The Business of Fashion Talking Business with Linda Yueh

in need. We will keep you updated on the

developments in Ukraine. Now on BBC News, it's time for

Talking Business. 5000 attendees, 16 deciders and

millions of customers. Just how big is the business of fashion? Here at

London Fashion Week, I'm Linda Yueh, and we are Talking Business.

A warm welcome to the programme you times a year, the movers and shakers

of the fashion world travel to New York, Paris, Milan and here to

London. What is shown on the catwalks will soon be seen on the

shelves of the likes of Zara and the Gap. For the host countries, how

important is the fashion industry to the British economy? The glamour of

the catwalk. The Britain, creative industries are an important part of

the economy. The biggest sector is fashion. It is twice the size as car

manufacturing and nearly as big as housing. From London Fashion Week

alone, an estimated ?100 million of orders will be placed, two thirds

from international buyers. The fashion industry contributes around

?26 billion to the economy and employs over 800,000 people. I'm

backstage at Burberry. But fashion is not just about big businesses.

Many of the fashion brands are started by entrepreneurs. Paul

Smith, Vivienne Westwood, and you Hindmarch. At a time when the UK

government is encouraging entrepreneurship and exports, these

British designers have named Reckitt Ocean around the world. -- they have

name recognition. What is shown here as a germ of an idea on the catwalk

may soon be on a shelf in a store near you, wherever you live. I am

here with one of the biggest names in fashion, Tom Ford. I like the way

you said that! Biggest names in fashion. Delightful to talk to you.

Tell me about the inspiration for your collection. Well, last fall, I

went right to the edge with beads, sequins and embroidery, over the top

colour. Last spring, I pulled back a bit but it was still over the top.

As a fashion designer, the natural thing for me is always to think,

what am I tired of? What do I want to see more of? And my natural

reaction is to pull back to acquire to luxury. But it is all about the

line, the fabrics, the workmanship and a bit of modest luxury. I am not

saying we are seeing any change in the luxury market, because business

is great. But maybe it is time to be less ostentatious. How important is

the global market for fashion these days? If you are not thinking

globally, you are not thinking in today's world. In 2014, everything

is global. Online is global all stop I don't think of anything other than

the market, and the market is global. We have stores all over the

world, almost 100 stores. We are well-positioned in Asia, the Middle

East, North America. We are not so exposed in South America, but some

of our South American customers fly to the states to our store in

Miami. So we are global. How much pressure is there to be the face of

the brand? There is a lot of pressure, because I am also the

owner of the brand. I am the president, the CEO and the designer.

But that is OK. When you are building a brand, you need a

personality and a character. What defines the brand is all of my

guesses and knows. -- my likes and dislikes. That is what gives a brand

identity. A brand that does not have that does not have an identity. I

don't believe in design by consensus. A designer brand should

have a designer at the helm. And it needs a strong designer. You live in

London. Yes, London, Los Angeles and Santa Fe. What is special about

showing in London at London Fashion Week? I have loved London for years.

I moved my design offices here in the late 90s full up they have such

creativity here. I love the British. I like the formality, and I also

like the crazy, eccentric side. People here are the most interesting

people in the world. It is where I live and where my son will go to

school, so I am happy to be here. What advice would you give a young

designer thinking of breaking in? Work for someone else. Do not start

your own company until you have good experience behind you. Work for

someone for at least five years. Don't start right out of school.

There is so much to learn and it is so tough, even if you had every

advantage. Things are global, so to start a brand today, it is tough.

When you come to a fashion show, you are not here just to see the

dresses, you are here to check out the audience, the buyers, the

celebrities. Speechless every time. It is amazing. What is it about

Burberry? If you can see the show online, why come to a live show? It

is just the atmosphere. That is like saying, if you can see a football

game on the TV, why go to a live one? The atmosphere makes it all the

more. There are amazing people that turn up, all over the world to see

these Burberry shows. They are elegant, extravagant. There is

always great entertainment. Just for Bailey is the most humble and modest

guy ever -- Christopher Bailey. It can see the texture and everything

up close. It makes all the difference. And there is nothing

like the glamour of seeing a live catwalk show. I remember my first

time, and I was blown away. It time I come back, it is the same thing.

It is so magical. But that is not the only way that fashion brands try

to get their name out. Burberry shows its entire collection online

at the same time it is shown inside there. The idea is to try and reach

and tap into a global market. It is not just dresses, but accessories

and handbags also take centre stage at London Fashion Week. And you

Hindmarch is one of the brightest stars of bookish fashion. The

handbags are sold all around the world and she led the I'm Not A

Plastic Bag campaign. I caught up with her to find out how she makes

her handbag is distinctive. -- Anya Hindmarch.

