand their view of the skills they need. Smaller companies, in particular, should not necessarily expect to acquire the capacity to directly employ all the specialist skills required; but they will need better information about capacity available in education, in suppliers, in competitors and in service companies to help them thrive in this multichannel environment.
Section 2 Footnotes
1/ http://fashionista.com/2016/06/best-fashion-colleges-2016
2/ McKinsey & Co (2016). Global Fashion Index http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-state-of-fashion.
3/ Fashion United (2016). https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics
4/ British Fashion Council and Oxford Economics (2016). The Value of the UK Fashion Industry
5/ UKFT (2016). Compendium of UK textiles and apparel manufacturing data.
6/ McKinsey & Company and The Business of Fashion (2016). The state of fashion. http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-state-of-fashion

BASELINE DATA

Image Description: The exterior of Anya Hindmarch on Hackney Walk. The building is painted black with white and gold lettering and accents.

3.1 The fashion sector in East London and Upper Lea Valley Our review of employment

Our review of employment and output statistics, supports anecdotal evidence of growth in the fashion sector in East London, led by retail employment at Westield, the emergence of Hackney as a design powerhouse and a re-emergence and reshoring of value-added manufacturing across East London and Upper Lea Valley.
Key Findings
Findings of the study confirm that if London is to continue to support world-leading creative designers and to grow fashion as a broadly- based employment sector including a sizeable number of jobs in manufacturing, there is an urgent need to build capacity, and promote innovation and resilience across the whole value chain.

Fashion contributes over £1.4 billion in GVA and 36,000 jobs to the economy of East London and the Upper Lea Valley.

− There is a clear concentration of Specialist Design Services in East London, with strong Manufacturing growth in the Upper Lea Valley; despite its structural challenges, manufacturing is the fastest growing fashion sub-sector, with a 94% increase in employment and 128% increase in GVA between 2010 and 2015.
− Fashion manufacturers currently lack appropriate skills for 21st century - from basic software to garment technology skills and utilisation of emerging equipment/digital fabrication methods
− Fashion Designers suffer from a systemic lack of access to finance to stem crucial gaps in cashflow, along with issues between young designers and manufacturers are strained largely due to this, and lack of practical experience

Figure 2 Summary of baseline analysis of the fashion sector in East London and Upper Lea Valley

The majority of East London boroughs have a concentration of specialised design businesses. The table below show location quotients (LQs) derived from BRES data for design employment in East London. Any score above 1 (marked here in red) indicates a higher than average concentration of design-based businesses8/. We observe a pattern of increasing concentration of design business in most boroughs. Hackney's score of 9.46 is notable.

These igures indicate a trend of increasing design capability and clustering in East London - and, as design is understood to be a driver of many other sectors, is a good indication of the potential absorptive capacity for innovation.
Strengths of the fashion sector in East London and the Upper Lea Valley
High growth sector: GVA from fashion in this sub-region grew by 57% (including inflation) between 2010 and 2015, against 29% for the sector in London as a whole.

Scale - There are 36,200 people in full-time employment in East London fashion in 12,000 businesses - an increase of 10,900 jobs and 1,800 companies between 2010 and 2015.

Resilience: Fashion in East London has demonstrated resilience in its growth during a period of turbulence in its external market environment - in particular, in the re-emergence of added-value production for high-end fashion products

Image - Hackney Fashion Hub has helped stimulate awareness of the fashion sector in East London amongst international consumers through its mix of global brands (Burberry, Nike) and independent designers.

East London is growing in importance as a location for design businesses - analysis of location quotients (LQ) for design reveal that East London as a whole has an LQ of 2.11 - more than double the expected number (where 1 represents the national average density of designers in the working population). Five East London boroughs combine high design LQs and high growth: Hackney, Haringey, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich. In all five, we observe increased employment in other fashion production and distribution sectors. Newham, whose growth is driven by fashion retail, is a clear outlier.

Competitive advantage - London has the highest concentration of high value 'convergent media' businesses (with the greatest capacity for innovation and GVA growth) across a range of activities that are adjacent to and could have a direct bearing on future development of fashion, including: software development, 'Internet of Things', publishing, creative services, digital manufacturing, robotics, and music.

Image Description: A white man with sunglasses on his head works at a sewing machine at Fashion Enter.

3.2 Existing support for fashion businesses

LCF runs a number of programmes to engage in R&D with businesses:

− LCF's Fashion Innovation Agency 's objective is to harness technology to enable a wider range of products and processes and fostering design- industry relations. It plays a potentially important role in shaping the brief for a shared R&D space on CED, and in channelling dedicated challenge funds for collaborative innovation in fashion and technology.

− LCF's Centre for Fashion Enterprise runs the Fash-Tech Pioneers Programme, a six-month incubation programme designed for technologists wanting to disrupt the fashion industry, and provides dedicated mentoring (on legal, accounting, marketing, branding, storytelling, pitching etc) to selected applicants.

− LCF is a partner in Central Saint Martins' Innovation Insights Hub, which connects insights and ideas from creative practice to contemporary challenges to provide innovative outcomes.

GLA is also investing in capital programmes to build capacity for the fashion supply chain in East London:

− Building Bloqs, a membership-based workshop space in Meridian Water, Enield, recently received £2,700,000 of funding via the London Regeneration Fund for workshop expansion, which will include an expanded textile lab.

− Fashioning Poplar, a project initiated by Poplar HARCA, LCF and The Trampery to convert 80 disused garages on a Poplar housing estate into manufacturing space, studios, and training space for use by students, designers and ex-offenders, received £1.7m through the London Regeneration Fund.

− Hackney Fashion Hub - following the riots of 2011, the Mayor's Regeneration Fund provided London Borough of Hackney and Hackney Walk with £1,500,000 of investment to renew and address the viability of Hackney town centre. This included work on public realm and converting the irst phase of 12 of 22 railway arches into showrooms, retail spaces and studios.

− In 2015, Albion Knit received a £100k loan to purchase a lat-bed knitting machine and pay for trainee operators, technicians and apprentices, funded through GLA's Opportunity Investment Fund, a £3.64m fund towards workspace/commercial space activation in Tottenham.

The private sector is also offering a number of skills and innovation programmes. These are detailed in the action plan (see below), but the interest of new investors in the sector could be catalysed by the launch of Plexal at Here East in June 2017. A private sector accelerator for 'lifetech' companies working across a number of disciplines, operated by the team that established the successful intech incubator Level 39, Plexal will promote fashion as a channel to embed design thinking and creativity into all parts of the private and public sectors including manufacturing, business processes and public sector procurement. This has the potential to greatly expand the range and scale of the markets addressed by fashion and design thinking.

3.3 Focus group and interview findings

The discrepancies between headline growth shown in the statistical base and reported barriers to growth were explored through a series of interviews and focus groups with 20 fashion bloggers, designers, manufacturers, retailers, landlords, training providers and supply chain experts. The inputs of these experienced practitioners helped to clarify how trends observed in our desk research were playing out in the fashion economy of East London. The sessions helped to identify further opportunities and barriers to growth that
informed a subsequent scenario planning workshop, held to reine the proposition for the ELFC. (Details of attendees are attached at Appendix E, below.)
Structural issues facing the fashion sector in East London
The focus groups conirmed a number of structural challenges that are holding back latent growth potential and in the longer term may threaten the long-term sustainability of the fashion sector in East London.

We have described how market forces and digital technology exert a particularly disruptive and volatile inluence across the fashion value chain. The table below highlights ten factors, ive internal and ive external, that result in the fashion supply chain being unable to respond to market opportunities and expose manufacturers in particular to increased risk.
Lack of garment technology and software skills
Manufacturers also complain that design graduates lack the garment technology skills needed to translate their creative ideas into inished products. This problem is heightened by a shared lack of digital skills - use of computer-aided design software among both designers and manufacturers is very low.
Missing opportunities
Poor communication between sub-sectors means that designers and manufacturers fail to work together to address new market opportunities. At present, the accuracy with which market signals are received - for example, how increased demand for 'affordable luxury' needs to be relected in different price points, or how high street retailers are increasingly looking to identify 'loss leading' innovation on rapid turnaround to add an element of novelty to increase footfall and repeat visits - varies widely not just from sub-sector to subsector and from place to place but from firm to firm.
Terms of trade and cashflow
Further barriers are created by the tough terms of trade imposed by retail clients, many of which will only pay 90 or 120 days after inished goods are delivered. Most early-career designers do not have the working capital to pay for the manufacture of the collection in
advance, leaving the manufacturer to carry the risk and manage their cashlow. As a result, many high-end 'cut, make and trim' (CMT) businesses are reluctant to work with new designers.
Competition from lower cost producers
This in turn leads to further leakage of demand to CMT shops in Eastern Europe and further aield that are prepared to take on more of the work of interpreting initial sketches into finished garments.
Skills shortages and concerns about Brexit
Brexit, and the threat it represents to freedom of movement for students and skilled workers coming from other EU countries is a real concern to employers. Skilled machinists from Eastern Europe, where technical colleges teach skills no longer included in the English curriculum, are an important part of the East London fashion workforce and have themselves established a number of successful CMT businesses. Uncertainties about their continuing rights to work and reside in the UK post-Brexit have led some to return to their countries of origin, and has reduced the flow of new workers. There is no immediate way to plug shortages in these skills.
Opportunities around ethical and sustainable fashion
Graduates show little awareness of sustainable design and manufacture within the fashion supply chain. This is not typically a core part of training at many universities and colleges. The Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF) also reports that people from within 'mainstream' fashion businesses, who feel that they are unable to influence their employers to adopt more ethical and sustainable practices, are coming to their events to seek out opportunities within ethical fashion SMEs or to get information about starting their own enterprises on a more sustainable basis.
Made in London?
There was some debate within focus groups, and a difference of views between sessions, about the respective merits of promoting a 'Made In London' brand. Some questioned whether the supply chain could deliver the consistent quality required to deliver this as a
brand in the market; and whether manufacturers in other parts of the UK would be happy to have their goods labeled in that way. The discussion highlighted the reality of the supply chain in which a finished garment may be assembled from a mixture of international inputs and processes. Others pointed to a pragmatic approach to branding a collection - 'you may make the jacket in London, but the shirt could come from Portugal.'
The future is creative
Our focus group members - particularly in the retail workshops - were clear: London fashion has an international brand that reflects freedom of expression, expression of individuality, quirkiness, experimentation and youth.

Our focus group on fashion retail and distribution was realistic about the issues to the retail sector and structural challenges, in the shape of increased premises costs, that have resulted in the closure of large numbers of independent retailers; and the fact that this has resulted in fewer opportunities for independent designers.

But they were clear about the future direction.

− London's reputation is about creativity - it can't match Milan for quality, Paris for reputation, New York for scale.

− The collapse in the number of independent fashion retailers means that designers have to deal with high street retailers and international distribution at an earlier stage in their development - which increases the risks of failure.

− Better information about global fashion trends, increased technical skills and greater understanding of manufacturing and supply chains can help London's designers to address growing market segments - targeting affordable luxury and leading-edge pieces (loss leaders) to help the high street retain interest in its 'fast fashion'.

− In order to harness these market opportunities and address skills gaps, more needs to be done to harness the potential for interdisciplinary working between fashion and other creative and technical sectors.

− The UK industry and individual businesses within it need a technology road map in order to understand how to commit development resources and capital expenditure to digital skills and technology - like all other business planning, it is an essential precursor
to growth. ELFC has a critical role in increasing the number and speed of collaborations between industry, innovation institutes within HEIs and the experience of acceleration and R&D programmes in other creative sectors to agree the terms of reference for this significant piece of work.

− Innovation is critical to free up designers to be creative and attract new investment.

3.4 Competitive and international perspective - fashion capital case studies and comparators

Image Description: A shot from above at Fashion Enter shows a dozen works spaces with people working on garments.

In embarking on any strategy for the fashion cluster in East London, it is important to understand the different ways in which the effects of this increased volatility, not just in the UK but in global markets, work their way down through the supply chain. It is also important to be objective about the strengths and weaknesses of the fashion sector in East London, both in absolute terms and in relation to its major international competitors.

With that in mind, we looked at a handful of international comparators to see what lessons, if any, public intervention in fashion held for London:

− World fashion capitals such as New York and Milan;
− Major manufacturing hubs in Istanbul and Los Angeles that, from a value chain perspective, represent contrasting approaches to building a vertically integrated fashion sector;
− Competitors from emerging economies, such as Dubai, that are looking to compete on the basis of added value and innovation, rather than on the more traditional entry route of low cost;

In other European cities - such as Amsterdam and Antwerp - the public sector has taken a strategic approach to intervention in the fashion sector, backed by investment in international marketing to establish themselves as a fashion capital.

We focus on two studies here:

− Los Angeles, which offers an example of a vertically-integrated fashion design and manufacturing supply chain
− Milan, which demonstrates the importance of retaining craft skills and variety in the fashion supply chain

Notes on New York and Istanbul are contained in the technical appendices.

Case study 1 - Los Angeles: can London offer a vertically-integrated supply chain?
Los Angeles is an example of a cluster that has leveraged structural opportunities through an effective, B2B cluster organisation (California Fashion Association), founded in 2015 and funded by subscription.

Los Angeles enjoys several advantages due to its location:

− Access to cheap power and raw materials
− Access to large and (until recently) comparatively low wage workforce - average machinist wage in California in 2014 was $11.54 per hour
− Los Angeles has one of the densest concentrations of apparel manufacturing industries
- the LQ of its womenswear sector is over 17!
− LA is the USA's #1 port, offering easy access to global markets in addition to the domestic market of 300 million consumers
− Proximity to a significant source of IP from the film and entertainment industry - which it licenses and leverages alongside its own premium 'Made In California' brand - offers competitive advantage and opportunity to increase margins
− Scale - over 110,000 workers are employed in apparel manufacture in 6,000 companies; total turnover of the garment manufacturing sector in 2015 was $13,650 million (Hoovers, 2015)
− Maturity - half of the companies in the cluster are over 25 years old; more than 1,500 turn over at least $1m per annum
− Los Angeles offers different models of vertical integration within different markets:
− Integrated manufacturers: design and make their own clothing brand, and make products in their own manufacturing plants and in those of independent contractors.
− Licensees: may or may not be involved in the product development process, but "rent" their brands to producers of fashion products
− Contract manufacturers: may have long-standing relationships with designers, or may use brokers to generate new business, Contract manufacturers win business on their ability to deliver on-time and on-cost. The manufacturer placing the order typically owns all the raw materials.

Although Los Angeles is not regarded in the same league as London or New York in terms of creative fashion design, it has been astute in understanding which aspects of its brand will still attract a premium for some products - eg, jeans 'Made in California'.

LA is a 'true' cluster, in terms of scale, interlinked support and some common goals. Although less 'prestigious' than the 'world' fashion cities, it has a unique heritage and cultural position, which thus far has been exploited by the cluster, growth has occurred with no public-sector input, but through organic growth based around resilient companies who have maximised the local trade agreements.

The main lesson for ELFC is that public support can come in many forms - trade agreements, particularly NAFTA, are at the core of the cluster's success. However, despite recent encouraging developments in 'onshoring' production, London is unlikely ever to house manufacturing on that scale; so another point - the way in which LA manufacturers successful leverage proximity to other sources of IP, in the form of entertainment brands - is one that could be explored in development of London's presence in important, relevant and growing sub-sectors such as sportswear.

Case study 2 - Milan: the importance of retaining craft skills and variety in the fashion supply chain

The way in which Milan has historically paid close attention to quality across the whole of its fashion supply chain enabled its small and medium-sized craft manufacturing businesses to quickly switch their focus to high-end specialist manufacturing in a strategic response to increasing outsourcing of mass produced apparel to low cost countries. The Milanese industry differs from the UK model in that it is dominated by large maisons (fashion labels) rather than by multiple retailers. These maisons are physically clustered together in the city centred and surrounded by a supply chain of highly skilled producers extending beyond the boundary of the Metropolitan district. This proximity reinforces both opportunities for a shared commitment to quality, reflected in a proposal to certify suppliers. It also benefits shared involvement in innovation and the responsiveness of the supply chain to changing patterns of consumer behaviour.

The large fashion houses recognise the interdependency of the cluster and the strategic benefits of keeping (in particular) high-end production within the local supply chain. This means that they actively seek to support small craft producers and specialist manufacturers as a way to retain variety and diversity of supply within the cluster, preferring this to the option of low cost outsourced production in order to retain transparency of the production process and control over the quality of the end product.

Milan's fashion manufacturing and design sectors stand for quality in the minds of consumers and designers alike, and the industry works to ensure that this is reflected from top to bottom of the supply chain. Government, Trade and Private sectors have collaborated to ensure that this simple but powerful message has been heavily promoted around the world for over 50 years. This has resulted in:

− Immense added value in consumers' minds around the world for the "Made in Italy" label
− Strong global reputation as a "Big Four" fashion capital

Despite the reshoring of some high-end production that has taken place during this decade, London, like Milan, is no longer a competitive location for the production of mass or entry level goods. This has led some suppliers to pursue the same strategy as those in Milan: a greater focus on high level production and finishing as a specialism. But the sector lacks coordination and management often lacks the skills or working capital to address growth markets, such as the high growth 'affordable luxury' segment, that require much greater levels of skill and responsiveness from the manufacturer.

Despite its very different supply chain relationship with high street retailers, ELFC would support London's specialist and added-value production companies (through addressing information failures to improve coordination within the sector) to develop the potential to:

Lessons for ELFC:

− Actions of fashion labels to support diversity in the supply chain enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of small manufacturers specialising in sampling and CMT ('cut, make, trim), essential if London is to retain capacity to produce the small quantities needed by independent designers.
− There is an opportunity for established labels to work with UK manufacturers to develop new and responsive systems and supply chain relationships, including through employment of experienced intermediaries and mentors.
− Diversification of manufacturers which traditionally specialised in one craft skill (eg, leather goods) could enable them to undertake production of whole ranges for highend fashion labels.
− Closer integration and increased knowledge exchange between different levels of the supply chain leads to greater confidence in investment in skills and innovation amongst smaller producers.
− Milan's reputation for quality is central to its branding as a World Fashion Capital. London and the UK hasn't strategically promoted such a singular definition within its fashion sector.
− Future proofing London's manufacturing base is key and as in Milan 'networking between specialist suppliers is paramount for survival.
− There is an opportunity for ELFC to play a central role in defining London as the world's 'Creative Fashion Capital' and take a lead from Milan/Italy in heavily promoting this globally.

