What the British Fashion Council should do next
Can incoming chief executive Laura Weir make British fashion great again?
The British Fashion Council, the non-profit body which aims to promote the growth of British fashion industry, has named Selfridges chief creative Laura Weir as its new CEO, effective from 28 April. Caroline Rush, who announced in September that she intended to step down after almost 16 years, will exit in June following a handover.
Over her 16 year tenure, Rush has transformed the BFC into a globally recognised institution, when London previously struggled against the fashion weeks of Paris, Milan and New York. By securing lucrative deals and sponsorships, Rush was able to persuade top designers and brands to show in London and make it an essential date in the fashion calendar.
However, Weir’s appointment comes at a time of crisis for the British fashion industry more broadly. Burberry, the country's biggest and only global luxury fashion brand has had almost £7 billion wiped off its market cap and is now the most shorted stock on the London stock exchange, with ASOS in second place. Subscribers can read our in-depth guide for what’s gone wrong at Burberry.
Meanwhile, ultra-fast, ultra-cheap and ultra-bad-for-the-environment-and-workers-rights brands like Boohoo and Shein continue to do roaring trade, with the latter eyeing up a controversial IPO in the UK. London also used to be a hub for much hyped online retailers such as Matches, Farfetch, and Net-a-Porter, all of which have had billions wiped off their valuations. Fashion in post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain has simply not recovered from the disruption to supply chains, retail and the economy.
The BFC also faces criticism from designers and industry insiders who say that it has failed to innovate and nurture talent as effectively as smaller fashion weeks in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lagos, as reported by Amy Francombe in 1 Granary.
We spoke to four industry insiders who have had direct experience of dealing with the fashion council over the years, and who each have interesting perspectives on what it’s doing right and wrong:
A female fashion designer and winner of multiple awards from the BFC, who wished to remain anonymous
Patrick Grant, director of fashion brand Community Clothing and a presenter on The Great British Sewing Bee, and a former winner of the BFC’s New Generation Award
Menswear designer Oliver Spencer
Peter Howarth, a former editor of Esquire UK, Arena and Man About Town, and former style director at British GQ
If we could sum up their views, we’d say the BFC is an organisation that is good at promotion and hype, but that is perhaps less adept at offering the kind of support that could help turn fledgling design talent into larger, long-term businesses. Most agreed that the organisation suffers from persistent funding issues, and a lack of the kind of support from the government that rival cities such as Milan and Paris receive from theirs.
A ‘glorified party planner’?
“To be really brutal, [the BFC] just feels like they’re glorified party planners. Look at the London Fashion Awards,” said a female fashion designer who has previously won awards from the BFC, who requested anonymity. She thinks the BFC should be more like the Sarabande Foundation, the fashion incubator run by Trino Verkade, the former CEO of Thom Browne, which was set up after the death of fashion designer Alexander McQueen. He left his estate to the foundation to “support creative and visionary talent.”
“It just feels like they’re glorified party planners”
Anonymous fashion designer
The BFC offers support for designers including grants and other prizes, and during the pandemic it distributed £1 million each to 37 designers to help them and their businesses survive.
“The impression I got was that [the BFC] was always very cliquey. If you knew them, or were mates with them, you were in and you could get awards and you could get stuff,” she said. Nearly two thirds of the BFC’s £10.9 million income comes from London Fashion Week and the London Fashion Awards, according to its most recent annual report in 2022/23.
While those events are important for putting “the UK on the map,” said the fashion designer, she thinks sometimes they are not as useful for younger, up-and-coming designers, and for helping brands to grow.
The fashion designer won three awards from the BFC, which included prizes of a catwalk show or a static show at London Fashion Week. The process was “opaque and unclear, and ultimately not much support beyond the recognition of getting the award,” she said.
“The BFC was always very cliquey. If you were in, you could get awards”
Anonymous fashion designer
“You’re putting your work in front of this panel of people, buyers of major store groups … and you just hear, yes or no. You’re not party to any of the feedback that happens during that selection process. I didn’t get any coaching or support,” she said. “I remember emailing them once for feedback [about why I didn’t win one year] and they were like, ‘oh, we don’t give feedback.’ That's difficult strategically, because as a business, if you're planning to start showing, you want to keep on showing.”
The Sarabande Foundation, by comparison, instead focuses on offering direct support for designers including full time scholarships, bursaries, subsidised studio spaces and a relatively modest events programme with workshops and talks. “It’s incredible,” she said, “That, to me, is an example of what the BFC could be.”
The fashion week hustle
One thing that all of our interviewees agreed on was that the British Fashion Council is good at making noise and gaining attention in the press for the industry. In its 2022 report, the BFC proudly says the Fashion Awards garnered over 10,000 articles in 132 countries, with a “media value of over £265 million.”
Journalist and creative consultant Peter Howarth has seen how the BFC can galvanise the media, citing the example of the London Fashion Week Men’s initiative. “I think the idea made British menswear and London [into] a menswear hub, put it on the map,” he said.
“They have to hustle for money”
Patrick Grant
Patrick Grant said that by focusing on prominent events like London Fashion Week and the Fashion Awards, the BFC is just reacting to the reality that it needs money to survive. Putting on popular events that get attention from the press (and therefore, sponsors) is a good way to do it.
“The British Fashion Awards now is a fundraiser,” he said. “I think the great difficulty that they face is that they are not funded by the government, so they have to hustle for money.”