For me, it always starts with the craftsmen. I found this amazing man

who can work with leather to create those wonderful graphics, but

without just printing the leather . It is embossed and debossed and

filled. You can create amazing shapes without it being a flat,

printed panel. So I started with that. I wanted to work with

something that was almost anti-brand in a funny way, because while they

are amazing brands, they are not designer brands. There is a nice

irreverence of making it more fun. I have always had a fascination with

making things which are almost everyday items really beautiful. The

handbag business is quite competitive. How do you think about

staying ahead of the competition every season? You can't think too

much. You have to design from the heart and feel what you do. You have

to be full of conviction. If you love it and you are excited about

it, it somehow comes across. Once you start thinking about what

everyone else is doing, it is probably fatal. I do than what I

love. And it is nice, being a woman and someone who obviously carries

bags, you know what you want next. Fashion is a global business. How

hard is it to serve a global market? What are the different taste you see

around the world? It is actually more and more OneWorld. With the

media and the internet, communication is so fast and

magazines are launching globally. It is changing. There are obviously

climate differences and sometimes size differences. In Asia, they are

often smaller. Sometimes, a show like this with very British brands,

are very specific. But there is a fascination with that sort of

petitioners. I never think about it when I am designing. Sometimes I

will think about a smaller size, but I design what feels right. You are

showing at London Fashion Week. What is distinctive about British brands?

It is a great city and an exciting place for fashion. Fashion week is

full of energy. It is very creative. I don't know if it is down

to the colleges or the rain! But there is a good energy here and I am

committed to that. I am thrilled to be based here. I think the creative

industries are so important to the UK. It is what we are good at. From

film, art, theatre or fashion, there is a real momentum. Any city that

tends to have great design or art or fashion tends to attract more. It is

also an easy place to be. So I find it inspiring, both the history and

the architecture and the cutting-edge art going on here. You

started your own store at a very young age, and you have become a

global brand. For anyone thinking about doing what you have done, what

advice would you give? It is like the Nike ad. Just Do It. What you

get going, you will find your way. Don't give up. You will get there in

the end. It is quite simple in some respects. I know it is not always,

but if you are passionate about something, it tends to work. Minutes

ago, this was a catwalk where models showed off the latest collections at

London Fashion Week. Fashion is a fast-paced and fast changing

business. I caught up with the Chief Executive of the British fashion

Council and Imran Ahmed, who writes a blog, The Business Of Fashion, to

find out where the business is headed. Caroline, it is raining

here. Welcome to London! It is a little cold. What draws 5000

attendees from all over the world to come to London Fashion Week? As you

said, this is London Fashion Week, a showcase of the best of British

fashion and design. These people are the deer -- media, retailers,

stylists, industry people here to see the collections and then want to

take that to the world, whether it is through imagery or hopefully

buying the collection so that it will then be in stores in six

months' time. Imran, with all of the technology you can watch these shows

online, why come here to London Fashion Week? I think even with the

digital revolution to bring shows into everyone's homes, I think there

is something really special about being in the place where it all

happens. London is known for creativity and quirkiness and being

bowled with ideas. In other cities, sometimes it is a bit safe. Would

never accuse the designers of being safe. So it is the Bulls mess as

well. -- it is the daring as well. Caroline, is there something about

the training of British designers which enables them to work in other

markets? There is. We are known for having the best fashion colleges in

the world. These fashion colleges are art colleges. Central Saint

Martins is an art college. As is the Royal College of Art. Fashion is

taught as an art form because that is where the credulity comes from.

It is great as how that is taken into commerce. That is where the

challenge has been in the past for the British fashion industry. We are

starting to make more commercial successes. There is great growth in

British fashion at the moment. Imran, do you agree? Do you see the

growth in terms of export or influence? Yes, fashion industry

touches everybody around the world. From the high street to the high

end. When we explore and think about the business, fashion includes

everything. In the past decade, we have seen the fashion industry

become a bigger part of popular culture and I think that has

generated a lot of interest in fashion and the growth of the

industry. The fashion industry for a long time was an exclusive group

which travelled around and Fashion Week was the secret. But with the

Internet and live streaming and social media, all of a sudden, the

man on the street and the woman on the street can anticipate Fashion

Week as well. This democratisation of fashion has made it part of

popular culture. I was struck by the figures released by your council

that the fashion industry is twice as big as car many factoring in

Britain. How important is fashion to the UK economy? Hugely important. It

has taken us a while to get the message across that this is not just

about a dress, or a show. People look at fashion and sometimes think

it is a little frivolous. But behind it are jobs, opportunities,

particularly in the UK. It is a dynamic industry globally as well.