3.5 Analysis

Fashion located in East London because it combined cheap accommodation with easy access to market. It was a catalyst to the 'move East' of creative industries that drove the development of a high value knowledge economy in the City Fringe. Ironically, that success has now created demand for premises for housing and other more valuable economic activities that presents a huge risk of displacement to existing fashion businesses.

Another factor in the success of fashion in East London has been access to skilled migrant labour, which has been drawn to the area by the same combination of low cost accommodation and economic opportunity in a trend that dates back centuries. Immigrant and transient groups form continue to form a significant part of the fashion workforce, and the same pressures now threaten their ability to remain in the area.

However, the growth of knowledge economy hubs such as TechCity and the resulting agglomeration of technology, finance and a workforce with new kinds of skills now offers fashion in East London an opportunity for growth through a focus on higher value products. This in turn has the potential to benefit some of the most deprived communities in London through new jobs and higher wages.

The baseline data supports the strategy of creating production corridors in East London and Upper Lea Valley as a source of new jobs and GVA - and the success of fashion manufacturing could be a 'beacon' for wider policy initiatives to address retention of industrial premises.

All this is happening despite market volatility and the evidence that there is plenty of room for improvement in information flow, skills development, innovation and promotion.

This isn't a 'zero sum' game: promoting clustering of fashion, technology, business and education extends the opportunity for other industries to address a $3 trillion global market.

This is an opportunity to demonstrate 'smart specialisation'9/ - reimagining London's fashion sector as a globally significant digital manufacturing cluster that outcompetes other cities, increases high value employment opportunities and drives inward investment.
Effectiveness of public sector intervention
How does the experience of other cities help shape the proposition for London?

− The option to invest large sums of EU money - in the case of Antwerp, to brand itself as a fashion capital and tourist destination; in Istanbul, to develop capacity to vertically integrate its textile and fashion manufacturing sectors - is no longer available to London. But the opportunity to better coordinate marketing of fashion as part of the city offer of visitor economy and inward investment - as observed in the 'I amsterdam' campaign - is picked up in proposals for year-round promotion of 'London Fashion Capital', building on existing high profile campaigns such as London Fashion Week and the 'Fashion is Great' trade and investment promotion coordinated by British Fashion Council and UKFT with the Department for International Trade.

'Manufacture New York' (www.manufactureny.com) offers a model of incubation and business support integrated within new manufacturing capacity, seeded by a $3.5m investment from NY City Hall.10/ The major investment, however, is a share of a $315m innovation project by US Department of Defense and MIT to promote innovation in textiles.11/ Our proposal for a Fashion Manufacturing Hub borrows from the model, but is more organic in scale; other funding initiatives will address the need for fashion to be better positioned to be in receipt of equivalent (if more modest) Government innovation funds available through Innovate UK.

− Dubai's 'D3' (Dubai Design District) is another attempt by the Emirate to build a creative cluster from scratch. Previous efforts - Dubai Media City and Dubai Tech City - have had limited impact on their respective sectors. Dubai's fashion reputation is linked to its status as a visitor destination, but its approach to fashion, eschewing manufacturing altogether in favour of a focus on digital innovation in garment design, branding, online and physical retail experiences, reflects our findings about the technological drivers of growth in an 'omnichannel' retail paradigm.

− Milan and Los Angeles, in different ways, emphasise the importance of a strong industry-led body to coordinate sector development and lobbying. Again, this is about providing an effective interface between fashion and the public sector in the way that ELFC sets out to do.

Case study comparisons - Cluster Support

Antwerp
− 1980: 'five year textile plan' saw investment of €687m, 80% of which went to Flanders, which aimed to recover the competitiveness of firms through the reconstruction of their capital, the modernisation of their production technology and the creation of 100,000 jobs − 2002: Creation of ModeNatie - putting main fashion research, training and tourism resource under one roof - part of a long term plan to brand Antwerp as a fashion capital

Los Angeles
− California Fashion Association (est 1995) - not-for-profit, subscription based B2B organisation - promotes Fashion District, organises events, manages information resource bank and links with other associations
− 'Made In California' attracts a 9% premium

New York
− Made in NY: $10m per annum
− Madeinnyfashion.nyc portal for designers and manufacturers
− Fully funded internships for students
− Seed funding to explore 'advanced technologies'
− Fashion Production Fund
− Exhibition funding

Enhanced Business Area" ( EBA ), to balance manufacturing and creative office uses. Stipulation that 17% of the new buildings must be used for production.

Milan
Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI, est 1958) working in partnership with an asyet-unnamed bank to create a resource centre that, among other things, will help young designers up their e-commerce game. Also planning training, and financial support for young designers, including a physical work space 'hub' not unlike the CFDA incubator.

Amsterdam
− 'I Amsterdam' trade and investment promotion includes dedicated creative industries/design expertise to provide advice and facilitate inward missions
− Netherlands has a strategic focus on Dutch design (as opposed to creative industries in general) in its export promotion

Dubai
− Dubai Design District ('D3') looking at innovation in fashion retail from a 'smart cities' perspective
− Water shortages mean that manufacture is impractical; so the entire focus is on retail, distribution and design using the very latest Internet of Things technology, AR, VR ...

Istanbul
− EU funding to establish Fashion and Textile Cluster (FTC) to increase international competitiveness

3.6 Developing the proposition for East London Fashion Cluster

Scenario planning, involving a group of industry professionals and academics (see Appendix E, below) in a workshop setting, was used to help narrow down the strategic options and objectives for sector development, and to start to frame plans for how support might be focused. We asked the workshop participants:
Risks in the current environment - 'do nothing' scenario
Analysis of the business case for any public intervention typically includes consideration of the 'counterfactual' - a 'do nothing' case. In the case of East London, the structural barriers to sustainability and growth of the sector (detailed in the SWOT analysis below) point to the need for intervention to address poor information and coordination, skills gaps and shortages, and the consequences of widespread undercapitalisation. These would be serious concerns at any time, but the uncertainties around Brexit and the sustainability of current global trading arrangements could point to an even more gloomy prognosis.

However, the planned development of CED and LCF's move, mean that the situation for fashion in East London will change. We are careful not to describe that move in itself as a 'silver bullet' to address all the sector's shortcomings and move all the barriers to its continuing presence as a widespread employment sector in East London. It does, however, allow us to calibrate both the nature and scale of the support needed by the sector, and to examine the likely impacts of different approaches.

We therefore presented a range of different scenarios of how the fashion sector in East London might respond to opportunities and threats in the political, economic, social and technology environment. Participants were presented with a detailed series of scenarios, each with their respective political, economic, social and technological implications: we summarise these in the table below.
London, World Creative Fashion Capital
The proposition that emerged from the group is one that been expressed by industry representatives in the focus groups. Without dismissing the constraints imposed by existing structural challenges and information failures that limit productivity, investment and growth in many fashion businesses, and without being complacent about the risks of falling demand and tougher trading conditions in the global economy, it asserts that the challenge of building and sustaining a productive, high-growth and job-creating fashion sector in London is to increase the absorptive capacity for innovation across all parts of the fashion supply chain.

The renaissance of the fashion sector in East London will be accelerated by its proximity to other centres of knowledge capital in Tech City, the City and Canary Wharf. East London is the only place in the UK in which fashion designers, finance, major knowledge economy hubs such as Tech City, the head offices of major fashion brands and retailers and specialist high end garment manufacturing meet face-to-face. Both incomers and indigenous businesses, start-ups and scale-ups will benefit from that proximity, which will offer ease of access to the talent, technology and capital to exploit their creativity to maximum advantage.

ELFC will trigger a significant increase in R&D activity across this geography, drawing in investment from UK High Street retailers and high end fashion labels to increase London's capacity and knowledge to deliver profitable innovation to the fashion supply chain.

The aim is to re-establish London as the World Creative Fashion Capital, reinforcing its global reputation for creativity through innovation and investment in the following way:

'Young designers and new, younger fashion consumers interact through 'omnichannel' retail experiences, playing to London's strengths in both creativity and digital industries. 'Increased collaboration between fashion designers and other creative and tech agencies transforms the sector's relationship with external investors, releasing capital for further innovation and growth.

'Bolstered by the presence of world-leading resources to support technical and market innovation, London undergoes a creative fashion renaissance that cements its position as the world's creative fashion capital.'
Economic
Consumers increasingly expect 'omnichannel' retailing to provide not only a seamless experience between online and physical retail environments, but a relationship to the brand. London's young designers grasp this; and start to adjust their product and pricing to meet this demand, managing small and frequently turned around collections of stock both online and through outlet and pop-up stores to tap into a younger audience that is curious about new fashion, but sensitive to price.

The success of this approach is most evident in Hackney Walk, where the mix of retail opportunities, studio space and 'making' facilities leads to increasing clustering of fashion, marketing, tech and online retail firms, as 'Tech City' expands beyond its traditional Shoreditch base to join up with the resulting cluster, a new fashion district stretching from Dalston to Morning Lane.

The resulting cross-fertilisation of design, marketing and software skills fuels the creation of a new generation of responsive online retail platforms and apps offering new fashion and new experiences - at price points to engage trend-conscious young buyers disaffected with a decade of mass-produced 'athleisure'.

Other private investors, encouraged by the evidence of demand for new types of retail experience and the relative affordability of a large 'distressed' inventory of speculatively developed property (for which Brexit has suppressed other demand) set up a constellation of outlets and pop-ups across an arc of East and North East London.

This provides increased access to market for both established designers and new entrants, whose skills in fast fashion and market segmentation have been honed by their experience of designing for online retail.

Attracted by the increased volume of work created by the faster turnaround of new online collections and the demand of the new outlets (and the pop-up stores that spring up within and around them) for constant innovation in both product and retail experience, and aware that their nimbleness gives them an advantage over bigger advertising and marketing firms, small creative/tech agencies increasingly seek to secure their relationships and pair up with new designers.

The resulting hybridisation of content and product development skills leads to exploration of new business models, such as subscription.

Multiplying online, outlet, pop-up and showcasing opportunities become the focus of a new 'London fashion capital' campaign - extending the kind of focus that now exists only around the three London Fashion Week showcases to a year-round platform.

Bolstered by a stronger bargaining position with distributors and retailers hungry for 'Made In London' product for online, outlet and international markets, and supported by the cluster with the backing of the Mayor's office, manufacturers successfully lobby 'mainstream' multiple retailers for better terms of trade (eg on payment periods and returns.)

To secure their own supply chain, manufacturers begin to underwrite investments in new collections from young London designers that now make up 30-50% of their turnover.

Newly emboldened by international market opportunities and awash with private investment, graduates of London's fashion schools begin to form a new generation of 'born global' businesses, mixing the best of London's creative, technical and entrepreneurial 'edge' with the 'diaspora' resource of access to large scale manufacturing opportunities in their 'home' countries, but retaining the IP in London.
Social
Accelerating market and technological change has now closed the gap between the atelier, the head office and the factory floor; and demand for labour has increased. The resulting new skills gaps and shortages need urgently to be plugged. Industry, schools and colleges combine to develop campaigns to promote and provide work experience opportunities within a fashion manufacturing sector that now represents a world leading hybrid of craft, content, marketing, performance management and technology skills to encourage take up of traineeships and flexible apprenticeships amongst 16-24 year olds.

This is accompanied by a demand led ('voucher') scheme to encourage manufacturers to invest in their own business management, project management, innovation and marketing capacity.

These measures combine to encourage private sector property developers, designers, manufacturers and distributors to invest over the long term in innovation, plant and skills, creating new sub-sectors and service opportunities and an explosion of new jobs available to people living in those boroughs. (straddles political and social)
Technological
Presence of multiple and distinctive R&D facilities - LCF Digital Anthropology Lab, Plexal and other private sector co-working spaces and maker labs drawn by the demand - attracts a wave of new investment in fashion tech propositions, including from foreign- owned labels and manufacturers

Increased collaboration with creative and tech firms has the beneficial side effect of encouraging designers to adopt software and productivity tools that allow them to strengthen their garment tech skills. This in turn helps them to work more effectively with manufacturers, more of whom start to promote their services to new labels as a result. New online platforms and apps proliferate, offering fashion audiences opportunities to cocreate anything from personalised garments to whole ranges.

Improved cashflow and greater confidence in the security of demand from a range of online and physical distribution platforms stimulates manufacturers to invest both in new technology and in new agile management and production skills to enable them to diversify and respond to the faster turnaround of new product demanded by this changed environment.

The focus on developing the adoption of emerging and enabling technologies within the creation, promotion and consumption of fashion aligns with Innovate UK strategy, allowing the sector to attract unheralded levels of public investment in innovation. On the basis that fashion is something that we all engage with every day, the interdisciplinary applications of those discoveries in a range of adjacent fields of health, sport, home and smart cities technology, promoted as 'lifetech' through Plexal, transforms the perception of fashion among private sector tech investors. Fashion is now seen by industry and policy makers alike as one of the main channels through which the discoveries of science and technology research can be translated into successful commercial applications. London's success in identifying itself as the world's leading centre for this activity engages a 'virtuous cycle' of investment in research, development and commercialisation.

At the heart of this cluster, the development of a 'new' LCF at Stratford with an increased focus on technological innovation and developing an 'observatory' function for the future of fashion catapults London into a position of unassailable advantage as the leading creative World Fashion Capital.
Political
The formation of the East London Fashion Cluster seizes upon the opportunity to build on London's reputation as the leading creative world fashion capital through the development of policy to support a world leading cluster of fashion innovation assets.

Innovation in both retail experience and online platforms is the driver for transformation of the sector through widescale adoption of smart specialisation and 'agile' methodologies in marketing and management of the fashion supply chain that allows more creative freedom and greater responsiveness to consumer demands.

Policy, therefore, focuses on encouraging the development of absorptive capacity for innovation throughout the fashion supply chain, mixed with awareness of the need to offer security of tenure to a range of creative, manufacturing and technical businesses within East London to support variety and inter-disciplinary collaborations across the sector.

The aim is to develop the creative talents of people at every level of the fashion supply chain, rather than to focus on a single technology.

The creation of a Strategic Enterprise Zone for design and manufacturing in Haringey and Thames Estuary Production Corridor offers fashion manufacturers a combination of business rates relief and long leaseholds that give them confidence to plan for the future.

Planning of these zones includes provision for rapid transit - bus corridors, light rail and underground lines - that allow existing workforces to continue to access jobs that have relocated to new premises along these routes, whilst opening up new employment opportunities to communities across East London.

Weakened currency and increasing focus on export as Brexit approaches encourages DIT to increase focus on and investment in showcasing fashion for export and attracting inward investment.
Section 3 Footnotes
7/ RPI grew by 15.72% in the same period
8/ Note that not all of these will be designer fashion businesses - see Appendix B
9/ "Smart Specialisation seeks to ensure that proposed actions are based upon sound evidence that properly reflects the comparative advantages of the physical and human assets of particular places in the global economy. It emphasises the need to ensure that activities are fully integrated in the local economy and its supply and value chains. It helps to build connections of ideas, finance and trade with similar activities elsewhere. It promotes also the use of enabling technologies that can transfer and add value between related sectors". Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2015)
10/ Friedman, A. (2016). Manufacture New York blossoms in Brooklyn. WWD, 10 May 2016. http://wwd.com/business-news/government-trade/manufacture-new-york-blossoms-brooklyn-10426994/
11/ Ellis, K. and Friedman, A. (2016). White House paves the way for new textile frontier. WWD, 1 April 2016. http://wwd.com/business-news/other/white-house-revolutionary-textiles-10402144/S

4 Action Plan

Image Description: A white female model is shown close up, she has textured floral makeup covering half of her face and a large floral hairpiece which someone can be seen adjusting.

4.1 Creating the East London Fashion Cluster

The proposal to create an East London Fashion Cluster (ELFC) organisation is a strategic response to the coordination failures within the sector in East London. It will be a strategic business support organisation responsible for coordinating information flows and steering a programme of sector specialist interventions tailored to meet the needs of fashion businesses.

The cluster body will be vertically integrated with key partners, driving open innovation and taking best advantage of other institutions' resource and capabilities, with CED as a physical hub site and meeting point.
Space, proximity and focus
High value activity in fashion is currently focused on an inner East London 'core' of Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets, which together represent 56 percent of fashion GVA in East London and the Upper Lea Valley. In a sector dependent on higher value design inputs, Hackney's very high concentration of design businesses signals a potential source of competitive advantage for East London. Hackney also benefits from significant networks of high value digital content businesses and the presence of London College of Fashion's Centre for Fashion Enterprise.

As previously stated, the physical clustering of knowledge assets in Tech City, the City and Canary Wharf has been shown to accelerate sharing of ideas and to result in interdisciplinary collaborations of all kinds. The growth of those knowledge hubs was in large part a result of the influx of new talent and market opportunities presented by artists and creative enterprises moving into those areas; the CED will now leverage relationships with and proximity to those other clusters to provide a hub for growth and development of creative enterprises, linking technology, culture, art and the visitor economy and to crystallise the value of fashion inputs to a range of applications and sectors.
Sub-regional and regional priorities
Support for the fashion sector in East London also has a clear link to processes of 'place making' that go beyond the development of any single industry sector. This strategy recognises those linkages as they are reflected in the GLA's London Plan, LLDC's 10 Year Plan, the Upper Lea Valley Opportunity Area Plan. It is the first step in the process to establish a creative industries led 'production corridor' in the Thames Estuary.

ELFC will help strengthen supply chains within London by helping to develop more sophisticated and responsive business models and processes to take advantage of changing opportunities. Our interim recommendation is that all of the interventions that result from the findings of this report should in some way reflect and respect the principle of 'smart specialisation'.

This means addressing gaps in the supply chain holistically, taking into account:

These internal factors combine with concerns about structural challenges such as; increasing cost of premises; concerns over skills gaps and shortages, lack of working capital for prototyping and production; uncertainties about international trade - to limit growth opportunities in the short term and increase the threats of market volatility over the long term.

There is some evidence that physical clustering of design, production and other service providers - as is beginning to happen at Hackney Walk, for example - acts as an 'amplifier' for the signals from the market and helps all members of the cluster become more
productive, more competitive, and more creative.

