London's Fashion Expo: Helping Bridge the Divide Between Fashion Talent and Business Savvy

When you mention the word 'fashion', what usually comes to mind are images of preternaturally tall and beautiful women strutting across a catwalk wearing glamorous creations. It's a powerful image but a mere snippet of what the fashion industry actually entails. What your mind's eye doesn't see are the months, years even of endless toil accomplished under often very precarious economic conditions. As John Galliano pointed out during his keynote address at the CFDA/Vogue Fund Awards in New York earlier this week, fashion is first and foremost about hard work. When you consider that it takes a minimum of 3 to 5 years to establish a fashion label and build a brand, it's easy to understand why more than one talented designer has crashed and burned over the years for reasons unrelated to talent. That's precisely why I'm so excited to tell you about Fashion Expo .

Now in it's second year, Fashion Expo is organized by City Fringe Partnership  with funding from the London Development Agency. It seeks to bring retailers, manufacturers and creative talent together for one day while imparting valuable business and industry advice to struggling young designers who are too often long on talent and passion but short on the practical skills required to transform their talent and vision into a viable business. London has an abundance of world-class design schools, expert manufacturing ability and young design talent who come from all corners of the globe to bask in the creative energy of the city. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most expensive cities to live and establish a business in. Thankfully, events like Fashion Expo seek to address some of the challenges faced by emerging designers.

I had the opportunity to attend two of the three workshops and I can honestly say I was impressed not only by the range of practical information and resources but the willingness of seasoned industry professionals to impart their wisdom and experience. In one workshop dedicated to production and manufacturing resources in London, discussions delved into the nitty gritty of various aspects of production and detailed, useful advice was dispensed by a panel that included designers, production executives and sample manufacturers. Given the current economic climate and the fears for the retail apparel industry, every little bit of wisdom imparted by seasoned professionals that will give emerging fashion labels an edge is worth listening to. Those who attended Fashion Expo yesterday certainly got an earful of that and then some.

Sincerely,

The Luxe Chronicles

Comments

[TraiT]

I love love LOVE to see this kind of news and events.

It really embraces talent in general and leaves those side factors of "business" aside. Just fashion, and what it true definition is about.

[Anon Ymous]

Ooops, I see you did. My bad for missing Monday's post. Thanks.

[Anon Ymous]

Great post but it would have been even better if you'd posted something about the event *before* it had taken place. I would have liked to have attended.