We contribute 26 billion each year to the British economy. It is one to

be taken seriously. There are many challenges and we would like to be

able to work with the government to address those challenges. What are

the challenges you are most worried about? I think it is the opportunity

for home-grown talent to be able to grow. Small businesses in the UK

generally have challenges. In the manufacturing and Herrick and -- and

textile side, we have heritage. It is about attracting people into

those jobs. It is about seeing what intervention can be possible to

support the high-end manufacturing to grow in the UK rather than

diminish. I see you nodding, it is a tough competitive business. Yes,

about 95% of fashion start-ups will fold in the first five years. This

is a competitive industry. It is not just about the glamour and

flashbulbs and the models and photographers. It is a highly

operational, detail orientated business. In order for some of these

young designers to succeed, they are shipping to 40 or 50 countries

around the world, they are sourcing their fabrics and materials from

India and Italy and France. It is a complex business to manage and in

order to be successful, you have to not only have great creativity and

great ideas and imagery, you also have to have the operations, the

manufacturing, the investment, the marketing, the sales, the logistics.

All of that has to come together. Fashion is more than an art form.

There is creativity in it, but it is a business. That is the message that

is sometimes lost. Because of the way the fashion industry is

portrayed as a frivolous industry where people drink champagne and go

to parties. But there are people working hard packing boxes,

organising shipments, doing all of the little details that happen

behind the scenes that make the industry tech. -- that make the

industry work. What are the challenges and opportunities for the

industry? We have representatives coming every week but through the

live streaming, and we are up live streaming 43 out of 79 shows and

presentations the season, we reached a last season and it will be

interesting to see with more live streaming that continues to grow.

The great thing about saying it did Italy is that you can see the number

of people who are looking at it, -- the great thing about looking at it

digitally is that you can see those things. The market is Europe and

increasingly Asia, very strong for British businesses. But we see

interest from all over the world and often, some of the small businesses

will have international retailers before they have British ones. How

interesting, why is that? Well, this is a global industry. The concept

stores from Tokyo, the US, from Germany, Italy, will come and

identify with a young brand before they have started their

relationships with the British retailers. It is those first

relationships which are incredibly important because that is where they

learn about the industry. It is great having an international

partner who can help you understand what it is like to grow a business

on an international scale. What about you, Imran, what are the

future trends for the industry? A lot of things are driving and

shaping the industry. Technology have made the industry more

successful and it. Impact in the way things are produced. You have issues

around sustainability and ethics. Consumers are concerned. How things

are made, where they are made, who makes. But one thing that will never

change and one thing which is really what makes this industry so

exciting, is that regardless of trends and technology or consumer

behaviour, what will always be important is the creativity. This

industry, without the creative side, without the incredible people, would

have nothing to sell. So as much as fashion is a global industry, it

remains a creative one. So whatever happens in the future, creativity

will always be the lifeblood of fashion. When you first started,

what surprised you about the fashion industry? I don't think what anyone

really understands is how committed the individuals in the industry.

There is a huge amount of passion about the sector and people work

incredibly hard. As an outsider, you look at a show and you assume that

it is a short day. People work long hours, they are very committed

because they are committed to perfection and excellence and that

is when you see that executed well, that is when you know from a

designer perspective or from a brand perspective, that you are doing a

good job. Imran? I have to agree with that. I came into the fashion

industry from the world of management consultancy. So all of

this was interesting and new to me. But what really struck me was when I

started meeting the people who work in fashion. All sides of fashion,

the business side, the operational side, the creative side. People do

not come into fashion because they want to become rich. They come into

it because they have a shared passionate interest in the industry.

Some people will go off and become very wealthy and successful. But

what draws people together is this shared interest. That is why I think

of the fashion industry as a community. Everybody is shared --

everybody is connected by the shared interest. Fashion Week is like the

world's most glamorous trade conference. As we are sitting in the

Rose, there are people sitting the backs of cars, making deals. That

continues to propel the business. -- as are sitting in rows.

Fashion has always been a global business. The Internet means of we

can all have front row seats to the catwalk shows. But it also means

that it is a challenging business to attract the attention of customers.

That is all we have time for this week. Check out our website. I am

Linda Yueh, and join me next week with more Talking Business with me,

Linda Yueh.