Fashion Roundtable's CEO Tamara Cincik reflects on the Brexit "identity crisis" and future trade opportunities

Who are you, how do you see yourself and where are you going? This question has been key to our work at Fashion Roundtable especially with our advocacy on Brexit which is rooted in identity politics and a crisis of individuality.

I have suffered with what I term “Brexiety” for the past 4 years: symptoms include panic bulk buying to mitigate against a no deal Brexit (twice!) and watching a lot of Newsnight. Fashion Roundtable have hosted several events to promote awareness and support businesses through all aspects of this uncertainty surrounding Brexit— as the UK carves out a new relationship with its former EU partners, as well as building new alliances. This is not the situation that many of you wanted, however I have tried my best to support the sector through these changes.

Last week, I was asked to speak to civil servants from a number of parliamentary departments about UK-US trade relationships. I outlined what I feel would be best: an extension of work opportunities within the current ESTA visa system, more freedoms, less legal costs on sector visas, wider job definitions in line with current job descriptions, and less custom tariffs. If there is anything you would like to improve trade with the US, please email admin@fashionroundtable.co.uk. As I said at the meeting: “fashion voted 96% Remain according to our data and that feeling hasn’t changed. The EU is our largest trading partner, we buy our fabrics in Euros, and have already suffered from the lower pound and Brexit uncertainty. If the perception is that we are losing out on that relationship, we need to see future advantages from a favourable trade deal with the US and other nations.” 

This week, I enjoyed reading Middle England by Jonathan Coe— which in the words of The Guardian is “a bittersweet Brexit novel”. For a literary version of how we got here, written in a fluid tone, I really do recommend it.