Fashion's open letter to government
Fashion industry fears for future over Brexit trade deal
The Fashion Industry calls on the Government to meet urgently and discuss solutions to help save our industry.
The UK fashion industry is facing a number of critical issues, which without urgent attention will jeopardise the immediate and long term future of the sector.
The fashion industry contributes £35bn to UK GDP and employs almost 1 million people, but is at real risk of decimation by the Brexit trade deal and current Government policy.
Following an industry-wide roundtable meeting held on Wednesday 20th January, Fashion Roundtable have highlighted the key issues, impacts and unforeseen consequences of Brexit in our Open Letter, with a call to action. This letter was presented to the Government asking that we can sit at a roundtable meeting with the relevant Ministers for the fashion industry in the coming weeks, with a view to helping them create solutions which will help save our industry.
Over 450 signatories across the fashion industry are united in a show of solidarity to offer a united voice and policy solutions to help our industry thrive. We urge the UK Government to meet with us in the coming days to discuss this further.
The Open Letter has received cross-party parliamentary support, with signatories including Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey, John McNally MP, Martyn Docherty-Hughes MP, Lord Cashman CBE, Lord Foster of Bath, Earl of Clancarty, Baroness Bonham-Carter and Lord Taylor of Warwick.
The letter has also gained the support of industry leaders across manufacturing, retail, modelling, creative business, education, brands and journalism. Signatories include Jenny Holloway (Fashion Enter), Paul Barnes (Association of International Retail), Kate Hills (Make It British), Jane Shepherdson CBE (MyWardrobe HQ), Caroline Issa (Tank), John Horner (Models 1), Carole White (Premier), Nick Knight OBE (SHOWstudio), Zowie Broach (RCA), Camilla Lowther OBE (CLM), Bethany Williams, Phoebe English,
Professor Dilys Williams (Centre of Sustainable Fashion UAL), Helen Brocklebank (Walpole), Fashion Revolution, Laura Bailey (Model and British Vogue), Dame Twiggy Lawson DBE, Katharine Hamnett CBE, Sarah Mower MBE (Vogue Runway and British Fashion Council), Ruth Chapman OBE (Matchesfashion), Isabel Ettedgui (Connolly), Yasmin Le Bon (Model), Roksanda Ilincic (Roksanda), Juergen Teller (Photographer), Jess Mcguire-Dudley (John Smedley), Sarah Coonan (Liberty), Justin Thornton (Preen), Andrea Thompson (Marie Claire), Jane Bruton (Telegraph) and Jefferson Hack (Dazed Media Group).
Roksanda Illincic, one of the over 450 open letter signatories
“Everyone who cares about the future of Britain economically or the future wellbeing of our youth needs to understand what’s at stake if our fashion and textiles industry is trashed because politicians won’t look at the paperwork and get ink on their fingers. How can they stand by and watch something built over generations collapse when they have the power to make a difference? Now is the time to act to save British Fashion, culture and livelihoods.”
“Connolly’s home is off Savile Row, but our horizon has always been international, and especially European. Our leather was on the first Rolls Royce and is now on the latest Ferrari. We sell Scottish cashmere but we manufacture our leather goods in a small town in Spain where all the top luxury brands manufacture - because we cannot find the skills to make the goods anymore in the United Kingdom, although the leather is sourced, where possible in this country. It is this dialogue between our island and our neighbours abroad that has shaped who we are. The sadness, the lack of goodwill and the red tape we are now experiencing as a Brexit trading outpost, the financial ramifications of creating barriers with our major trading partner and also the loss of their skills; will be devastating and the result could be the possible closure of a 185-year-old company that holds the Royal Warrant.”
“We need a radical overhaul of customs arrangements including VAT on all goods shipped into the EU by the end of February, or British brands will die.”
Katharine Hamnett CBE
“The fashion industry is having its creative bones fractured by the implementation of Brexit. The emotional and financial impact has been immediate & damaging, to my consultancy practice and to my network of UK & EU clients. Brexit has eroded any slither of confidence in UK governance and highlighted the disdain & insufficient support for thousands of fashion businesses.”
