London Fashion Week: Fashion industry worth £26 billion to UK economy. New figures published by the British Fashion Council on the first day of London Fashion Week value the fashion industry's contribution to the UK economy at £26 billion BY Ellie Pithers | 14 February 2014 A model appears on the catwalk during the London College of Fashion MA Show at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Aldwych Photo: PA The British fashion industry is worth £26 billion to the country's economy, according to figures published today by the British Fashion Council. At a press conference to open London Fashion Week Natalie Massenet, chairman of the British Fashion Council, announced the increase of 22 per cent; up from £21 billion in 2009.
This figure incorporates not only the direct impact of wholesale, retail and manufacturing on the economy, but also its effect on other industries including tourism and financial services. The fashion industry is estimated to support 797,000 jobs according to research by Oxford Economics. How Zara became the world's biggest fashion retailer. This flexibility and efficiency has remained at the heart of Inditex, the company built from Zara that now runs 6,500 shops in 88 different countries and includes seven other brands, including Bershka, Pull & Bear, and Massimo Dutti. The business model built by Ortega is unique. Zara stores around the world receive deliveries twice a week and products designed at the headquarters in Arteixo reach stores three weeks later. This is a staggering pace, helped by the fact that between 51pc and 55pc of clothing is manufactured in what the company describes as “proximity” markets, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Morocco, instead of Asia.
This model is regularly described as “fast fashion”, but Pablo Isla, chief executive and chairman, insists Inditex is “much more” than that. “It is too narrow for everything that is Inditex,” he explains. If there is a secret to Inditex’s success it is the connection between stores, the in-house designers, and its factories. The company is still expanding quickly. ASOS puts hope in technology to boost international sales. Online fashion retailer ASOS is hoping that investment in its IT platform will help to reverse a decline in international retail sales. In its latest trading statement for the three months ended 30 November 2014, the company revealed that its strong UK performance (24 percent growth) had been offset by a two percent decrease in international retail sales. “International trading conditions remain challenging,” said ASOS CEO Nick Robertson. “We have commenced investment into our international pricing and have started to roll out our zonal pricing capability, which combined will help us to address our international performance.
We continue to focus on our major investment programmes, upgrading our IT platform and investing in our logistics capability. " During the quarter, Robertson said that ASOS had completed the automation programme at its Barnsley warehouse in time for the Christmas trading period peak. “We had our biggest ever trading week over cyber weekend in November,” he added. Asos Is Killing It in the U.S. and Europe Right Now. Over the last year, British fast fashion site Asos has been strongest on its home turf, as international sales took a hit due to jacked up prices — an issue the retailer has worked to correct by lowering pricing around the world, even if it meant sacrificing profits temporarily. On Tuesday, Asos had some good news to report: not only did it deliver the hefty sales growth investors like to see, but the U.S. and other parts of Europe actually outpaced gains in the U.K.
To be more precise, U.K. retail sales increased 27 percent for the four months that ended June 30, while U.S. sales were up 43 percent and Europe (excluding the UK) rose 21 percent. (If you eliminate exchange rate effects, that's 31 percent for the U.S. and 37 percent for Europe.) France and Germany are both showing strong momentum, Chief Financial Officer Nick Beighton said during a Tuesday morning webcast, although the latter does have a higher returns rate. The rest of the world, alas, is not doing quite so hot. Designers Embrace Periscope at Fashion Week - Fashionista. Gigi, Kendall, Karlie, Kim. We've seen them many times since New York Fashion Week started – not only on the runway and in paparazzi shots, but also via Periscope. Twitter's live-streaming app is proving to be one of this season's most popular platforms with brands and influencers alike.
Tommy Hilfiger, Desigual, Vera Wang, Jeremy Scott, Carolina Herrera and Ralph Lauren all used it during New York. And Hunter Original is set to do so during London. Caroline Issa, fashion director of Tank and Because magazines, has been a heavy user of the app all week, too. She refers to it as a value-added tool that can be used "to gain more loyalty, more eyeballs and more outlets for the amount of investment [being put] in shows. " She refers to it as true consumer access to the best in fashion month. For the fashion-obsessed, it's one of the best secondhand views available, especially when brands do it in detail. Advertisement — Continue reading below. This is How Fashion Brands Are Faring on Instagram — The Fashion Law.
This past October, Chanel made its Instagram debut and quickly racked up something like 1.8 million followers on its first day. Interesting to the fashion press and advertisers, alike, is Chanel's ability to quickly grow an Instagram audience. At the time, some sources claimed that the Karl Lagerfeld-helmed house established its account and amassed nearly 2 million followers in a number of hours (which seems highly unlikely).
AdWeek seemed to have the more plausible story, writing, "It appears that the brand opened its account some time ago, built up a considerable backing organically and then finally saw fit to post content. " Note: as of today, Chanel has amassed a following of 6.5 million on Instagram. As we previously noted, Chanel is obviously a bit late to the party. And the need is growing. We took a look back at the numbers from October 2014 to see just how much the brands’ accounts have grown in just under a year. Nike has 20.9 million followers. H&M has 9 million followers.