There is no suggestion that increased demand for housing in London, and East London in particular, will be matched by new supply any time soon. This calls for policy and interventions to balance supply and demand of suitable space to address the need for proximity between different parts of the fashion value chain, is a critical success factor in increasing productive capacity of the sector.
Role of Higher and Further Education Institutions
'The current Government's Industrial Strategy is underpinned by the multiple interactions between universities and businesses. Put simply, universities assist organisations of all sizes to become more competitive, innovative and productive. ... Alongside their international agendas, universities and colleges are important 'anchors' and 'place-makers' in their local and regional geographies. Through 'smart specialisation', and their expertise in skills development, they contribute proactively to ... economic development ' 12/

'Open' innovation accentuates the role of Higher and Further Education in knowledge transfer, and the need for a knowledgeable and responsive cluster organisation embedded within the sector to facilitate those connections between industry and the knowledge base across multiple and overlapping local and sectoral networks of interest. Whilst it offers the potential for a transformation of performance of the industry and of the firms within it, it also requires that the public sector invest in the development of both physical and virtual environments where collaboration between small firms, corporates and universities can take place on equal terms. Physical infrastructure will be provided by:

− LCF and other universities' existing business incubation and innovation activities
− V&A East, with its mission to investigate the role of the designer
− A Fashion-tech and smart materials showcase on CED

Its corollary is the development of responsive and sector specific business support that integrates ELFC with the other private sector organisations already servicing a range of fashion activity - including Stitch Academy, Fashion Technology Academy, Fashioning Poplar and Newgen.
THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN CATALYSING SUCCESSFUL CLUSTERS
In a fragmented and fast moving sector that operates in global markets with 'widely distributed knowledge', competitiveness - particularly for small firms - depends increasingly on their willingness and capacity to collaborate. Small companies typically lack the financial and strategic capacity to sustain investment in R&D and need to draw upon the knowledge base in large corporates, universities and on one another's expertise to develop new products and services. Proximity to established businesses and venture finance can bring further benefits in the form of enterprise capital and access to new markets. This is the kind of configuration of services and behaviour observed in amongst the world's most creative and competitive clusters - Silicon Valley, for example, or the Cambridge hi-tech cluster in the UK.

Studies of the Cambridge hi-tech cluster indicate that many of the successful spin outs of the last twenty years can be traced to the involvement of a network of a mere 35 individuals. Critical to its success is the fact that Cambridge University was willing to share and even sign over IPR to get new ventures off the ground. ELFC strategy seeks to foster a similar and competitive climate of enterprise, to identify potential investors in our region and to provide them with the right information about the investment opportunities in the sector to ensure that we capitalise on the potential of MediaCityUK. Working in partnership with the region's leading financial and professional services businesses will identify new investors and match them with world class business propositions from entrepreneurs around whom a high value, high growth cluster can be built.

LCF and the other institutions in and around QEOP - UCL, Birkbeck and LUL - are an essential component in delivery of the fashion sector strategy. They offer businesses knowledge transfer, innovation guidance, networks and skills. Higher Education has a dual role here, both in spin out from its research activities and in providing high end support for leadership and R&D to stimulate new ventures from the private sector.

− UCL, through its Global Disability Innovation Hub13/, complements the activity of LCF and Plexal, a private sector accelerator for 'lifetech' companies working across disciplines, in using fashion as a channel to embed design thinking and creativity into all parts of the private and public sectors including manufacturing, business processes and public sector procurement.

− UCL's campus on the QEOP will provide a place for experimentation around arts, science and technology. Within this, UCL will offer multi-disciplinary programmes within four themes, three of which are 'originating', 'connecting', and 'making'. One faculty that
will move to the QEOP will be UCL's Institute of Making (which shares with LCF and LUL an interest in future materials research).

− LUL has a specific mandate for design innovation through its Institute for Design Innovation and its Institute for Digital Technologies. Its Institute for Enterprise Development delivers programmes related to entrepreneurship and innovation and also serves as a research hub.
Talent and skills development
ELFC will be delivered by LCF in partnership with industry and other sector organisations such as the British Fashion Council and UKFT. It will put in place the stimulus for HEIs to work with industry to match supply of skills with demand and to develop courses that will provide relevant skills to meet the new opportunities presented by growth of demand.

An industry-led strategic advisory board will provide oversight to ensure that training is relevant to future needs of the sector. The rhythm of producing 'seasonal' collections every six months has been disrupted by changes in consumer demand and behaviour, but many small employers and individual entrepreneurs have little grasp of the future skill sets required to meet the challenge of digital marketplaces and global supply chains.

ELFC will continue to work with employers, HEIs, colleges and private sector training and apprenticeship providers not only to address the immediate and projected direct skills needs of the sector, but to develop an understanding of the flow of skills across the fashion supply chain between full-time employment and short term contract arrangements.

This will express the potential of fashion to become a widespread employment sector as other industries undergo structural changes in response to technological change and international competition. Many of the most keenly felt gaps and shortages are in production, in which most roles are open to non-graduates.

Demand for skills cannot be met by new entrants alone, so if the sector is to address its skills shortages before they become critical it will need to develop an understanding of the transferable skills of current employees in other sectors as well as of its new entrant and
graduate 'pipeline'.

Employers will demonstrate the career prospects in added value manufacturing, lack of which are deterring young people from taking up existing vacancies for entry-level manufacturing jobs, by investing in a pipeline of development for technical and management skills. This will powerfully address inclusive growth within London's communities and reduce threats from externalities, including Brexit.
Inward investment
Markets for fashion are global rather than national. The sustainability of sector based on innovation and creativity will depend in large part on its ability to attract foreign direct investment.

Inward investors increase market competition and inter-firm rivalry, strengthen the supply chain and drive demand for skills within a region that results in retention and attraction of key talent, to the benefit of the sector. Inward investors are typically working from a higher asset base than 'organically grown' SMEs and their capacity to invest in their own growth results in more, and more sustainable, employment opportunities.

An internationalisation strategy is critical in creating demand for a sector which has only a 6% share of its domestic market. UK retailers who are seeing success overseas (e.g. Ted Baker, All Saints) and e-commerce platforms all offer local companies opportunities to access new international markets.14/

Although East London is not the only site for inward investment in London, the role of ELFC as a catalyst for development of the fashion sector will be a strategic asset in promoting the London region to international investors. ELFC will work with London & Partners, DIT and global industry partners to identify and target businesses (both overseas and domestic) whose investment will strengthen and fill any gaps in the supply chain.
ELFC's role in catalysing wider development
ELFC will be focused on activity to develop the fashion sector in East London - but will act as a catalyst for developments across London and in the rest of the UK, and build interdisciplinary links with other sectors of the knowledge and advanced manufacturing economy.

− It will be a 'beacon' project for the development of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor
− Many of the proposed interventions - the 'Fashion Skills for London' framework, Fashion Innovation Playground - are envisaged as pilots for London-wide activity
− ELFC will help local authorities develop knowledge and practice to identify, safeguard and develop affordable premises and specialist production facilities for fashion;
− It will coordinate and signal opportunities to collaborate with and develop market and supply chain opportunities in other sectors of the knowledge economy.
− It will act as a 'hub' for coordinated activity with other cluster 'spokes' across the regions and nations of the UK
Opportunities for sustainable and ethical fashion
The Ethical Fashion Forum has identified a growing market for transparency and 'storytelling'. It argues that consumers would recognise a 'Made in Britain' (and by extension 'Made in London') brand, regulated within UK production guidelines, as being of ethical and high-quality robustness for which they would be willing to pay a premium.

Clustering holds great opportunities for sustainable fashion. As a hub for technology and research, East London offers the potential for cross-sector collaboration on new sustainable processes and products - e.g. scientists and engineers working with designers to grow wearable fabrics and garments, (see Figure 13, above).

UK manufacture of these new products would also avoid high import costs and taxation. A sustainable fashion strategy would need to be complemented by a policy around supporting factories to deliver smaller runs at affordable costs to allow those collaborations to grow into sustainable businesses.

4.2 Action Plan Interventions

The action plan for the East London Fashion Cluster sets out a framework for industry led development of the fashion sector. For it to succeed, the investment of industry partners will need to greatly exceed that of the public sector and to extend beyond the remit of economic development. Micro- and small fashion enterprises and individual entrepreneurs will need coordinated information about the opportunities this presents, and support to address them.

However, the business case for the cluster will make it clear that public intervention should only seek to fill the gaps in other provision and address market failure - it cannot provide a solution for every business.

The action plan combines strategic initiatives developed by the group convened by GLA - a publicprivate partnership between education and industry, sub-regional partners and local authorities - with existing activities that contribute to the fulfilment of the transformational agenda of the strategy.

The action plan contains draft proposals collectively to:

− Increase knowledge exchange between fashion sub-sectors and service sectors
− Address career development, key skills gaps and shortages
− Provide flexible, short-term finance to address undercapitalisation
− Support increasing diversity of the sector through development of 'smart specialisation' to address changing market opportunities; improve the perception of opportunities within production
− Incubate businesses
− Promote ethical design and production
− Increase the supply of affordable workspace in cooperation with public sector, private sector developers and community-led initiatives
Coordination and signalling Existing activity
Let's Make It Here - Online resource for designers, brands and retailers that works by users rating listings to bring the three groups better together
MySource - digital forum to connect a wide range of fashion makers, designers, and investors, with a shared interest in ethical fashion design and manufacturing
Fashion Capital - membership organisation for UK fashion professionals offering mentoring, apprenticeships
London Fashion Weeks - British Fashion Council-led
BFC and UKFT - existing membership and trade body activities
Trade and investment promotion - BFC and UKFT in partnership with DIT
Proposed new intervention
EAST LONDON FASHION CLUSTER
Lead Partner: London College of Fashion
Wider Partners: GLA, LLDC, Plexal, BFC, industry

Pre-launch activity (to April 2018) will focus on the development of a small entity, incubated within London College of Fashion but with its own governance and an independent, industry-led advisory board, with the capability of driving the development of the ELFC.

The proposed activities set out below include targeted programmes that fill market gaps, advocacy and policy shaping and effective promotion and thought leadership, including signposting and networking. LCF will assume responsibility for some of these functions in the short-term, working in partnership with a wider group, as indicated above. However, the aim will be to establish a new company to deliver in the medium-term, and LCF will explore possible funding streams that could support this coordinating entity.
Skills and training Existing and planned activity
BFC Education Pillar - Careers initiatives, scholarships and apprenticeships. (NB: 2017 is BFC Year of Education.)
Stitch Academy at Hackney Walk - fashion-related business development and support
Fashion Trust - charitable initiative offering business support to British based designers through financial grants, mentoring and a graduate traineeship programme
Fashion Technology Academy - an offshoot of Fashion Enter: public sector/ industry partnership to deliver a training centre for manufacturing skills related to fashion. It teaches levels 1-4 for NEETs and unemployed people
Newham College - apprenticeships for tailoring and fashion manufacturing
Proposed new intervention
FASHION SKILLS FOR LONDONERS FRAMEWORK
Lead Partner: Greater London Authority (interim); UKFT
Wider Partners: UAL, LLDC and BFC

ELFC will pilot the development in East London of a Skills Framework identifying key skills and training gaps, Levels 1-4, across the Fashion Sector Pipeline, from craft and technical skills through executive and management. Working closely with industry and informed by demand, the Framework will build towards a costed proposal covering:

Required Skills & Training
− An assessment of skills demand both for shortages (pipeline) and gaps (in current workforce) across fashion manufacturing.
− An appraisal of existing skills provision (careers guidance, courses, modules, facilities, continuing professional development and providers)
− A 'wishlist' identifying where additional qualifications, courses, modules and training is required, likely targeting gaps in provision around:
* Craft and technical skills related to fashion manufacture
* Tailoring
* Design and garment technology
* Digital Skills - including fabrication
* Management and executive skills
* Wrap-around business support and mentoring in areas such as cashflow projection, product costing and buying, support for industry compliance
− Exploring potential to broaden participation by mature school leavers (post Apprentice age of 24), with some prior work experience
− A related work stream of training and funding (in the form of loans) to existing and start up manufacturers to enable compliance with ethical production standards (Fast Forward / SMETA Audits)
Delivery Mechanism
− Appraisal of models for training delivery and capacity and technology analysis of FE
− Development of preferred proposal of delivery considering
* Interface with Apprenticeship levy and Apprenticeship frameworks
* Review of industry partnerships (retail and manufacture) to leverage investment in the programme
* Assessment of capital investment required for new facilities and equipment, including potential for streamlining with Focused Manufacturing Hub proposal
− Outline cost for delivery of boosted provision
− Pilot options within unique fashion education ecosystem in East London
Outcomes
− Inform Creative Industry Skills section of the Mayor's 'Skills for Londoners Strategy' being developed throughout 2017- a city-wide strategic approach to ensuring all Londoners and London businesses can access the skills they need to succeed
− Explore potential to expand delivery across London through existing relationships with FE providers in other parts of the capital
Innovation and R&D Existing and planned activity
FASHION INNOVATION PLAYGROUND
Lead Partner: LCF
Wider Partners: GLA, CED institutions and stakeholders

A hosted challenge fund accelerator programme with the purpose of promoting collaborative R&D projects between technologists, designers, researchers and SMEs across sectors, and to unlock the collaborative potential and knowledge exchange across the CED, bringing together researchers, designers, technologists and industries with an offer of tangible support and investment.

The design of the challenge fund programme will be shaped in response and consultation with the existing networks, assets and ambitions of the CED Institutions, including LCF's Fashion Innovation Agency and Digital Anthropology Lab and Centre for Fashion Enterprise's Fash Tech Pioneers programme and equivalents, and oriented to the business-led and product development focus of Innovate UK funding opportunities across 2017/18:

− Innovate UK's 'Launchpad' funding for investment in network building, investors, and programming support where there is clear evidence of a 'cluster' and evidence that benefit will be UK-wide (rolling)
− Emerging and Enabling funds for business-led R&D projects focused on technology, up to £15m
− Open funds - business-led, flexible bids for funding, up to £15m

Outcome: New products, platforms and processes and IP resulting from the interaction of fashion design and technology in clothing, jewellery, accessories and services. Ensuring that fashion tech start-ups have the depth of product or supply chain knowledge to fully capitalise on their business opportunity.
Next steps: Ongoing concept development, identification of industry or commercial partners and challenge 'hosts' including sources for potential match funding leverage
FASHION TECH R&D SHOWCASE
Lead Partner: LCF
Wider Partners: GLA, UKFT, CED institutions and stakeholders

At the physical epicentre of the East London Fashion Cluster will sit a showcasing space (or series of spaces) shared between the institutions within the CED, creating an intensity of collaborative relationships across disciplines, institutions, and sectors around the research and development of new materials, products and platforms. Containing the most advanced equipment for digital fabrication and printing, as well as wet and dry labs for the development of new exploration of sustainable materials and wearable technologies, the facility will act as both a research laboratory as well as a showcase emerging products and materials, acting as a knowledge centre facilitating links and exchange with wider UK fashion industry hubs.

Outcome: Delivers on original vision and ambition for the cluster including facilitation of cross-institutional and cross-sectoral collaboration and collaborative learning, tangible facilities to encourage designers, engineers, technologists and industry partnership development; new products and IP development, such as wearable tech, fabric innovation and AR/VR applications for showcasing and retail.

Next steps: Wider engagement amongst the CED partners to scope appetite and shape scope of offer, build case for shared investment commission consultants to develop a vision and brief in consultation with wider stakeholders (to include business case, operational/management strategy); investigate potential to leverage Innovate UK from the forthcoming Industrial Challenge Fund earmarked for creative industries, to secure support for cluster/centre development.
Funding Existing activity
Horizon 2020: the biggest EU research and innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). It is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.

Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency; it is an executive arm of BEIS. It works to determine which science and tech developments will drive economic growth. One of its key focuses for 2017 is linking creative industries with technology to develop new products.

London Co-Investment Fund offers a tiered co-investment fund providing seed funding (in rounds between £250k and £1m) to match private equity investments. It targets 'high growth tech. science and digital startups.'

All of the above demonstrate very low levels of take up by UK fashion businesses.
Planned activity
LONDON FASHION FUND
Lead Partner: London College of Fashion

LCF's planned equity fund aims to link investors with designers and tech entrepreneurs. It will support fashion business locally, regionally and nationally at all stages of their development; it will help conceive, incorporate and accelerate businesses. A focus of the fund will be to develop fashion entrepreneurship with an environmental and social conscience. It is expected that a significant proportion of the businesses supported by the LFF will be part of the East London Fashion Cluster.
Space Existing activity Proposed new intervention
FASHION WORKSPACE ALLIANCE
Lead partners: London Legacy Development Corporation and Poplar HARCA
Wider partners: GLA, BFC: Fashion Spaces, CED institutions and stakeholders, local boroughs, landowners, developers, workspace providers & fashion industry experts and corporates

A brokerage 'service' to connect local authorities, developers and fashion businesses to a range of workspace in East London. The 'coordination' service would consist of:

Boroughs and developers will be engaged in an action plan to address supply and the pipeline of demand for commercial premises, reducing the risk of displacement, providing the conditions for new creative enterprise growth within East London's communities. Lead partners will review GLA's strategy for affordable workspace, the range of policy measures and interventions available to local authorities and best practice examples to preserve and promote the use of available commercial premises as a factor influencing the competitiveness of the indigenous fashion sector.

Outcome: clearer pipeline linking demand with supply, robust stock of appropriate, new, and refurbished workspace on long tenures to ensure predictable supply of workspace for fashion business; ongoing cross-borough exchange of knowledge and practice.

Next steps: ongoing review of policy measures and best practice case studies, lessons learned from online tools and dissemination, development of 'minimal viable product' digital tool to showcase pipeline of demand; ongoing development of brokerage system and signposting to wrap-around services.
Business incubation and support Existing and planned activity Proposed new intervention
FOCUSED MANUFACTURING HUB
Lead Partner: Open call to industry - facilitated by the ELFC (GLA/LCF in the interim); LCF as lead innovation partner
Wider Partners: UKFT with GLA to coordinate input on training provision element In addition to continued support for existing incubation and accelerator programmes, a particular strand of development could seek to commission at least one open access manufacturing hub with a 'wrap around' support (along the lines of 'Manufacture New York') to develop innovative business, inclusive workforce development, education and incubation programmes to support creation of businesses in clothing, textiles and wearable technology; to drive Innovation and compliance in the fashion manufacturing sector and address threats of displacement to existing added value manufacturing.
Outcomes Next steps
I. Concept development - gather best practice from international precedents, info on operating models, industry links
II. Research - mapping existing facilities that could be expanded or operators looking to relocate
III. Engagement - engage with existing manufacturers to explore a) scope for expansion of provision b) gaps in provision of facilities, equipment

Ongoing engagement with boroughs

Trade and investment
Existing and planned activity Proposed new intervention
LONDON CREATIVE FASHION CAPITAL
Lead Partners: GLA and BFC in discussion
Wider Partners: Example partners include London Festival of Architecture, Hackney Wicked, Open House

Initiative being explored by Mayors Office over 2017 to showcase the renaissance in productive capacity of the capital, combining:

I. Mayor's International Business programme and 'Made in London' - see existing and planned activity, above
II. Potential to repurpose past public sector investment into a web platform for London Creative Fashion Capital
III. Programme of 'open studios' showcasing, and signage in East London celebrating technical craft and skill within London creative industries, potentially aligned with the 'Made in London' initiative in exploration by the Deputy Mayor for Business, and linked with GLA's prior experience developing initiatives which celebrate and promote industrial areas.