“Prior to the pandemic, the British luxury sector was in rude health with a value of £48bn to the UK economy and strong annual growth of nearly 10%. Very much a British success story, the sector supported more than 160,000 jobs throughout the UK. However, international visitors to the UK are a crucial revenue driver, and the last 11 months has put severe pressure on their businesses. On top of the pandemic, the eleventh hour Brexit deal has compounded the sector’s problems, making chances of swift recovery for British luxury recede compared to their European counterparts. With 42% of all British luxury export sales coming from the EU, the costs and administrative burdens of trading in continental Europe mean many of our members, not least the SME’s, have concluded they simply can’t afford to continue selling to those countries.”
“It is crucial not only for people in our business but crucial for the welfare of the UK economy that all people in the creative and fashion industries can travel freely within the EU. I have been working continually in this industry for the past 37 years, it works in a very particular way, with jobs being confirmed literally at the last minute. I may get a call, make a decision and be at the airport within 2 hours ready to fly to Madrid, Milan or Miami! The wealth of these creative industries is in our ability to move and change quickly. This is our future, we can not be stuck back in the dark ages or we will be left behind. Up until now, we have been at the forefront. These are crucial negotiations, the fashion business is huge, and every piece of the jigsaw supports each other, we rarely speak up for ourselves for fear of seeming uncool, but this is about more, it’s about hundreds of thousands of jobs that may potentially be lost. You may think that fashion is all about frou-frou skirts and polka dot ties, but it is about so much more. From the designers not just of fashion and accessories, but all the machining for all the hardware, the craftsmanship of the manufacturers, the creativity and artistry of the marketing and advertising tribes, all the wily, resilient retailers, who have been hit so hard by this pandemic. For once we need to be listened to and for the Government to work with us before it is too late.”
Tamara Cincik, CEO Fashion Roundtable:
“In the fashion industry, everyone wants to "make fashion history": it is a deeply competitive, hardworking and successful sector, generating over £35bn and almost 1m jobs in the UK. Pre-pandemic it was growing 11% year on year. But there is a real risk of it being utterly decimated from the gaps in the Brexit trade deal and UK Government policy, which across each area of the sector: manufacturing, retail, creative, education, is severely impacting on all levels of the business from SMEs to multinationals and in the coming months will destroy the fashion industry in the UK, removing any hope for us to build back better. From the decision to end the VAT Retail Export Scheme, to the decision to not add garment workers to the Shortage Occupation List for visas, while not lining up the necessary T-Levels to train UK domicile garment workers until September 2023, or the extra costs and delays of Brexit red tape to our largest market, the EU and the very real risk of a brain drain, as the UK becomes increasingly unsustainable for our world-leading fashion talent to stay here.
Everywhere I look across our complex, innovative and highly successful UK fashion industry, I see perfect storms and tsunamis unless we act. Fashion Roundtable are about solutions: we have them and urge the Government to engage, listen and act upon them now.
You cannot attract the brightest and the best from overseas, if the talent we already have in the UK cannot stay here for the good of their livelihoods and careers, or you do not shore up the workforce to support a more sustainable, transparent manufacturing sector.
We urge the Government to meet with us, listen to our concerns and policy solutions, so we can ensure the long term viability of the UK fashion industry, which we have all worked so hard to make the success story it is. We want the fashion industry to continue to thrive as a key contributor to GDP and the jobs market in years to come.
We urge the Government to hear us and act: don't make fashion history.”
SUPPORT the campaign
STEP 1. Unite the fashion industry to discuss key issues, impacts and unforeseen consequences of Brexit. ✔️
STEP 2. Open Letter with over 450 fashion industry signatories delivered to the Government with a call to action to meet us and work together to create solutions to save our industry. ✔️
STEP 3. Send a letter to your local MP, using Fashion Roundtable's letter template. It will take the same amount of time to send as boiling a kettle.
STEP 4. Share social media campaign graphic and #dontmakefashionhistory to raise awareness and keep the pressure on for our call to action. Tag your local MP.
STEP 5. Meeting with the Government.>>>>>>
STEP 6. Government commits to policies that work for the fashion industry. >>>>>>
#dontmakefashionhistory
Thank you to everyone (Caroline, Julien, Sadie, Sally, Sarah, Heather, Maliha and all the journalists) who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this campaign widely resonate, and of course, to Tamara Cincik for your tireless efforts to ensure British fashion can shine. Jodi x
07.02.2021
