Shaping the future of British fashion

The Insti­tute of Pos­i­tive Fash­ion (IPF) was launched ear­li­er this year by the British Fash­ion Coun­cil (BFC) with the goal to be more sus­tain­able, diverse and respon­si­ble.  This year has shown the impor­tance of com­ing togeth­er to look at the future and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to change, col­lab­o­rate, inno­vate and rethink the fash­ion indus­try and its impact.  The fash­ion indus­try has an immense cul­tur­al pow­er and we want to ensure that the UK con­tin­ues to lead glob­al­ly.

In 2019 the UK fash­ion indus­try was worth £35 bil­lion to the UK econ­o­my and employed 890,000 peo­ple. A report by Oxford Eco­nom­ics, com­mis­sioned by the BFC, pre­dicts that the COVID-19 reces­sion could be twice as hard on the fash­ion sec­tor com­pared to the UK over­all, effec­tive­ly wip­ing out the above-aver­age growth achieved by the indus­try in the past ten years. 

The fash­ion industry’s GDP con­tri­bu­tion is pre­dict­ed to drop to £26.2 bil­lion with 240,000 direct job loss­es; this num­ber increas­es to 350,000 if you include indi­rect job loss­es. The data shows that, along­side the eco­nom­ic impact, an entire gen­er­a­tion of cre­ative tal­ent could dis­ap­pear, putting in dan­ger the UK’s posi­tion as the cre­ative cru­cible of glob­al fash­ion.

Protecting both people and planet in fashion

The fash­ion indus­try is a giant ecosys­tem and the UK pro­vides game-chang­ing cre­ative tal­ent. We are an indus­try that is resilient and cre­ative in reshap­ing itself and now is the time to act. There are urgent changes need­ed to pro­duc­tion sched­ules, prod­uct drops and sea­son­al­i­ty, as well as fash­ion weeks and buy­ing sched­ules. There are inno­va­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties to devel­op tech­nol­o­gy, reduce waste and our car­bon foot­print, and sup­port our indus­try and the plan­et, as a built-in part of growth.

The next step for the BFC as a part of the work of the IPF is to ensure that both peo­ple and plan­et have an equal foot­ing in terms of indus­try pri­or­i­ties for change. Our world is home to so many dif­fer­ent cul­tures and peo­ple, and dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and back­grounds are what make it vibrant, cre­ative and rel­e­vant. While diver­si­ty in the indus­try has improved, there are still many sys­temic bar­ri­ers that need to be bro­ken down to ensure the indus­try is tru­ly open to every­one.

Pre-pan­dem­ic the BFC Exec­u­tive Board talked about the need to address envi­ron­men­tal change. Now, through this peri­od of extreme chal­lenges and change, we will refo­cus the BFC’s resources and pur­pose to influ­ence and engage with more design­er-busi­ness­es and the broad­er indus­try to enable change.

Plans for the future of British fashion

We will strength­en British fash­ion in the glob­al econ­o­my as a leader in respon­si­ble, cre­ative busi­ness­es through cham­pi­oning diver­si­ty, build­ing and invit­ing the indus­try to active­ly par­tic­i­pate in a net­work to accel­er­ate a suc­cess­ful cir­cu­lar fash­ion econ­o­my. We will focus on sup­port­ing excel­lence in fash­ion design, from edu­ca­tion through to Lon­don Fash­ion Week and The Fash­ion Awards, empow­er­ing growth with shared resources to form a more resilient, fair and cir­cu­lar indus­try. Last­ly we will acti­vate pos­i­tive change through com­mu­ni­ca­tion to gov­ern­ment and engag­ing the broad­er indus­try. 

There are many prac­tices that have been accept­ed that should no longer be tol­er­at­ed. If the BFC is to tru­ly play a sig­nif­i­cant role in strength­en­ing British fash­ion in the glob­al fash­ion econ­o­my it must hold itself and busi­ness­es account­able to a high­er stan­dard than ever before and address the need for change now from the cat­walk to the fac­to­ry floor.

Through the IPF, the BFC aims to bring togeth­er glob­al exper­tise to help brands in the indus­try nav­i­gate an often con­fus­ing top­ic and kick­start a much-need­ed com­pre­hen­sive step-change. Great work is already being done, but there is much more to do.  Vis­it the IPF web­site here to view the Glob­al Resources Map of pro­grammes, ini­tia­tives and NGOs.