Outcome: Sign-posting, celebration and protection of industrial and craft heritage

Next steps: Concept development with key partners, mapping of existing festival provision and operators, internal

4.3 Next steps: four stage process

I. Pre-launch activity (to April 2018) will focus on the development of a small entity, incubated within London College of Fashion but with its own governance and an independent, industry-led advisory board, with the capability of driving the development of the ELFC. During this period, the pilot project will:
* Establish a strategic advisory board,
* Identify further development resource; consult more widely with industry and educational partners
* Identify new and build upon existing links to other UK clusters
* Refresh strategy, refine business case and action plan
* Identify funding to establish separate company
* Develop communications strategy and marketing plan
* Recruit (or second) staff to the cluster organisation

II. The launch of ELFC is targeted for April 2018. By this time, the London Fashion Fund will be in place, and the timetable for other interventions agreed. An initial programme of activity, linked to existing activity across East London, will reinforce the presence, vision and mission of ELFC amongst Fashion businesses and investors.

III. The relocation of LCF and establishment of CED over 2021/22 will consolidate the gains and learning of the pilot phase. The Fashion Tech R&D Showcase will provide an identifiable entry point for local and UK businesses and international investors.

IV. Following the relocation of LCF, evaluation of the first three years of ELFC should take place to assist the strategic advisory board and partners in identifying its path to future sustainability. Evaluation should indicate the need for any changes to its structure, governance or programme.
Spreading the benefits across the UK
BFC's 'Value of Fashion' reports have highlighted the need to develop a national plan for fashion industry. This is something that could be given fresh impetus by the offer in the recent draft Modern Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of support or 'sector deals' (funds for skills and research) available only where an industry can come together, demonstrate they have a clear understanding of the issues and problems and can devise a clear set of solutions.

The plan for an East London Fashion Cluster can usefully seed a call for such a piece of work.

ELFC focuses on the opportunities in East London, and across the London region - but it also looks to support the development of innovation and production capacity the fashion and textile supply chain in the UK. This approach has potential not only to deliver a fashion sector strategy for London but also to be the 'hub' of a national approach with 'spokes' in other fashion and textile industry clusters in the Midlands and North of England, that would benefit the competitiveness of the UK economy.

The commitment within the draft action plan to create a national showcase for Fashiontech and textiles reflects our findings that designers and manufacturers are poorly informed about the range of opportunities for innovation offered by the output of textiles factories, and smart materials and technical textiles expertise, in areas such as Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Collaboration with producers in Manchester, Yorkshire, Leicester and other clusters to find new applications for these materials and processes in sub-sectors such as sportswear and 'affordable luxury' could open up domestic and export markets.

A national sector plan, developed in partnership with British Fashion Council, UKFT, and employers and cluster organisations in other UK regions, would harness the potential offered by London's leadership in innovation, digital manufacturing and global market access to drive competitiveness across the UK fashion and textile industries. This is envisaged as a 'hub and spoke' approach, with ELFC working with clusters across the Midlands, North and Scotland to promote knowledge exchange and joint development.

Benefits of a UK-wide sector plan may include:

− Scale - local producers and service providers have access to a wider market
− Onshoring - demonstrate capacity to fulfil latent demand for local production amongst UK retailers
− Knowledge exchange - collaboration increases the capacity of the combined sectors across the North and Midlands to access knowledge, technical resource and investment through the London cluster, particularly for R&D and innovation
− Technology transfer between firms and the knowledge base, and across sector boundaries
− Efficiencies obtained through joint planning and support for industry-wide programmes by skills funding agencies and other public authorities across the country
− Retention and attraction of talent enhanced by increasing the visibility of opportunities for employment in the UK fashion sector across the UK, rather than those in a single region.
− Critical mass of talent for inward investors - availability of a skilled workforce is the single most important factor in decisions about location
− Measurable growth demonstrated by increasing UK fashion's combined domestic retail market share (GVA) from its current base of 6%; increasing exports in volume and value; and evidence that sector growth in London and the UK is faster than that of international competitors.

Section 4 Footnotes

12/ https://w Higher Education Funding Council for England (2015). Business plan 2015-2020; Creating and sustaining the conditions for a world-leading higher education system. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce/content/about/How,we,operate/Corporate,planning/Business,plan/HEFCE%20Business%20plan%2011%202%2015.pdf]
13/ https://www.disabilityinnovation.com/
14/ Fashion United, 2016. https://fashionunited.uk/uk-fashion-industry-statistics

Technical Appendix

Image Description: A black model wears a grey, yellow and black knitted jumper, and purple and black trousers. Their afro is pulled into two bunches. They are wearing braces and look directly into the camera.

Appendix A - Mapping Fashion Activity
Supportive Infrastructure
This map highlights range of useful institutions and facilities supporting the fashion sector in East London. This mapping was undertaken using desk-top research supplemented by data from Enterprising Whitechapel: Strategy and Technical Evidence (Regeneris Consulting 2015) along with information supplied by stakeholder organisations part of this study. As such, it presents a first glimpse into fashion related facilities within the East London region (including Haringey and Enfield) and should be considered a work in progress rather than complete mapping.

Appendix B - Methodology - Measuring the contribution of fashion - employment effects

Our results are underpinned by data sourced from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) for headcount employment in relevant 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) sectors across the relevant Local Authority Districts (LADs). The choice of SIC codes was based on the definition of the fashion sector used in Oxford Economics' study "Value of Fashion" (VOF) study on behalf of the British Fashion Council. In certain cases, these sub-sectors contained a broader range of activities than compatible with this definition of the fashion industry. In such cases, a scaling factor was applied to estimate the share of the sub-sector that was VOF-equivalent. Gross Value Added (GVA) was estimated using an assumed productivity (GVA per worker) based on national trends in each sub-sector, according to results from the 2015 Annual Business Survey (ABS). For each LAD sub-sector, these results were adjusted based on the ratio of local : national productivity in the relevant broader industry section (either distribution, manufacturing or professional services). We also analysed data from BRES - using location quotients, or LQs, which indicate relative concentrations of individual business sectors - to analyse at the distribution of designers of all kinds within the East London workforce to see if it reflected trends in the fashion sector, particularly the impression that value creation is increasingly moving East.

This study is informed by an extensive desk-based review of existing publications, scholarly articles and online resources. This was used as part of the process of horizon scanning to establish trends in the fashion industry and potential threats in the political, economic, social and technology environment.
Method statement for defining the contribution of fashion design
There is no single official source for the number of fashion designers in the UK. Employment statistics for 'design' at a national level include not only fashion design but graphic design and other product design. Without inspection of individual records, it would be impossible to accurately disaggregate those who are fashion designers; and then to go on to make estimates of GVA. We also need to take into account that many individuals may not be registered as businesses and would not in any case appear in the sample data.

We have tried to address this in our study by taking a 'mixed method' approach to fashion design. We have used proxy data, including the number of self-declared 'fashion designers' giving their location as 'London' on LinkedIn (over 3,500) to refine our estimates of
employment in fashion design and the contribution that makes as a direct output. We have assumed that 70% of fashion designers subscribe to LinkedIn - an estimate based on a wider sample of skilled creative professionals used to derive employment estimates for inward investment marketing for DIT and other UK cities - to give us a figure of 5,000 designers in the capital.

BRES data for 2015 (the most recent available) shows 15,100 employees in London under standard industrial classification code 74.10 (specialised design, including fashion designers). We have therefore applied a scalar of 33.3% to total employment under 74.10 in BRES for the boroughs of East London and Upper Lea Valley to arrive at the numbers shown here. This estimate was supported by statements from industry experts in the focus groups about the number of designers in East London.

Of course, the impact of design is also felt in the buying decisions of wholesalers, retailers and consumers, but that added value is already reflected in the numbers for retail and distribution.

Appendix C - Baseline data

Appendix D - Focus group participants

LCF project manager Alanah Cullen, and fashion industry experts Bill Mills (Founder of Texnet) and Toby Meadows (a tutor and mentor at LCF Centre for Fashion Enterprise) attended all three workshops.

Appendix E - Scenario planning workshop

The workshop, held on 24 November 2016, was facilitated by Paul Owens, Iain Bennett, Joshua Dedman and Patrizia Casadei of BOP Consulting

Appendix F - Other case study findings

Notes on New York and Istanbul studies

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Image Description: A black female model wears a yellow dress with applique detail in blue, orange, green and black and white. She wears very big linked hoop earrings in patterned fabric.

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The United Kingdom or UK is a country situated on the northwest coast of Europe. She is comprised of the Great Britain Island, north-eastern Island of Ireland and other similar islands. The area of the UK consists of four different countries like Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. Belfast, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and London are her four capitals.

London is the cultural and financial center and the world's largest city where 10.3 million people inhabit. English is the official language of the country, whereas Irish and Scottish Gaelic are also widely spoken languages.

Now we'll discuss pestle analysis of UK; how political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors are affecting the country.

Following are the political factors affecting the UK.

Many factors determine the stability of the government like the rule of law, controlled or low corruption, and effectiveness of the government policies. If the government is performing well in all of these factors, then it would not only be stable but also a successful government, and the UK is among one of them. According to the ranking of the world's bank, UK ranks at the top in terms of political stability in 2007.

UK falls into the category of the world's most powerful countries. However, the government system of the country is comprised of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, whereas the prime minister is the head of the government and the monarch is the head of state. Currently, Boris Johnson is the prime minister and Queen Elizabeth 2nd is the monarch of the UK. According to a report of BBC published in 2019, legally the role of the monarch and royal family is mostly tradition and ceremonial.

Scottish national party, labor, libel democrats and conservative are the four major political parties that dominate the whole country.

Having a strong economy and a permanent seat at the UN provides UK a great influence over global issues like political, economic, social, cultural, military and scientific. The UK and the US have many social and cultural values that are in common, which makes them a strong ally. Both countries have maintained strong friendly relations over the years. However, critics usually hail on the support of the British government to the military dictators of other countries.

Brexit means the exit of the British from the European Union. The Brexit movement has created an atmosphere of uncertainty in recent years. Finally, it culminated in the deal of the UK leaving the EU on January 24, 2020. Many people believed the withdrawal from the EU would result in the economic prosperity of the country, and it would create many employment opportunities.

Below are the economic factors that can affect the United Kingdom.

The estimated nominal GDP of the country in 2019 was 2.744 trillion US dollars, which puts the UK's economy at the 6th position globally. Per capita of the country in 2019 was 41030 US dollars, it's the world's 20th highest per capita.

The reason behind the success of the UK's economy is diversity. Her market is so diverse that it provides an equal opportunity for all the businesses to grow and flourish. As long as it adds values in the lives of customers, and there's a demand in the market.

When a society has a diverse culture, it means that it provides foreigners a space to live and grow. Consequently, her economy has attracted the attention of many across the world. Therefore, many individual investors and companies have invested their resources and capital in various fields like real estate, science, technology, food, clothing, grocery, entertainment, and sports.

Currently, the corporate tax rate for companies is 19%. There was an announcement in 2016 that the government would reduce the tax rate to 18% by the end of 2020. If it does happen, then she would attract more investors.

Currently, inflation in the UK is 1.94%. In 2019, it was round about 1.7%. It has increased by approximately 3.1% since 2017. According to the regulation of the Bank of English, it shouldn't go more than 2%. Although it is a slight increase, and it doesn't mean anything, but it's a rise. According to some financial analysts, the increment in the inflation rate is over; we won't see many changes soon.

In February 2020, the unemployment rate of the UK's economy was approximately 3.8%. If we compare it with the rate of previous years, then it has fallen roundabout 0.2%. It is much lower, what it means that the people are earning. That's why per capita of the country is higher; because everyone is contributing one's share in the economy.

Below social factors can affect the UK government and population.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the population of the UK is estimated to reach 74 million people by the end of 2039. It is because currently, the birth is exceeding the mortality rate, as a result, the labor market and health care system would be first in line. But it would also create opportunities for the businesses to fill the needs of more people. As we know that the UK is the world's biggest consumer market. Insurance companies, real estate, and health care industries have gained a lot of profit in the previous population rise.

People spend a great amount of money on their health insurance. Consequently, the health care system of the UK has progressed a lot in the recent years in terms of providing quality service to their patients. Therefore, people from all over the world prefer the British health care system for serious and complicated injuries and diseases.

The interesting thing about the UK's education system is that it keeps on updating annually with the latest information. Her education system includes the modern mythologies of teaching and learning. Therefore, the degrees of the British education system are recognized worldwide.

Fall in the unemployment rate and a reasonable inflation rate puts the UK citizen in the high-income earners. Therefore, per capita of the country higher and it falls among the world's top 20 countries.

The country has the world's leading research and development institutes, and they are always in a consistent effort of breaking the barriers almost in every field. Her economy provides great opportunities for entrepreneurs. Every invention and development contributes to the country's economy. Nowadays, she is making more progress in the tech field. Even British tech institutes are succeeding over Indian, Japanese, Korean and American institutes.

Companies that are operating their businesses in the UK have to follow the Employment Act 1996. Whether it's sick pay, minimum wage, holiday pay, maternity or paternity leave, this act protects their rights. On the other hand, the Equality act 2010 protects people from being discriminated against because of their race, gender, color or any other differences.

Every industrial developed faces serious environmental issues because an economy can't move forward without industrialization. Pollution and other environmental issues also come along with it. However, government, private corporations, and other charity organizations have been taking steps and spreading information about recycling, less plastic waste, and eco-friendly products and services.

The country also faces environmental issues like bad weather. But the British summer attracts tourists from all over the world. According to an estimate, her tourism industry generates approximately more than 127 billion pounds every year.

Britain is undoubtedly among the world's leading developed countries. Tech industry has become her main source of income for the past few years, but she shouldn't avoid environmental issues. She should use technology to recover the environment and become a role model for the developing countries.

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PESTLE Analysis of UK | The United Kingdom Pestel Analysis

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The United Kingdom or UK is a country situated on the northwest coast of Europe. She is comprised of the Great Britain Island, north-eastern Island of Ireland and other similar islands. The area of the UK consists of four different countries like Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England.

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matchesfashion.com

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According to Similarweb data of monthly visits, matchesfashion.com's top competitor in May 2023 is mytheresa.com with 9.2M visits. matchesfashion.com 2nd most similar site is farfetch.com, with 34.1M visits in May 2023, and closing off the top 3 is net-a-porter.com with 7.3M.

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Description

Description

The UK Consumer Attitudes Towards Luxury Market Report identifies luxury consumer typologies, purchasing drivers for luxury goods and the impact of the cost of living on the UK luxury market. This report covers the UK luxury market size, market forecast, market segmentation and trends in the UK luxury market.
Current Landscape of the UK Luxury Goods Market

The cost-of-living crisis means it will be necessary for many consumers to cut back spending and will make big-ticket luxury purchases less attainable for the average consumer. However, pent-up demand for novel experiences after the pandemic and a renewed appreciation for experiences over material things will help drive the experiential UK luxury market.

Meanwhile, supply chain disruptions and high production costs have been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, making for difficult operational circumstances for the UK luxury goods market.

UK Luxury Market Share and Key Industry Trends

Younger consumers are the most likely to be active buyers in the UK luxury market in the coming year. However, lower earnings among this group mean this will typically be for more attainable versions of luxury, such as in beauty and personal care. Younger consumers' typical lack of significant wealth will still be a barrier to purchase for ultra-expensive luxury goods, which will be exacerbated by rising costs and budget pressures.

70% of UK adults describe luxury as 'premium quality'.

22% of consumers have bought a luxury product in the past 12 months from the beauty and personal care category.

44% of shoppers have bought luxury goods from a store in the last 12 months.

23% of consumers would be interested in buying products made with sustainable methods.

Future Trends in the UK Luxury Goods Market

Many major brands in the UK luxury market have made progress in improving their impact on the environment in recent years through investment in more sustainable materials and methods of manufacturing.

However, just 9% of consumers associate luxury with being sustainable, highlighting a significant opportunity for the UK luxury goods market to communicate sustainability initiatives more clearly and use eco credentials to stand out from competitors.

To discover more about the UK Consumers Attitudes Luxury Market Report 2022, read our UK Designer Fashion Market Report 2021, or take a look at our extensive Financial Services Market Research.

Quickly Understand

Factors impacting the UK luxury goods market.

Luxury consumer typologies.

How consumers define luxury.

Purchasing of luxury products and experiences in the last year, and likelihood of purchasing in the next year.

How consumers purchase luxury goods.

Consumer attitudes towards the UK luxury market.

Explores the luxury market share and luxury market size.

Covered in this Report

Brands: John Lewis, Selfridges, Depop, Brand Alley, YSL, TK Maxx, Harrods, Klarna, Louis Vuittom, Gucci, Burberry, Oxfam, Dior, Alto, Vestiaire Collection, Moet Hennessy, Lancôme, White Desert, Stella McCartney, Aston Martin, ASOS.

Expert Analysis from a UK Retail Specialist

This report, written by Francesca Smith, a leading analyst in the Retail sector, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends in the UK luxury market and add expert context to the numbers.

While luxury purchases may seem like the obvious first choice to be cut from consumer spending, research from previous economic downturns, such as the 2008-09 recession, has shown that the UK luxury market tends to hold up well. This is largely due to consumers' desire to continue to treat themselves, particularly through smaller luxury purchases, even when budgets are tightened. This time round, there is the added factor of the pent-up demand for new experiences and the desire to make up for lost fun over the pandemic, which will drive interest, particularly, in the experiential UK luxury market."

Francesca Smith
Research Analyst

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Overview

Key issues covered in this Report

Market context

Executive Summary

The market

Inflation is the key concern for consumers and luxury brands in 2022

Luxury market should be able to weather the cost-of-living crisis

Online channels see major growth for luxury purchases

The consumer

Quality is the defining feature of luxury

Over half of all adults are luxury shoppers

Consumers show sustained interest in purchasing luxury in the next year

Online surpasses in-store for luxury shopping

Consumers are luxury shopping via brand and department store websites

Department stores are most popular in-store channel for luxury

Circular, sustainable initiatives appeal the most to luxury shoppers

Luxury is about quality, rather than exclusivity

Owning luxury is more accessible than it has ever been

Luxury as a marker of success and style

Issues and Insights

The luxury market will weather the cost-of-living storm

It's all about quality

Experiential luxury trend accelerates post-pandemic

Sustainability can help luxury brands stand out from competitors

Market Drivers

Inflation is the key concern for consumers and brands ...

