Fashion Roundtable And The All Party Parliamentary Group For Textiles And Fashion Hold Fashion Discuss London Fashion Week Reform And Climate Emergency

Today Tuesday 10th September Fashion Roundtable as secretariat for The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Textiles and Fashion invite fashion industry leaders including the Burberry, Positive Fashion brands including Teatum Jones, Bethany Williams and Patrick McDowell, NFP organisations and educational representatives alongside Extinction Rebellion (XR) to discuss reform of London Fashion Week (LFW).

London Fashion Week, a twice yearly event (this week running 13th – 17th September 2019) has traditionally been a key opportunity for British fashion brands to showcase their work to UK and overseas media and buyers (people who select collections to sell in stores). XR demands to end LFW. 

Following a letter to the BFC (dated 26th July 2019) which stated by XR ‘ have disruptive actions planned during LFW and we will be ending LFW with a funeral finale which will soberly pay respect to the legacy of LFW and put it to rest forevermore. We must pause and reflect on the lives being lost. We sincerely call on you to do the same.’ Fashion Roundtable believe it is imperative to hold a meeting and act as an enabler for discussion with the aim of supporting transition to more sustainable fashion industry.

We are in a positive position bringing together key fashion industry stakeholders to further the discussion around the declared state of climate emergency, something Parliament debated and agreed upon 1st May 2019.

Extinction Rebellion’s call for an accelerated discussion (due to the climate emergency) is something that Fashion Roundtable want to facilitate. We know within the fashion industry these discussions are taking place, but perhaps not at the rate that Extinction Rebellion see as vital. We aim to support a reform in a way that is positive and can have long lasting benefit to the fashion industry and wider society.

Tamara Cincik, CEO And Founder of Fashion Roundtable said: “Despite the total chaos inside the UK Parliament it is brilliant to bring these diverse voices: those of activists, campaigners, as well as the most exciting new generation of British fashion talent, who are keen sustainability activists and leading lights in the global fashion response to how we deal with the climate change emergency. I believe we need to build bridges, find solutions and achieve common ground and I hope that this meeting will do much to support that.”