... and will weigh down the post-COVID recovery

The conflict is Ukraine is hurting the UK economy in a number of ways

Consumers' financial wellbeing has fallen from the highs of 2021 ...

... and most people are feeling the effects of price rises

Luxury market should be able to hold up during consumer slowdown

Online channel growth for luxury

Sustainability rises up the consumer agenda

Luxury Consumer Typologies

The Status-Seeker

Figure 14: Luxury consumer typologies, 2022

The Quality-Seeker

Figure 15: Luxury consumer typologies, by age and gender, 2022

The Luxury Bargain Hunter

The Indifferent Luxury Shopper

Defining Luxury

Luxury centres around quality

Young adults are more diverse in their definition of luxury

Brands need to shout louder about sustainability benefits

Purchase of Luxury Products and Experiences

Half of adults have purchased luxury in the last year

The rise of immersive dining experiences

Gen Z are most likely to say they have bought luxury in the last year

Figure 19: Purchase of luxury products and experiences in the last year (NET), by Generation, 2022

Likelihood of Future Luxury Purchases

Consumers expect to keep treating themselves

Luxury travel can fulfil consumers' desire for new experiences

Males are more interested in functional luxury, while females prefer indulgence

Brands can build relationships with Gen Z by matching their values

Figure 22: Likelihood of purchasing a luxury product or experience in the next year (NET), by generation, 2022

Luxury Purchase Channels

Online driving luxury sales

Duty-free shopping suffers in the pandemic

Online Luxury Shopping

Luxury brands investing in own online stores

Under-25s are driving second-hand luxury

In-store Luxury Shopping

Department stores are the favourite among luxury shoppers

The blurring of lines between luxury shopping and a luxury experience

Brand stores can create personalised 'phygital' experiences for young consumers

Discount stores will be more appealing amidst rising costs

Luxury Shopping Behaviours

Sustainability is a priority for luxury shoppers

Figure 28: Interest in luxury shopping concepts, 2022

Luxury brands need to prove sustainability efforts

Personal interaction paired with technology can create highly personalised in-store experience

Luxury brands are pushing forward with digital innovation

... but interest in AR/VR shopping remains very concentrated

Attitudes Towards Luxury Shopping

Quality, rather than exclusivity, is the defining feature of luxury

Owning luxury is becoming more accessible

Luxury as a marker of success

Personalisation is an important feature of luxury products and experiences

Appendix - Data Sources, Abbreviations and Supporting Information

Abbreviations

Consumer research methodology

Market

Mintel provides a range of market information, frequently through the category level, including market size and forecasting, complete with market drivers that illustrate the forces that shape a category or market.

Consumer

Mintel's proprietary consumer research provides our analysts with the attitudinal and behavioral data used to provide valuable insight to topical issues.

Brand/Company

Mintel provides overviews of the top brands and manufacturers, and uses consumer research to explore attitudes and reactions to brands, as well as insight into what will resonate with consumers.

Data

Market reports provide appendices of data to support the research and insight produced. Our databooks* are easily manipulated and downloadable to support your research needs and covers factors from consumer attitudes to market forecasts.

*databooks not available with UK B2B Industry reports ( all priced at £1,495).

Contact Us

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UK Consumer Attitudes Towards Luxury Market Report - Market Growth

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The UK Consumer Attitudes Towards Luxury Market Report 2022 covers the latest UK luxury goods market trends, market size, statistics and expert analysis.

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TotalEnergies’ on bitumen supply & sustainable solutions

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TotalEnergies’ Bitumen division Garr Chau, Supply Chain Manager & Rick Ashton, Market Development Manager, on the road to sustainable solutions

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Recycling has always been a hot topic in the world of sustainability, and for good reason. The process of recycling helps to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, conserves natural resources, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Ceramic tableware is no exception. By using recycled ceramic materials, we can significantly reduce our environmental impact and make a positive contribution to the planet.

One of the main benefits of using recycled ceramics is the conservation of natural resources. The production of new ceramics requires the mining of raw materials such as clay and other minerals. This process can have a detrimental impact on the environment, including habitat destruction and water pollution. By using recycled ceramics, we can significantly reduce our reliance on these natural resources and help to preserve them for future generations.

In addition to conserving natural resources, using recycled ceramics also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The production of ceramics is energy-intensive, and the firing process releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By using recycled ceramics, we can reduce the demand for new ceramics and, in turn, reduce the carbon footprint of the ceramics industry.

Recycling ceramic tableware also helps to reduce waste and decrease the strain on landfills. Landfills are a major source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. By diverting ceramic waste from landfills and using it to create new products, we can help to reduce methane emissions and slow the rate of climate change.

Furthermore, recycled ceramic tableware often has a unique and authentic appearance that cannot be replicated with new materials. This adds character and charm to any home or restaurant and sets it apart from others that use mass-produced ceramics.

In conclusion, using recycled ceramic tableware is not only better for the planet but also a stylish and unique choice. It conserves natural resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, decreases waste, and adds character to any home or restaurant. By choosing recycled ceramics, we can all play a part in creating a more sustainable future.

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Recycled Ceramics: Sustainable production for a better tomorrow

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Recycling has always been a hot topic in the world of sustainability, and for good reason. The process of recycling helps to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, conserves natural resources, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Ceramic tableware is no exception.

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Discover our glossary to better understand the complex terminology surrounding sustainability. From the diverse meaning and limits of ' sustainability ' to the realities of recycling. It's important to understand where definitions, products and materials can misguide us. This glossary is the perfect place to start.

We tested our material against key criteria for a sustainable product. Click through for infographics explaining why Notpla performs better than plastics.

Follow Making Waves, our new blog where we demystify topics like sustainability, discuss our ambitions for environmental impact and share Notpla's latest news!

Discover our Ancient Forest friendly and Next Generation Solution policy. You will learn how Notpla is committed to protecting forests with the support of Canopy.

Do you want to better understand the plastics world? Have a read at this Notpla short course.

Discover this report that takes an in-depth look into the cost of plastic on society, the environment and our economy. The report estimates that the lifetime cost of plastic is 10x the market cost!

Read the Seaweed for Europe report on the potential for sustainable seaweed farming in Europe.

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Discover our glossary to better understand the complex terminology surrounding sustainability. From the diverse meaning and limits of ' sustainability ' to the realities of recycling. It's important to understand where definitions, products and materials can misguide us. This glossary is the perfect place to start.

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About Matches Fashion

Matches Fashion is a luxury fashion retailer that caters to the global market. The retailer offers international designer labels across womenswear and menswear, with names including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, and Isabel Marant. It also comes with an online marketplace, through which it receives orders and distributes them accordingly. The company was founded in 1987 and is based in London, U.K.

Headquarters Location

The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street

London, England, SE1 9SG,

United Kingdom

+852 5808 7188

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Latest Matches Fashion News

Designing by numbers: how to use data to optimise product
Fashion businesses are harnessing data to empower their design teams to work smartly, and improve the fit, quality and sustainability of product. Share Whether it is measuring the climate crisis or powering the algorithms that dictate what we see on our social media feeds, data is shaping the world - and fashion design is no exception. From sizing to sustainability, brands and retailers are harnessing the power of data to design better, and circularity experts say it is essential to designing greener. But this is not without its challenges - some decisions can only be made by humans, and getting data into a usable form is often tough, say fashion buyers and digital decision makers. "Gone are the days of 'return reason' data [from a list of options customers tick when returning items by post] as being enough [to identify issues with products], or simply guessing why a bestseller is just that," says Paul Hayes, head of branded buying at Stitch Fix, an online retailer that sends customers clothing recommended by a personal stylist at home to try before they buy. "The data available to us now means we can quickly translate multiple pieces of feedback that we can take forward into future customer ranges." Stitch Fix combines customer-submitted data such as size and style preferences, with human input from a network of personal stylists who make individualised product recommendations. Customers are asked to rate each item they receive by price, fit, style and quality, whether they decide to keep it or not, and can add further comments. This quantitative and qualitative feedback is not only helpful to improve recommendations, but is also used by the design teams at the company's 18 in-house labels, such as ladies' workwear brand 41 Hawthorn, surf-inspired menswear label Bixby Nomad and trend-focused men's brand A-Frame. Stitch Fix buyers and partner vendors are given specific insights into what does and does not sell. Returns are a problem worth solving: the British Fashion Council's Institute of Positive Fashion Solving Fashion's Product Returns report, published in March 2023, estimated they cost the UK fashion industry £7bn in 2022. Advertisement N Brown Group, which owns pureplay brands Simply Be, JD Williams and Jacamo, invested in a 3D bodyscanner in 2019 to help improve the fit of its products and cut returns rates (box, below). How Drapers Sustainable Fashion Award-winning N Brown Group is leveraging data in design N Brown Group scooped the Best Use of Technology for Good award at Drapers Sustainable Fashion Awards 2023. Judges praised its innovative use of technology and data to improve fit and design, minimise production and samples and reduce return rates. The group, which owns pureplay brands Simply Be, JD Williams and Jacamo, invested in a 3D bodyscanner in 2019 to help improve the fit of its products. The data from the bodyscanner has been used to create master patterns and avatars for 3D design software to more accurately reflect customers' body shapes. Earlier this year, 200 employees at N Brown's head office and warehouse were scanned. "We continue to do the bodyscanning every so often because it just helps us to gather new data, new information, tweak, refine, improve, what we already believe is one of our USPs which is around our fit," says Helen Low, group design director. She says using this data has helped the design team be more efficient, reduce physical samples, lower return rates and increase customer satisfaction. Five-star customer reviews of products have gone up 2.7% to 79% since using data from the 3D scanner and return rates on products developed by 3D fit data have reduced by four percentage points since 2020. A higher-than-average return rate can indicate issues with a product. Sarah McVittie, co-founder of retail tech company Dressipi, explains that interrogating returns data to identify poorly performing items is essential: "Typically overall return rates sit 25% to 30%, but I would caveat that the return rates change hugely depending on department and category. Womenswear has a higher returns rate than men's and children's wear and dresses, and occasionwear typically has a higher returns rate than knitwear and casual styles." Stitch Fix is applying its data knowledge to designs to tackle this expensive problem, explains Hayes: "If we test a small quantity of a floral print top and hear that our customers love the print but dislike the fit, [our designers can] correct that, and, in the meantime, put the print on a best-selling jumpsuit style." Retail reporting For brands with a more traditional network of online and bricks-and-mortar stores, this data can be harder to gather. Hanna Huber, chief information and digital officer at Switzerland-based Calida Group, which owns underwear brands Cosabella, Calida, Erlich and Aubade, which are stocked in Harrods, Selfridges and Fenwick in the UK, says: "What we have to do is sometimes call one of our sales teams, or a store manager, and say, 'What are your experiences with this new product?' It's still much more this personal contact with people and then we try to mix that in with other data points that we have." Advertisement It gathers data through loyalty schemes, such as Calida Friends+Forever, which offers discounts and birthday treats to regular shoppers. This enables Calida to track the most popular fabrics, styles and sizes of loyal customers, and incorporate the best-selling attributes into each collection and create personalised product recommendations sent out via email to loyalty card customers. Combining internal data with external data across the industry is crucial to forecasting popular styles but it is vital to remember it is not an exact science, says Krista Corrigan, fashion and retail analyst at retail analytics company Edited - which tracks 4 billion products across thousands of retailers to identify trends. Its artificial intelligence engine collects, tracks, categorises and adjusts to make comparable publicly available data from fashion websites on pricing, discounts, assortment, colours, patterns, materials and keywords of products. Corrigan tells Drapers: "The biggest challenge is using the data as a tool, and using it, and leveraging it to back your decision, but also incorporating so many other things. Economy is an important one, but pop culture [such as viral social media moments, catwalks and celebrities to keep an eye on what's trending] is also." Corrigan says that with the economic climate fluctuating so much over the past few years, and the current cost-of-living crisis, many of their clients are looking closely at product pricing across the market and comparing it with their own to see where they have opportunities to increase or reduce them to stay competitive. The Seam works with retailers such as Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter and Matchesfashion to connect their consumers with care and repair options for their wardrobes In the Solving Fashion's Product Returns, 93% of consumers cited size and fit as the reason for returning an item in previous three months. New data sources are helping brands and retailers improve this aspect of their designs. Virtual try-on technology company 3DLook first partnered with American label 1822 Denim in autumn 2019 and the partnership has helped the brand to reduce its return rate by 48% year on year in 2020. Analysis of anonymous data of customers who used 3DLook's bodyscanning tool on their phones showed that 80% were curvier and shorter than the brand's standard fit model. The company has since recalibrated its sizing to better align with its average customer's measurements. Sustainable solutions Brands and retailers are also using data to produce more sustainable clothing. The rise in after-care solutions for fashion is a new source of data from which designers can take direction. The Seam, launched in 2019, works with retailers such as Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter and Matchesfashion, to connect their consumers with care and repair options for their wardrobes. The Seam's white-label software allows customer to search and book services near them from a directory of verified makers and craftspeople while remaining on the retailer's website. The company provides partners with intelligence on what items are being repaired and at what stage in the lifecycle. Layla Sargent, founder and CEO of The Seam, says different brands are interested in different types of data: "We work with a sneaker brand and, for them, there's a very technical element involved: [they want to know] where in the soles of the shoe are cracking first, and which models are wearing out fastest. Whereas multi-brand retailers are really interested in which brands people are altering, repairing and restoring [to assess quality]." Sargent says this data is becoming increasingly valuable to brands the sustainability agenda forces them to design products that last longer, and stay in use: "From an environmental, social and governance perspective, every retailer understands that the future looks very different and they have to be more responsible. Building products that are able to stay in circularity for longer is part of that process. We can use data to inform retailers about their products so that, next time, they can feed this insight back into the design process and ultimately produce longer-lasting clothes." When The Seam partnered with an outdoorwear brand in 2022, it observed a 200% increase in zip repair requests, 75% of which were for the same jacket. The zip was identified as being too light for the weight of the fabric, making it likely to break. This information was fed back to the brand to improve future production. Primark is using data to set new standards for the sustainability of its products. It trained its design, sourcing and buying team in its new Circular Product Framework developed with insights from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, before launching in April its first "circular" collection of 100% cotton T-shirts, jeans and denim jackets for women, men and children. The denim in the Primark Circular Collection is wash tested 30 times, based on recommendations set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation developed with brands, manufacturers and circularity experts Until now, collections were wash tested for between one and five washes. The 35-piece circular collection has been wash tested 30 times for denim and 56 times for jersey, based on recommendations set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation developed with brands, manufacturers and circularity experts. The Jeans Redesign Guidelines by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which require a wash test of at least 30 for denim, has been used by Gap, H&M Group, Lee and more. Primark also created an itemised list for each piece in the collection detailing all the raw materials and components such as thread, buttons, zips and labels, to help recycling partners know what to do with the item. Primark is now working with external experts to conduct lifecycle analysis on its products and gather data around the environmental impact of its clothing, to help improve design and sourcing decisions. Nicholas Lambert, circularity lead at Primark, explains: "Our vision for a circular product has been developed on principles that can be measured - not subjective design ideas - which is crucial for us, given there is no standardised definition of a circular product in fashion. For us right now, this means using cotton from our Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme, gathering data against our new enhanced durability standard and using a bespoke tool to measure the weight of the cotton in our circularity range." "While we know this is just the beginning and we've lots more to do in this space, we believe this is a small but important step to design clothes that can be loved for longer and recycled into new textiles when they reach the end of their life, which is the direction that we see future legislation evolving," adds Lambert. Tim Cross, director of Project Plan B, an initiative to create a closed-loop polyester recycling system for clothing at the Circular Textiles Foundation, also believes environmental costs will soon become central to design choices - necessitating data: "I'm certain that within two to three years [extended producer responsibility legislation to hold fashion brands accountable for their environmental cost] will be there [across the whole of] in Europe and, within five years, it'll be here in the UK. All the brands are fully aware that this is coming. I don't know how it's going to be implemented, but they know they need to be ready for it. A spring/summer 23 JD Williams top has been designed with improved fit data from N Brown Group's bodyscans "It's not just using the cheapest materials that you can find - it's using the materials that will have the lowest carbon imprint for the rest of its life. If you know what all of that is, then you're going to make those decisions. That comes down to the data [around the carbon footprint of materials and processes] and it comes down to the spec sheet." Part of the challenge in conducting lifecycle assessments that would provide this data is a lack of standardisation in how that is calculated. Cross says: "There are no two lifecycle assessments that work well together. You just have to do the best you can. If you get to a point where you say, 'There's no standardisation, so there's no point going there,' that's just lazy. You've got to do something." It is not just what design teams create, but also how they create, that data is set to revolutionise. Calida Group's Huber, who started her role in January after holding senior positions at Germany-based global etailer Otto Group and Zalando, says: "Brands have huge amounts of data about all our fabrics, how the sleeves are made, where we source specific materials, how we make designs, what previous designs we have done and how well they sold. The question is: how can we digitalise all of that and then automate it? We are currently experimenting with doing lots of steps into 3D design and automating design steps. This is one of our focus areas right now." Calida Group is turning its existing assets into data points for 3D software. For example, digitalising existing sewing patterns to reduce waste and make the pattern-making process more efficient. It is also working on digitalising the array of material they it continuously works with, so that designers can start with an original design and then experiment with fabrics available in existing inventory using the software. While data presents the opportunity to design clothing that is better suited to the customer and more sustainable, it is not without its challenges. Stitch Fix combines data insights with the expertise of human stylists to make product recommendations At Stitch Fix, data-informed decisions still need to leave room for creativity and human judgement calls, says Hayes: "The teams have to constantly balance the introduction of newness into our product offering with what the data says are the bestsellers. Here is where the skill of the buying and design teams come in - translating the data into the best possible range." Managing the data to make it usable is another hurdle, Huber explains: "Lots of companies have all these different systems and each system holds some part of the data. How do you connect that? That is 80% of the work to get all of this together, and even know what kind of data you have. That is really a challenge." She says the first step is to identify specific problems to solve or KPIs to be improved, and then the kinds of data needed to achieve this: "Then you start comparing if you have that data in the needed quality, quantity and structure." She adds: "You also want to test and improve your new process continuously." With more and more data becoming available to brands, it is easy to get lost in the numbers, but it is going to be crucial for the designers of tomorrow - and is already helping to adapt designs today. Fashion businesses would be wise to lay the groundwork for the type of data they want to gather, and how they want to use and manage it.

Matches Fashion Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

When was Matches Fashion founded?

Matches Fashion was founded in 1987.

Where is Matches Fashion's headquarters?

Matches Fashion's headquarters is located at The Shard, 32, London.

What is Matches Fashion's latest funding round?

Matches Fashion's latest funding round is Private Equity.

How much did Matches Fashion raise?

Matches Fashion raised a total of $93.71M.

Who are the investors of Matches Fashion?

Investors of Matches Fashion include Apax Partners, Scottish Equity Partners and Highland Europe.

Who are Matches Fashion's competitors?

Competitors of Matches Fashion include Selfridges Group and 7 more.

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Matches Fashion is a luxury fashion retailer that caters to the global market. The retailer offers international designer labels across womenswear and menswear, with names including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, and Isabel Marant. It also comes with an online marketplace, through which it receives orders and distributes them accordingly.

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Making your coffee shop or restaurant more energy-efficient might seem like a daunting task, but its benefits include lower operational costs, higher profit margins, and a more sustainable brand image. It can also reduce your carbon emissions and help you develop a greener business model in the long term.

The global hospitality sector uses a significant amount of energy. According to the Carbon Trust, the total energy consumption of the hospitality industry in the UK alone is estimated to be more than 21,600 million kWh per year. Energy usage isn't just an environmental concern, however; it also represents a cost for business owners, too.

So, which measures can you take to improve energy efficiency in your coffee shop or restaurant? And should you change your equipment? Read on to learn more.

Energy efficient coffee shops: What are the benefits?

Lower your costs

Any successful coffee shop or restaurant will need to power a wide range of equipment, including ovens, air conditioners, espresso machines, water boilers, refrigerators, and cleaning devices, to name just a few.

Each piece of equipment in your premises will need a power source to function when it's in use; some will even need a constant supply (such as refrigerators and freezers).

Energy usage typically accounts for between 4% and 6% of a business' total operating costs. However, because hospitality businesses often operate on relatively low profit margins, these costs can become a problem if they increase even fractionally.

This means that transitioning to energy efficient equipment can make a significant difference to your balance sheet by lowering your operating costs and improving your profitability.

Even if new equipment requires an investment, over time, your energy savings can end up "paying off" this initial outlay.

Improved brand image

Today's consumers are increasingly focused on the social and environmental impact of their buying habits.

As such, it has become paramount for cafés and restaurants to communicate a genuine commitment to the environment. Figures vary, but some surveys suggest that as many as 88% of consumers will actively choose brands that help them live more sustainably.

This means that choosing equipment that makes your business greener can improve your brand image and consequently increase footfall. If environmentally-conscious customers can see you've made an effort to reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a more sustainable supply chain, they will be more inclined to visit your business.

What can hospitality businesses do to become more energy efficient?

The exact measures that hospitality businesses can take to become more energy efficient depends on a number of factors. These include the size and location of your premises, as well as the specific food and beverage products that you offer.

However, there are some steps that are relevant to most hospitality businesses, regardless of the conditions in which they operate.

Monitoring energy consumption

The first step on the path to improved energy efficiency is simple: measure your usage. While the majority of hospitality businesses will already do this, they tend to monitor their energy use in terms of cost, rather than volume.

This means that they won't see the immediate impact of any changes they make, and instead will have to gauge energy use based on monthly or quarterly utility bills.

"Smart" equipment offers hospitality businesses the opportunity to monitor and analyse their energy consumption in real time. By doing so, they can keep an eye on how much each implemented change has an effect.

By actively monitoring your energy usage, you can also identify "hidden" issues in your business, which might be increasing your energy usage. Monitoring can also help you figure out when a piece of equipment is using too much energy, and give you the opportunity to repair or replace it.

Make small changes

Becoming more energy efficient doesn't always mean making big, costly decisions. Small changes like installing LED lighting, cleaning your ventilation, using timers, and turning off monitors at the end of the day can all have a positive impact. Over time, the energy you save from these small tweaks will add up.

Make a note of every task your team completes through the course of a single working day, and go through it with them one item at a time. Ask yourself: is there anything else you can do to save energy, even if it's just a small amount?

Invest in the right equipment

In the past few years, energy efficiency has become a keen priority for equipment manufacturers, and usage standards have increased dramatically. While your older espresso machine or boiler might be reliable and familiar, there is every chance that it's using more energy than a newer model might.

As such, investing in greener equipment can be a key way to reduce your energy usage. For example, Marco's MIX water boiler range is designed to be 70% more energy efficient, and has a vacuum insulated tank for minimal energy loss.

Another example is the new MT8 water boiler, which is both energy efficient and cost-effective. Much like the MIX, the MT8 has an insulated tank, but it has also been designed with a minimal countertop footprint to save space.

Once you have invested in energy efficient equipment, the next step is to install energy management systems. Alongside smart meters and monitoring equipment, these allow business owners to analyse and optimise their energy usage.

For café and restaurant owners, improving energy efficiency should be a key priority. Not only does it increase your profitability, it can refine your brand image by communicating a genuine commitment to sustainability.

Thankfully, there are a number of different ways to make your business more energy efficient, from little changes to long-term investments. If you make the right choices, no matter how small, you'll soon start to reap the benefits while minimising your environmental impact.

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Making your coffee shop or restaurant more energy efficient

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Making your coffee shop or restaurant more energy-efficient might seem like a daunting task, but its benefits include lower operational costs, higher profit margins, and a more sustainable brand image. It can also reduce your carbon emissions and help you develop a greener business model in the long term.

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In a digitally enlightened age where virtually every consumer has at least one social media account, businesses and brands are more accountable than ever. Not only do they need to turn a profit and deliver value to the customer, but they also need to demonstrate that they can do so with a strong ethical focus.
This digital interconnectivity allows consumers unprecedented access to peek behind the curtain when it comes to the operations and practices that the brands they use employ. And if they don't feel that a business is doing all that it can to treat its workforce right and take on the responsibility of environmental stewardship, they may well take their business elsewhere.

The good news is that there are lots of ways in which businesses can fly the flag for Corporate Social Responsibility. One of the easiest yet most effective ways is by thinking twice about how they handle their waste.

There is a good chance that you are already eliminating waste paper by encouraging your workforce to shy away from printing things out and recycling any paper and card that you no longer need. You may even be taking steps to recycle your plastic bottles and plastic packaging too. But are you also making sure that your rigid plastics do not end up in landfill waste?

Rigid Plastics can be Recycled too!

That's right! Non-bottle rigid plastics are also readily recyclable. Unfortunately, not all county and borough councils are equipped to recycle them, and therefore they often end up in landfill waste. When in landfill waste, rigid plastics can leach harmful compounds called micro-plastics into our soil and oceans with disastrous effects on marine, bird, plant and animal life.

The good news is that we have the knowledge, facilities, and passion to ensure that all of your rigid plastics are recycled. What's more, if you have sufficient bulk we can even pay you for them!

Some examples of Rigid Plastics

Because we as a nation are so reliant on plastics they can be the subject of much confusion and controversy. Which is why we have such a problem with plastic recycling contamination. Many of us are unsure which plastics can and can't be recycled or just how disastrous plastic contamination can be or how it can result in lorry loads of recycling going into landfill.

With that in mind, let's make sure that we are all on the same page when it comes to rigid plastics. This is a broad spectrum and can include many different types of non-domestic wastes. Practical examples include:

Bread Crates and Pallets (these are usually made HDPE or PP plastic)

High-Density Polyethylene tubs, containers and buckets

Palettes, crates and shopping baskets and carts

Electronic housings

Water cooler bottles

It is clear to see that a great deal of what businesses dispose of is made from different types of rigid plastics. Many businesses are not realising the value of recycling rigid plastic and quite often they end up on the waste pile. Recycling these waste materials can make a huge difference to your business' carbon footprint. Recycling plastic bottles is great, but it is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dealing with waste plastics sustainably. And with our mixed rigid plastics recycling facilities, we can ensure that all of your rigid plastic waste is responsibly disposed of.

How Rigid Plastic is Recycled

First of all, we establish the load to be recycled so that we can give you a clear idea of what we can pay you. Typically, we will need 12-15 good quality photos of the load for us to get started. Rigid plastics usually need to be baled unless the material is being delivered loose into one of our regional recycling hubs. Once this has been received we will dispatch a dedicated account manager who will arrange for material inspection. After this, we will be able to confirm an accurate buying price.

There are numerous factors that may impact the price of material including market prices, loading weights, volumes, material quality, and the sorting/picking process.

Once you have confirmed that you are happy to proceed, your mixed rigid plastics are collected using a curtain sider vehicle or shipping container. Where possible, plastics are squashed down and baled so greater quantities per load can be sent to the recycling facility.

Here, plastics are dry cleaned and assorted into different polymer types using an optic beam which is capable of determining different plastic types. Once properly separated they are shredded into flakes and any impurities (like paper labels) are removed.

These flakes are then melted down to form polymer pellets. These are perfect raw materials for making all manner of products from packaging to plumbing pipes. Once they are melted down they can be made into virtually anything. As such, bulky rigid plastic recycling is an extremely effective means of reducing avoidable landfill waste.

How does your Business Benefit from Recycling its Rigid Plastics?

Of course, rigid plastic recycling doesn't just benefit the environment. It benefits your business, too. At a time where consumers are more concerned about environmental matters than ever before, there is great PR value in demonstrating that you are prepared to go the extra mile in disposing of your waste plastics in sustainable ways.

It can also save you money on your business waste disposal and since we are happy to buy all kinds of bulk plastics from rigid plastics to plastic bottles to UPVC window frames, it could even become a revenue stream rather than an expense.

What's more, when you demonstrate a proactive attitude towards Corporate Social Responsibility you will not only make a big impression with consumers, but you will also have a big impact on your workforce. You will encourage them to think more about sustainability and their environmental stewardship in and out of work. And they will be extra motivated knowing that they are working for a company that cares.

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How Rigid Plastic is Recycled - Plastic Expert

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Because we as a nation are so reliant on plastics they can be the subject of much confusion and controversy. Many of us are unsure which plastics can and can't be recycled or just how disastrous plastic contamination can be or how it can result in lorry loads of recycling going into landfill.

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Matchesfashion joins Hurr’s rental revolution — but is it really sustainable?

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A growing number of luxury retailers are using rental platform Hurr’s white-label service to help meet their circularity commitments. For Hurr, it’s part of a wider plan to ‘reinvent ownership’ in fashion.

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The luxury fashion retailer was hit hard by the adverse impacts of the pandemic, while Brexit added "additional cost and complexity," according to business accounts filed with the UK's Companies House.

Matchesfashion reported a loss of £36.6 million ($50 million) for the year ending January 31, 2021, deepening from a loss of £5.9 million in the previous year. Revenue also declined for the first time since launching e-commerce in 2007, falling nearly 10 percent to £392 million.

The retailer's performance contrasts with that of rival luxury e-commerce players like platform Farfetch and e-tailer MyTheresa, both of which saw revenues surge last year as shoppers shifted online during lockdowns.

Matchesfashion, on the other hand, struggled as supply chain disruptions squeezed full price selling windows. Demand for occasion wear and vacation clothing, two categories the retailer did brisk business in, also plummeted. Overstock led to steep discounting, which dampened margins, the retailer said in its filing.

The company was already grappling with a central challenge for the retailers jostling for a slice of the increasingly competitive e-commerce market: balancing the complexities of scaling against profitability. Prior to the pandemic, hefty investments in operations, technology and infrastructure to facilitate growth pushed the company into the red. Larger rival Net-a-Porter has faced similar challenges.

The financial challenges have been accompanied by successive executive reshuffles. Matchesfashion is on its third CEO in three years; Ajay Kavan, the former Amazon executive brought in in March 2020, abruptly stepped down in February after less than a year in the top job. Now, the company is betting former chief executive of the Parisian department store Printemps, Paolo De Cesare, will be able to turn its fortunes around.

To help alleviate some of the economic pressures of the coronavirus crisis, Matchesfashion raised £45 million from its parent company Apax Partners last year to help pay brands and creditors as well as fund operating expenses. At the end of its fiscal year it had succeeded in reducing its debt to trade creditors to £26.7 million from £83.4 million the previous year. In February this year, it raised another £40 million from its parent to boost the company's liquidity position and "fund future growth."
Learn more: The Problem With the Online Luxury Model It's not just department stores breaking down during the pandemic. Luxury e-commerce, which has a more captive audience than ever, is facing similar challenges.

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Matchesfashion Suffers $50M Loss Over Pandemic Period

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The luxury fashion retailer was hit hard by the adverse impacts of the pandemic, while Brexit added "additional cost and complexity," according to business accounts filed with the UK's Companies House. Matchesfashion reported a loss of £36.6 million ($50 million) for the year ending January 31, 2021, deepening from a loss of £5.9 million in the previous year.

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A year ago, the biggest players in luxury e-commerce faced an uncertain future. Myriad competitors had flooded a space once dominated by Net-a-Porter, ranging from vast marketplace Farfetch to niche challengers like MyTheresa, MatchesFashion and Ssense. These sites were largely undifferentiated, often selling the same products at the same price, while offering similar customer experiences. That led to high marketing costs, frequent promotions and difficulties reaching the necessary scale to pay off significant investments in technology, logistics, rapid shipping and other white-glove services.

At the same time, luxury brands were ramping up their own e-commerce stores and shoppers were flocking to social media platforms like Instagram for style advice and product curation, eliminating much of the need to digitise the traditional multi-brand retail model. "They're all losing money. It's not a good sign," LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault said in a January 2020 presentation, commenting on the challenges faced by his company's own multi-brand e-commerce venture, 24S. "The bigger they get, the more money they lose."

One player in particular faced an uphill battle to reassure investors about its future: Farfetch, the marketplace founded and led by José Neves, which had made a name for itself by short-circuiting luxury brands who were slow to enter e-commerce. Instead of relying on the brands for stock, he had created a platform for multi-brand boutiques around the world to sell their inventories online. A year after raising $885 million in a much-hyped initial public offering, Farfetch faced mounting concerns about its lack of profitability and high costs for acquiring clients. Market support collapsed following an unexpected move to acquire Milanese streetwear manufacturer New Guards Group, and by the autumn of 2019, Farfetch shares were trading at less than 40 percent of their IPO price.

Fast-forward to a year later and the coronavirus pandemic has driven a luxury e-commerce boom. Amid a freeze in long-haul tourism and the intermittent closures of physical boutiques due to coronavirus containment measures, e-commerce has scooped up an unprecedented share of luxury demand.

Farfetch enjoyed the most dramatic turnaround. Its market capitalisation grew by a whopping 475 percent in 2020 - more than other companies that experienced a notable pandemic boom, like vaccine-maker BioNTech (whose shares went up 125 percent) or home cycling hit Peloton (up 432 percent).

Neves has said the company will report positive EBITDA (a measure of profit) for the first time ever for the fourth quarter of 2020. Last November, the company inked a blockbuster deal aimed at accelerating its expansion in China - already the growth driver for luxury and more important than ever following the country's comparatively swift economic recovery. The partnership signed with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Swiss luxury group Richemont (alongside Pinault family holding company Artémis) raised $1.1 billion and has pushed excitement about the company to new heights.

Investors are now betting that Farfetch will not only become profitable, but that it can fulfil its mission to become the world's go-to marketplace for high-end fashion, "connecting creators, curators and consumers." In short, they're betting it can be the so-called Amazon of luxury. "If not them, who else could be?" Cowen analyst Oliver Chen said.

In our April 2020 case study, "The Next Wave of Luxury E-Commerce," The Business of Fashion explored the rise of Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) and how its dominant position in online luxury gradually eroded amid mounting competition from brands' own websites, marketplaces like Farfetch and niche online boutiques with devoted followings.

Now, we take a closer look at Farfetch, and how it has seized the pandemic opportunity in luxury e-commerce to surge ahead. The value of products sold on its marketplace grew by nearly 50 percent during coronavirus lockdowns in the spring of 2020, and are now close to overtaking the sales of chief rival Net-a-Porter.

Looking ahead, how strong is Farfetch's advantage in the luxury e-commerce race? A $21 billion market capitalisation certainly sets it apart from the pack. But can Farfetch buck the trend of luxury brands moving to more direct relationships with consumers, both online and off - a strategic shift which risks cutting out multi-brand players? And how will it fend off the challenge from technology giants like Amazon, which is redoubling its efforts to break into selling luxury fashion, or Alibaba, which has invested in Farfetch even as its own high-end venture, the Tmall Luxury Pavilion, continues to gain ground?

We'll understand what makes Farfetch stand out to investors, including its marketplace model and technology investments, and how fashion brands' increased appetite for its services allowed it to stage a spectacular comeback in the market and nab a historic deal.

Click below to read the case study now.
Editor's Note: This case study was corrected on January 15, 2021. A previous version of this report stated that Farfetch's Store of the Future team is working with Chanel to implement a service for shipping items purchased in-store. This is incorrect. Chanel does not have this Store of the Future functionality enabled.

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Inside Farfetch's Bid to Dominate Luxury E-Commerce - Download the Case Study

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During a blockbuster year for online sales, Farfetch surged ahead of rivals to position itself at the front of luxury's e-commerce race. Can it spin the current momentum into sustainable - and profitable - growth and become the unrivalled platform for luxury fashion online?

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The former Asos executive is the latest hire to join the leadership team under chief executive Nick Beighton, and will oversee all creative output at the luxury retailer, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

During his tenure at Asos, which began in 2010, Mooney was responsible for scaling the fast fashion giant's private menswear label before becoming the business' first global creative director.

Mooney's appointment comes a week after Apax Partners, the private equity firm which acquired Matchesfashion in 2017, injected £60 million ($74.2 million) into the retailer to support the business through its turnaround plan.
Learn more: Can a New CEO 'Transform' Matchesfashion? The British luxury e-tailer reported another year of widening losses in 2021. But new chief Nick Beighton is focused on the future, looking to attract young customers and revamp the site's user experience.

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Matchesfashion Taps John Mooney as Executive Creative Director

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The former Asos executive is the latest hire to join the leadership team under chief executive Nick Beighton, and will oversee all creative output at the luxury retailer, the company said in a statement Tuesday. During his tenure at Asos, which began in 2010, Mooney was responsible for scaling the fast fashion giant's private menswear label before becoming the business' first global creative director.

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Apax Partners, the private equity firm which acquired the luxury retailer in 2017, has agreed to inject £60 million ($74.2 million) into the business, a spokesperson for the company confirmed Monday.

The retailer's support package was first reported by Sky News.

The financing is intended to support the business through its turnaround plan under chief executive Nick Beighton, who became the company's fourth chief executive in as many years when he joined the business in July.

The additional financing means Matchesfashion will be in a better position to use "technology, product, logistics and culture, to help grow the top line of the business as well as our profitability," Beighton told BoF over email on Monday.

In November, former Asos chief Beighton told BoF that "a recovery is already underway" at Matchesfashion after a turbulent few years for the retailer.
Learn more: Can a New CEO 'Transform' Matchesfashion? The British luxury e-tailer reported another year of widening losses in 2021. But new chief Nick Beighton is focused on the future, looking to attract young customers and revamp the site's user experience.

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Matchesfashion Secures £60m Support Package From Owner

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Apax Partners, the private equity firm which acquired the luxury retailer in 2017, has agreed to inject £60 million ($74.2 million) into the business, a spokesperson for the company confirmed Monday. The retailer's support package was first reported by Sky News.

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Matchesfashion adds to exec changes with new COO from Farfetch

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The luxury retailer has appointed Stuart Hill as its new COO, only days after naming former Asos chief Nick Beighton as new CEO.

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There was only one horticultural headline to take away from the SS23 show circuit: fashion 's chief purveyors said it was time to dust off the anthurium flower, with its pop-art, waxy red petal, and bumpy, phallic spadix, and reclaim it as an object of desire.

Jonathan Anderson's Loewe collection - which saw models walk around a vast, fibreglass rendition of the plant in Paris's Gendarmerie Nationale-Garde Républicaine, wearing scaled-down, 3D-moulded anthurium as tops and gowns - set the trend. A-list outings in his anthurium fineries, worn by Zendaya, Emily Ratakowski, and Taylor Russell, secured its renaissance.

The set at Loewe's SS23 collection was centred around the anthurium
/ Loewe SS23

Now, the craze has hit London. Walk into Matches Fashion's Mayfair townhouse shop, 5 Carlos Place, and enter a Loewe anthurium wonderland. For a takeover running from today until Thursday, May 13, customers will find a vast rendition of the anthurium and leaf stiletto that walked the collection, alongside bunches-upon-bunches of the flowers, and a selection of similarly adorned clothes, bags, and shoes to purchase.

If you can't splash £825 on the giant flower-emblazoned mesh dress, there is fun to be had for free in the first few days. Brunches and afternoon teas created by chef and 'food artist' Imogen Kwok are complimentary to guests in the opening three days of the takeover. The menu is inspired by the collection and promises to be unparalleled Instagram content.

Free high-fashion snacks? Run, don't walk, from 10am to 6pm each day to taste the magic.
The Loewe takeover at Matches Fashion runs from Thursday, April 13 until Thursday, May 13. The Loewe café, offering free brunch and afternoon tea, runs until Saturday, April 15.

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A free and fabulously fashionable Loewe café comes to Matches

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There was only one horticultural headline to take away from the SS23 show circuit: fashion 's chief purveyors said it was time to dust off the anthurium flower, with its pop-art, waxy red petal, and bumpy, phallic spadix, and reclaim it as an object of desire.

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Shop the Marine Serre official site. Discover the latest women’s and men’s ready to wear, shoes, and accessories collections.

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Shop Our Sustainability at lululemon. Our technical gear is designed to keep you comfortable and confident during all your sweaty pursuits. Free Shipping and Returns.

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At Fanfare, we live and breathe circular fashion. We never want any piece of our clothing to end up in landfills and so our circular values are present from the outset and align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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Timeless fashion, made for life. E.L.V. DENIM is a pioneering British luxury brand dedicated to crafting timeless sustainable jeans from 100% upcycled denim.

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1. Introduction

Acne Studios recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of your personal data. We have instituted strict policies and security measures to protect the information you provide us. This is the Privacy Policy for our stores and the website hosted at https://www.acnestudios.com/ ("our website").

2. Who is responsible for the processing of your personal data?

The Swedish company Acne Studios AB, reg. No. 556504-7726 ("Acne Studios""We""Us"), is the controller of your personal data. Acne Studios' affiliated companies (including other companies within the Acne Studios group, joint ventures, franchisees and licensees) and selected suppliers may process your personal data on Acne Studios' behalf and in accordance with Acne Studios' instructions as stated below and are thereby processors of your personal data. You may contact Acne Studios at any time, please find our contact details below.
Mail address: P.O. Box 24266, 104 51 Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting address: Floragatan 13, 114 31 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 10 888 73 05
E-mail: customercare@acnestudios.com
You may contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@acnestudios.com

3. Categories of data processed, purpose and legal basis for processing

3.1 General

Below is a summary of the categories of data that we process, the purposes of processing the data and on what legal basis we are processing your data. Our processing of your personal data partly depends on whether you have subscribed for membership with us or not. The processing of personal data relating to customers that are not members is described in section 3.2 below. The processing of our members' personal data is described in section 3.3 below.

3.2 Customers (non-members)

3.2.1 Data collected when you shop in our webstore or use our online services

Contact details: If you make a purchase online we will collect your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, country of residence, date of birth, title (Ms./Mr. or other title) and social media account contact details. Not all information is mandatory for making a purchase. We have marked mandatory information with the symbol (*) on our website. We will use your contact information to (i) process your purchase/orders and any returns, exchanges and complaints you may have relating to your purchase; and to (ii) communicate with you regarding your purchase and to answer and administer any questions or comments you may have regarding our products or services. The legal basis is that it is necessary to process your data in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the purchase agreement. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose. We may also process your contact details to keep you informed, via email, SMS, letters, telephone, WeChat, Whatsapp and other social media, of our special events or promotions. The legal basis is our legitimate interest of being able to market our products to our existing customers. We may use your contact details for direct marketing purposes for up to 12 months after your latest purchase subject to your ongoing right to opt-out. You are entitled to reject our marketing messages at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link included in each message or by contacting customer service at customercare@acnestudios.com.

Credit card details: If you make a purchase online and chose to pay by credit card, you will provide your credit card information on our website to finalize your purchase. Your credit card details will be protected using Global Sign Encryption. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the purchase agreement. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

Previous purchases and returns: If you have signed up for an account we will store information regarding (i) your purchases and returns online, and (ii) your purchases and returns in physical stores, if you have provided your e-mail address to our personnel. Such information encompasses product, size, price and date of purchase. We will also store information regarding your recently viewed items. This will allow you to keep track of your purchases and returns, and recently viewed items, by logging into your personal account. The legal basis is our legitimate interest to provide you with the service of a personal account as requested by you when you signed up for the account. You may choose to deregister your account at any time. We will also save information on your contact details and previous purchases and returns during 36 months after the purchase to be able to administer returns and/or complaints. The legal basis is our legitimate interest to provide our customers with speedy and efficient service after the purchase.

ID number: If you chose to make your payment by invoice, you may be required to provide your personal ID number on our website. Your ID number will be directly transferred and available only to our payment service provider, which will process your ID number to be able to obtain a credit report and to facilitate your payment. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary for us to ensure accurate identification of our customers for invoice purposes and to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the purchase agreement. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

3.2.2 Data collected when you shop in our physical stores

If you make a purchase in one of our physical stores we may process your e-mail address in order to be able to send a digital receipt to you. We will only collect your email address and send you a digital receipt if this has been requested or accepted by you. This processing is based on our legitimate interest of being able to provide our customers with a digital receipt on a voluntary basis. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

3.3 Members

When you subscribe to become a member, you will enter into an agreement with Acne Studios (the "Membership Policy"). You may sign up for membership by subscribing to the services provided by Acne Studios in accordance with the Membership Policy. The membership is completely voluntary and subscribing for membership is not a requirement for purchasing Acne Studios' goods.

3.3.1 Data collected when signing up for membership

When you sign up for membership (online or in Acne Studios' physical stores), Acne Studios collects your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, country of residence, date of birth, title (Ms./Mr. or other title) and social media account contact details. Acne Studios processes the data to create your personal account and to process the membership which includes certain features such as (i) sending digital receipts upon request when purchasing a product in a physical store, (ii) sending out invitations to special events/promotions, (iii) personalized services in store, and (iv) profiled marketing offers through email, SMS, letters, telephone, WeChat, Whatsapp and other social media. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the Membership Policy. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

3.3.2 Data collected when shopping online

Contact details: When you purchase a product online, Acne Studios will process your contact details for the following purposes; (i) to process purchases/orders and returns, exchanges and complaints; (ii) to communicate with you regarding the purchases and to answer and administer any questions or comments that you may have regarding Acne Studios' products or services. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the purchase agreement.

Previous purchases and returns: Acne Studios will also process data regarding your contact details and previous purchases and returns online (product, size, price and date of purchase) during 36 months after the purchase. The information will be processed for the following purposes:
Administering returns and complaints. The processing is based on our legitimate interest to provide our members with speedy and efficient service after the purchase.
Allowing you to keep track of your purchases and returns by logging into your account. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the Membership Policy.

Credit card details: If you make a purchase online and chose to pay by credit card, you will provide your credit card information on the website for the purpose of making payment for the purchase. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the purchase agreement. As a member you may also choose to save your credit card details for future purchases, for the purpose of speeding up the checkout the next time you shop. The legal basis for this processing is your consent. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

ID number: If you chose to make your payment by invoice, you may be required to provide your personal ID number on our website. Your ID number will be directly transferred and available only to our payment service provider, which will process your ID number to be able to obtain a credit report and to facilitate your payment. The legal basis is that the processing is necessary for us to ensure accurate identification of our customers for invoice purposes and to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the purchase agreement. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

3.3.3 Data collected when shopping in physical stores

When you shop in Acne Studios' physical stores, Acne Studios may collect and store information regarding (i) your clothing and shoe size, (ii) your clothing preferences (such as preferred colors and style) and (iii) other shopping preferences, provided that you have shared this information with Acne Studios' personnel on a voluntary basis. Acne Studios may also store data regarding your purchases and returns in physical stores (product, size, price and date of purchase) if you have provided your e-mail address to Acne Studios' personnel. This information is processed for the purpose of enhancing your future purchasing experience with Acne Studios and to provide customized service, which is part of Acne Studios' membership service. The legal basis for this is that the processing is necessary in our legitimate interests of providing you with the products and services that interest you, to generate Acne Studios' business and grow revenue as well as understand our customers better. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

3.3.4 Data collected when using Acne Studios website services

Acne Studios will store information regarding your recently viewed items when browsing Acne Studios' website. This will allow you to keep track of your recently viewed items, by logging into your personal account. The legal basis for this is that the processing is necessary in order for us to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the Membership Policy and in our legitimate interests of providing you with the products and services that interest you, to generate Acne Studios' business and grow revenue as well as understand our customers better. We will retain your data for as long as necessary for this purpose.

3.4 Newsletter Subscribers

If you have subscribed to one of our newsletters, we will use your contact details to send out such newsletter. The legal basis for this processing is your consent. The newsletters will be sent to you until you unsubscribe to the newsletter service.

3.5 Archive Subscribers

If you have subscribed to receive information and updates via e-mail and text messages regarding Acne Studios Archive events, we will process your name, telephone number, e-mail address, country of residence and gender to send out information regarding Archive events. The legal basis for this processing is your consent. The information and updates regarding Archive events will be sent to you until you unsubscribe to the service.

3.6 Customer service

If you have contacted Acne Studios regarding a complaint, return or question, the e-mail or chat conversation will be stored for as long as it is necessary to administer your matter, including following up on the matter within 12 months. Depending on the nature of the matter for which you are contacting us, the legal basis may be that our processing is necessary for us to be able to fulfill our obligations under the purchase agreement or Membership Policy, or that we have a legitimate interest of being able to communicate with individuals who contact our customer service

3.7 Anonymized data

It can be noted that we may also use anonymized data for our internal marketing and demographic studies to analyze, profile and monitor customer patterns in order for us to be able to improve our products and services.

3.8 Consent and withdrawal

By purchasing or receiving our products/services, you confirm that you have read and understood the content of this privacy policy. Where the legal basis for the processing of your personal data is your consent, you agree to Acne Studios' processing of your personal data in accordance with the provisions herein. Should you wish to object to, or withdraw your consent, to any of our processing, please contact us at customercare@acnestudios.com. Please note, however, that your withdrawal will not affect our right to process your data when such processing is necessary to perform our contractual obligations to you, and/or to the extent we are required to process your data by law or to defend ourselves in a dispute, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to enforce our Terms and Conditions. If you withdraw your consent to any consent-based processing, we will cease all such processing.

4. Does Acne Studios share your information with others?

Acne Studios does not sell or rent our customer's personal data to any other entity.
We may share your data with affiliated companies including other companies within the Acne Studios group, joint ventures, franchisees and licensees. If you have subscribed for membership with Acne Studios, we may combine your data provided to us with data that you have provided to such affiliated companies, for the purpose of improving our services to you, and to enhance your shopping experience when visiting an Acne Studios store in another country than your residence. The legal basis for the processing is that it is necessary for Acne Studios' performance of the Membership Policy.
Acne Studios may also share your data with selected suppliers who perform functions on our behalf such as fulfilling orders and delivery of orders, processing payments, carrying out promotional services or data management, to maintain our website, to distribute e-mails, to send out our newsletter, to provide client communications and to manage our customer database. As necessary, the personal data you provide to us may be processed by these third parties, solely on Acne Studios' behalf and in accordance with Acne Studios' instructions as data processors. We do not authorize any of our suppliers to make any other use of your personal data.
If Acne Studios and/or its subsidiaries are subject to an actual or potential merger or acquisition or similar transaction, we may share your data with potential and actual buyer(s) and their financial and legal advisers, subject to such third parties undertaking appropriate confidentiality.

5. Transfer outside of the EU/EES

We may share your data with our selected suppliers, who may process your data in countries both inside and outside of the EU/EES when performing functions on our behalf as set out in section 4 above.
If you have subscribed to membership with Acne Studios, we will share your contact details and information on previous purchases and shopping preferences with our affiliated companies both inside and outside of the EU/EEA (please see further under section 4).
Please note that countries outside of the EU/EEA may not provide an adequate level of protection for your personal data. Acne Studios has however taken appropriate safeguards to ensure that the receiving parties of your data in countries outside of the EU/EEA shall provide an adequate protection of your data. Such safeguards may be that the receiving party has joined the Privacy Shield (if the receiving party is a company established in the United States) or that the receiving party has signed so called standard data protection clauses adopted by the EU Commission. Please contact us at customercare@acnestudios.com if you want further information on what safeguards have been taken and if you want a copy of such safeguards.

6. Your data subject rights

In this section 6, we have summarized your data subject rights to request access, portability, rectification, erasure of your personal data, to restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to processing, and your right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority.
If you want to exercise your rights, please send us an email at customercare@acnestudios.com. Please note however that if you want to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, you need to contact the authority directly.
If you have signed up for a membership with Acne Studios you will also be able to access, rectify and erase some of your data by logging in to your private account. Login to your account
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, Acne Studios reserves the right to keep and process your personal data in accordance with this policy to the extent necessary to perform our contractual obligations to you, and to the extent we are required to process your data by law or in order to defend ourselves in a dispute, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to enforce our Terms and Conditions.

Right of access
You have the right to obtain confirmation of whether personal data concerning yourself are being processed and, where that is the case, access to the personal data and information regarding, inter alia, the purpose of processing, the categories of personal data concerned, the categories of recipients to whom your data have been or will be disclosed, and the envisaged period of time for which personal data will be stored (or the criteria for determining this).

Right of rectification
You have the right to request rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning yourself, and to complete incomplete data.

Right of erasure
Under certain circumstances you are entitled to request that we erase your personal data or restrict our processing of your data, namely in the following events.
When it is no longer necessary for us to process your data taking into consideration the purposes for which it was collected.
When our processing is based on your consent and you have withdrawn your consent, and there is no other legal basis for the processing of your data.
When our processing of your data is based on a legitimate interest legal basis and you object to such processing, and there is no overriding legitimate ground for our processing.
When you have objected to our processing of your data for direct marketing purposes.
When your personal data has been unlawfully processed.
When the personal data must be erased for compliance with a legal obligation that applies to us.
When the personal data collected concerns a child (under 13 years of age) in relation to the offer of information society services.

Right to objection - direct marketing and profiling
You have the right to object at any time to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. If you object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling, we will cease such processing of your data.

Data portability
If our processing is based on your consent or if the processing is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, you have the right to request that the data which you have provided to us shall be provided to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and you also have the right to transmit such data to another controller.

Right to lodge a complaint with supervisory authority
Please note that if you consider the processing of your data to be in violation of applicable data protection laws, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence or the place of the alleged infringement.

7. How do I unsubscribe from Acne Studios newsletters and emails?

If you do no longer wish to receive our newsletters or other emails, you can unsubscribe as indicated in the particular communication, i.e. by using the unsubscribe link which is included on all newsletters and other emails. You may also contact us at customercare@acnestudios.com.

8. How long do we keep your data?

We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary in relation to the purposes for which the data was collected or otherwise processed. Under section 3 above, we have specified the retention time, or the criteria for determining the retention time, for our processing of data in relation to the different purposes the data is being processed. In addition to the retention time stated under section 3 above, please also note the following.
Members: If you have not made any purchases, logged in to your account or used any of our services during a consecutive period of 36 months, we will terminate your membership and consequently we will not use your data for any membership services or marketing purposes thereafter. In such case we will delete your data unless we need to keep it for other purposes that are legally justifiable.
We will retain your personal information as necessary to comply with applicable legal obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. Statutory obligations to retain data further remain unaffected.

9. Is it mandatory to provide personal data?

When you purchase our products online, or sign up for a membership with Acne Studios, we will inform you which data is mandatory by marking certain fields with a symbol (*). The provision of mandatory data is necessary for Acne Studios to be able to fulfill our contractual obligation to you, for example processing your order, or fulfilling the membership services requested by you.
When you purchase our products in our physical stores, you do not have to provide any personal data. Please note however that if you chose to receive a digital receipt, it is mandatory that you provide your e-mail address or otherwise we will not be able to send you the digital receipt.

10. Children's privacy and legal purchase age

Acne Studios does not wish to collect personal information from anyone under the age of eighteen (18). If you are under eighteen (18), we require that you inform and get your parents' or guardians' consent before purchasing anything or provide any personal data to us at acnestudios.com or any other website related to Acne Studios.

11. Cookies

We use cookies on our website. Please see our separate policy for cookies, which you can find on our website.

12. Modifications

Acne Studios reserves the right to occasionally make changes to our privacy policy or practices. We will post the updated policy on our website, and thus we encourage you to review this page from time to time.
Last date for modification: May, 2018

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1. Introduction Acne Studios recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of your personal data. We have instituted strict policies and security measures to protect the information you provide us. This is the Privacy Policy for our stores and the website hosted at https://www.acnestudios.com/ ("our website"). 2.

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Diamonds and Gemstones_

Our diamonds are ethically sourced and adhere to the Kimberley Process and the World Diamond Council's System of Warranties. We select our diamonds exclusively from trusted RJC-certified suppliers. Each diamond used in our jewellery is assessed for its cut, colour, clarity and carat, and hand-picked by our founder.

Our gemstones are also ethically sourced through trusted suppliers. Similarly to diamonds, each gemstone is hand-picked for quality and hand-set with care in our studio in Hatton Garden.

Please contact us for more information on the provenance of any of the precious gems used in our pieces.

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Our diamonds are ethically sourced and adhere to the Kimberley Process and the World Diamond Council's System of Warranties. We select our diamonds exclusively from trusted RJC-certified suppliers. Each diamond used in our jewellery is assessed for its cut, colour, clarity and carat, and hand-picked by our founder.

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While the fashion industry is reorganizing for the next normal after the COVID-19 crisis, European consumers have become even more engaged in sustainability topics. That presents an opportunity for the fashion industry to reiterate its commitment to sustainability. Moreover, now could be the moment to drive less seasonality in the fashion system.

Our survey was conducted in April 2020 across more than 2,000 UK and German consumers. It is part of a firmwide effort to capture consumer sentiment during the COVID-19 crisis.

Sentiment toward sustainability

Amid the shock and uncertainty that the fashion sector is facing during the COVID-19 crisis, there is a silver lining for the environment: two-thirds of surveyed consumers state that it has become even more important to limit impacts on climate change. Additionally, 88 percent of respondents believe that more attention should be paid to reducing pollution.

In practice, consumers have already begun changing their behaviors accordingly. Of consumers surveyed, 57 percent have made significant changes to their lifestyles to lessen their environmental impact, and more than 60 percent report going out of their way to recycle and purchase products in environmentally friendly packaging (Exhibit 1).

Emphasis on social and environmental commitments

While the industry is reorganizing for the next normal, it should consider that consumers want fashion players to uphold their social and environmental responsibilities amid the crisis. Of surveyed consumers, 67 percent consider the use of sustainable materials to be an important purchasing factor, and 63 percent consider a brand's promotion of sustainability in the same way.

Additionally, surveyed consumers expect brands to take care of their employees, as well as workers in Asia, during the COVID-19 crisis (Exhibit 2). That highlights the need for brands to maintain ethical commitments, despite the crisis.

Overall, it is imperative to build trust and transparency with consumers, as 70 percent are sticking with brands they know and trust during the crisis. Of surveyed consumers, 75 percent consider a trusted brand to be an important purchasing factor. However, younger consumers, particularly Gen Zers and millennials, are more likely to experiment with smaller or lesser-known brands during the crisis (Exhibit 3).

Shift in purchasing behavior

With 88 percent of consumers expecting a slow recovery or a recession, general consumer confidence is low. As a result, consumer spending on fashion is also changing. More than 60 percent of consumers report spending less on fashion during the crisis, and approximately half expect that trend to continue after the crisis passes. However, consumers are likely to cut back on accessories, jewelry, and other discretionary categories before reducing their spending on apparel and footwear (Exhibit 4).

When it comes to making changes to purchasing behavior, younger consumer segments are willing to buy cheaper versions of products they normally buy-approximately 50 percent of Gen Zers and millennials in our survey report trading down (Exhibit 5).

The COVID-19 crisis has recruited new consumers to online channels: 43 percent of surveyed consumers who didn't purchase fashion online before the crisis have started using online channels. And that shift is unlikely to reverse, as nearly 28 percent of consumers expect to buy less at physical stores-a trend seen in higher shares in Generation Z and millennial respondents (Exhibit 6).

Mindset on fashion cycles and circular business models

The survey findings indicate that the consumer mindset is not strongly tied to the fashion cycle, so now could be the moment to drive less seasonality in the fashion system. Of surveyed consumers, 65 percent are supportive of fashion brands delaying the launch of new collections as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, 58 percent of respondents are less concerned about the fashion of clothing than other factors following the crisis, and consumers now cite newness as one of the least important attributes when making purchases (Exhibit 7).

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, 65 percent of respondents are planning to purchase more durable fashion items, and 71 percent are planning to keep the items they already have for longer (Exhibit 8). Additionally, 57 percent of respondents are willing to repair items to prolong usage.

Particularly among younger European consumers, there is interest in purchasing secondhand fashion items following the COVID-19 crisis. Of surveyed consumers, around 50 percent of Gen Zers and millennials expect to purchase more items secondhand (Exhibit 9).

Overall, consumer sentiment suggests that the COVID-19 crisis could serve as a reset opportunity for players in the apparel, footwear, and luxury sectors to strengthen their sustainability commitments and accelerate industry-wide changes, such as reduced seasonality and scaling of circular business models.

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Survey: Consumer sentiment on sustainability in fashion

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Consumer engagement in sustainability has deepened during the COVID-19 crisis, as consumers demand that fashion players act responsibly, and consider the social and environmental impact of their businesses.

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Champagne Flutes for Wedding With Crystals and Pearls in - Etsy

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MarketLine case study - Department stores: Major trends transforming the retail landscape

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MarketLine case study - Department stores: Major trends transforming the retail landscape

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Vogue India: Matchesfashion.com moves from e-commerce to a six storey retail space

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Vogue India: Matchesfashion.com moves from e-commerce to a six storey retail space

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We all know fashion is cyclical. It's an industry that loves to dip into its own archives to find inspiration and then give it a fresh, new take. And that is exactly what London's MatchesFashion.com is doing.

31 years ago the first Matches store opened its doors in London's affluent residential area, Wimbledon. Known for its edit of super cool and independent labels, the brand soon opened a second store in the very trendy Marylebone and started to work with the big brands too. In 2006, the brand decided it was time to go e-tail-and today MatchesFashion.com has become every fashion girl's go-to digital destination. It was one of the first brick-and-mortar stores to make that jump into e-commerce. And today, alongside Moda Operandi and Farfetch, it is where every young designer hopes to make its e-tail home.

But in an interesting turn of events, it seems like the time has arrived for fashion e-commerce to look to the past to stay on top of the curve. While fashion customers may love the ease and convenience of e-tailing, they miss the touch and feel that physical locations allow you to have with clothes and accessories. "Customers like to connect, to engage," explains Jess Christie, chief brand officer. That's why when the brand turned 30 last year, they looked at pop-up concepts in New York, Los Angles and Paris. And this system that has not only worked for MatchesFashion.com-Moda Operandi has embraced the concept too, and has a by-appointment showroom in New York and London. The success of the pop-ups prompted MatchesFashion.com to take things one step further, and open a space that takes experiential retail to a entirely new level.

Located at 5 Carlos Place in London's Mayfair, a stone's throw from Goyard's and Roland Mouret's flagship stores in London, this five-storied, 7000sq ft, 19th-century heritage townhouse building is very different to any other brick-and-mortar retail destination. Designed by the architect firm P Joseph, it is on the cutting edge of technology (with embedded QR codes all over the house), and all pieces can be delivered to you within 90 minutes, provided you are in London. It's almost like the store provides you with the convenience of online shopping, while also making you feel like you're part of a member's only club. And of course you can pre-reserve pieces through MatchesFashion.com. There are two floors of curated retail space and two floors of personal shopping suites, along with a broadcast hub, from where all events and collaborations held at the space will be broadcasted on their website. "We wanted to look after our existing customers [and] offer them a space which gives them the best," said Christie. "And at the same time, the Townhouse will allow new customers to discover and understand the world of MatchesFashion.com."

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Matchesfashion.com moves from e-commerce to a six storey retail space | VOGUE India

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We all know fashion is cyclical. It's an industry that loves to dip into its own archives to find inspiration and then give it a fresh, new take. And that is exactly what London's MatchesFashion.com is doing. 31 years ago the first Matches store opened its doors in London's affluent residential area, Wimbledon.

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The 8 Biggest Consumer And Customer Experience Trends In 2022

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Hudson Yards NYC _ Cushman And Wakefield NYC

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We Don't Call Ourselves Sustainable - Pangaia

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We know that everything we create has an impact on the planet. From carbon emitted during shipping through to water used in the production process—however small, there will always be an environmental cost.

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MATCHESFASHION.COM is an omni-channel luxury fashion retailer founded by Tom Chapman and Ruth Chapman. Beginning in 1987 with the first Matches store in Wimbledon Village, the brand has grown to encompass a number of London stores, an international online presence and an ongoing range of exciting initiatives, from own-brand magazines to pop-up stores.

Each week MATCHESFASHION.COM produces two issues of The Style Report, a men's and a women's digital magazine, each with their own homepage, featuring a blend of editorial features, columns, news, beautifully photographed shoots and MATCHESFASHION.COM brands, all in one curated space. MATCHESFASHION.COM also produces a biannual print magazine which is distributed to the Eurostar, Virgin lounges and five-star hotels around the world.

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MATCHESFASHION.COM is an omni-channel luxury fashion retailer founded by Tom Chapman and Ruth Chapman. Beginning in 1987 with the first Matches store in Wimbledon Village, the brand has grown to encompass a number of London stores, an international online presence and an ongoing range of exciting initiatives, from own-brand magazines to pop-up stores.

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At MATCHESFASHION are mission is to offer the most personal luxury shopping experience in the world. We are renowned and respected for the relationships we build with clients and our brand partnerships. To achieve our ambition, we capitalise on our unique combination of technical savviness and global innovation mixed with curated content. We like to think of it as logic meeting magic. When we come together, great things happen.

MATCHESFASHION started with a single shop in Wimbledon over 30 years ago and has grown into one of the biggest global destinations in online luxury for men and women, with a modern edit of over 450 established and new generation designers, delivering to over 176 countries. We are famous for our fashion point of view, with a forward-looking focus on innovation and emerging talent. Our aspiration is to be the most personal luxury shopping site in the world. We offer 24/7 advice through our fashion-concierge team MyStylist, as well as at our London stores and new retail experience, event space and broadcasting hub at 5 Carlos Place in Mayfair.

We live by these values:

We believe we all have a part to play: We are focused on the same goals and help one another succeed. Our company acts as one team and supports each other.

We are ambitious for our future: We are brave, try new things, test and learn to drive the right ideas forward. We also make the right decisions, always putting our customers at the heart.

We celebrate each other: We are respectful, kind and welcoming and take the time to reflect on our achievements, recognizing both big and small.

We lead the way, moving our industry forward, and we are always looking for talented individuals to join our team and help inspire the world with us. At MATCHESFASHION we believe that everyone has a part to play and we are committed to building a working environment with a balanced and inclusive culture. We want people to be themselves and be inspired to do their best work. We value difference and know it's key in driving the innovation that gives us our advantage as a brand.

MATCHESFASHION is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for our people.

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At MATCHESFASHION are mission is to offer the most personal luxury shopping experience in the world. We are renowned and respected for the relationships we build with clients and our brand partnerships. To achieve our ambition, we capitalise on our unique combination of technical savviness and global innovation mixed with curated content.

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Inside 5 Carlos Place, the Matches Fashion flagship store and experience venue in London's Mayfair
Cat Garcia

Most of the news coming out about the retail sector does not make for happy reading. The retail apocalypse is well documented, with shrinking malls and the decline of established names like Barney's. Many blame Amazon for disrupting retail with low prices and easy delivery. However, retail does not have to be a race to the bottom.

MatchesFashion, a luxury retailer, has achieved consistent and profitable double-digit growth for the past 8 years, reaching revenues of £372 million in 2018. The retailer has evolved along with the changes in the industry since its founding in 1987.

Founded by a husband and wife team, Matches was a small shop in Wimbledon, a wealthy London suburb. Since then, the company grew its brick and mortar offering and launched its e-commerce website in 2006 to complement to its offline presence. Today 97% of the company's sales come from online shopping.

Luxury fashion has generally been late to the party when it comes to online shopping. In 2018, just 9% of all luxury goods sales were made online, against 18.2% of all U.K. retail sales, according to ONS. The argument has been that luxury shopping has to be an experience, which online shopping just cannot deliver. MatchesFashion seems to prove otherwise.

Engaging content drives sales

While creating and distributing good content is expensive, it also drives serious sales.

People who engage with MatchesFashion content are 50% more likely to make a purchase and their average order value increases by almost 20%, Jess Christie, Chief brand officer at MatchesFashion said in her talk at Wired Smarter this fall.

Jess Christie, Chief Brand Officer at MatchesFashion

Experiential retail goes beyond the store

While some retailers invest in events to tempt customers into their stores, and others produce content to bring people to their sites, MatchesFashion does both and more. The opening of 5 Carlos Place, a five storey townhouse in Mayfair, an elite neighborhood in London, has given MatchesFashion a beautiful flagship store, a venue for events, and a source of inspiring content.

Brick and mortar stores are not only venues to sell product, but are also part of the retailer's marketing strategy. In consumers' minds, online and offline shopping are not an either or. If people like a retailer or a brand, they will go to the store, follow them on Instagram, visit their pop ups and buy online.

Seeing the store as a venue that doubles up as a content studio is a good way to look at the cost of maintaining a beautiful venue and paying high real estate prices. Instead of only looking at like for like sales among stores, retailers should also consider whether the store boosts online sales and produces enough content to drive engagement online.

Specialist teams

Even the best buying and curation skills are not enough to do experiential retail well. To host great events and produce content, retailers need people who know how to do both. This is especially true for luxury consumers, because they are used to thoughtful service and great organization.

The people responsible for delivering experience and content at MatchesFashion come from these specialist backgrounds. Christie says that they employ team members with experience in service industries, especially in private members clubs.

The MatchesFashion content team is also a major investment into experienced professionals. The content team numbers around 50 people and is led by Chief Content Officer Kate Blythe, who began her career in fashion journalism.

Frequent and diverse events

MatchesFashion hosts an event per week at 5 Carlos Place, which allows them to cater to different tastes. While some consumers are interested in pop-up restaurants, others want to go to a book launch or hear an artist. By hosting events so frequently, MatchesFashion can cater to the different tastes of the luxury consumer.

This increases brand reach, brings new people into the store, and also allows the retailer to get better and better at hosting events that drive sales. In general, the more we do something the better we get, and experiential retail is no exception.

Photographer Mario Sorrenti and model Kate Moss at KATE Launch at 5 Carlos Place, the MatchesFashion ... [+]
Darren Gerrish

Experiential partnerships

Partnerships with the art world and travel companies have long been a part of retailers' strategies, but today's retail partnerships go beyond having your company's brand on an art opening program.

This summer MatchesFashion partnered with Italy's The Pellicano Hotel Group by recreating 5 Carlos Place via a traveling pop-up on a 1930s yacht, which sailed to hotels in the group. Guests were introduced to our Italian Grand Tour edit of clothes on the yacht and at events in the hotels.

The MatchesFashion X Pellicano Hotels yacht, summer 2019
Shaun James Cox

Of course, this sounds like an excellent way to spend a working week, and I hear there was intense competition between team members to attend the yacht. However, creating unforgettable experiences is what drives luxury sales.

"The product has become a souvenir of the experience," said Fiona Noble, CMO of luxury concierge company Quintessentially, while speaking the Forbes CMO Summit Europe last week.

Always focus on driving sales

Just as companies make the mistake of investing in tech for tech's sake, this is also true of content. Christie warns against this and advises retailers to remain focused on how the content or the experience will drive sales.

This means aligning the content and experience teams closely with the buyers, as well as with the user experience design teams. If the content makes the consumer covet a bag, but the path to purchase is not seamless, she is likely to give up in frustration, turning the content spend into waste.

Serving champagne in a store is no longer enough. Successful experiential strategies encompass content, offline shopping and memorable experiences, created by specialists who know how to organize, delight and surprise.

As always, the question that drives the consumer sale is: how do you make them feel?

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How To Succeed In Experiential Retail: Lessons From MatchesFashion

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Most of the news coming out about the retail sector does not make for happy reading. The retail apocalypse is well documented, with shrinking malls and the decline of established names like Barney's. Many blame Amazon for disrupting retail with low prices and easy delivery.

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To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.

On Friday night, a large and young crowd gathered outside Lafayette Anticipations, the art foundation backed by Galeries Lafayette in Paris's Marais district. The word had gotten out that it was the venue of the Marine Serre show and free exhibition. Fashion editors elbowed their way in.

After the show consisting of 49 silhouettes with a punk twist (think Harrington jacket upcycled with tartan scarves and a minidress done with upcycled "crazy" pullovers), the brand opened the doors to everyone and around 900 fans poured in to see the exhibition of sorters, cuters and sewers at work evolving deadstock into the brand's polished clothing. Another 3,000 visitors followed over the weekend for the free event.

"During Covid, I made a lot of films. For the return to a physical event, I wanted an exhibition that was open to the public and for free. It's important for me that people can meet and talk," Marine Serre says in an interview in Paris at the exhibition, dressed in one of her new season's bustiers, denim trousers and boots made with her distinctive moon shape-turned heel.

In just five years, Marine Serre has established herself as one of the leading Paris designers, alongside contemporaries like Jacquemus. Significantly, she has also managed to make upcycling a profitable business. An independent brand, she employs 70 people, many of whom sort and find her deadstock items, helping to build €13.6 million in annual sales and proving that building a new supply chain based on regeneration is possible. Now Serre says the brand is pushing into accessories and handbags, all upcycled, and has plans for its first-ever boutique in Paris in late 2023 or early 2024. The brand counts around 120 points of sale.

Her turnover, achieved only with ready-to-wear is promising, given she is only now dabbling in accessories, the cash cow of the industry. "Now that we mastered the upcycling production and quality very well, it was important for me to bring [upcycling] to bags and shoes." But it's taken time, and training.

Serre started her business digging in garbage to find stock. Now she has a 300-square-metre warehouse where staff open bags, rummage through garments to upcycled, mostly from France and deadstocks from the European Union, to sort and cut them. "We internalised upcycling," she says, because of the complications. It "takes a lot of space and time. The more we produce, the more we need people for sorting. I need to teach directly". But she is proving that it works, and the designer is even working on a book with French anthropologist Marc Abélès on upcycling.

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Marine Serre: From fashion's upcycling darling to established brand

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Marine Serre is among the buzziest labels at Paris Fashion Week, with huge crowds outside her show, an in-house supply chain and 70 staff. The founder, CEO and creative director talks strategy, disrupting the system and her future plans as an independent label.

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The Best of Designer Trends at Paris' Maison & Objet 2015

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