Press Release: The Government Asks Fashion To Use Its "Star Power" To Renegotiate the Brexit Deal
23rd February 2021
As London Fashion Week closes today, as you are no doubt aware, the fashion industry united in signing our open letter to the Government urgently requesting a ministerial meeting. The letter, signed by over 455 industry leaders including Dame Twiggy Lawson DBE, Models 1, John Smedley, Liberty, Nick Knight OBE, Sarah Mower MBE, Roksanda Ilincic, Walpole, ASBCI, AIR, Patrick Grant, Jefferson Hack and Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE, expressed our concern that fashion was facing 'decimation' as a result of punitive Brexit regulations, while offering solutions to support business survival in a challenging market.
On behalf of the Government, Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP (Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport) and Paul Scully MP (Minister for Small Business, Consumers & Labour Markets) have now responded, asking us to use our “star power” to negotiate with the EU, rather than committing to our request for a parliamentary roundtable with stakeholders. Our request for a meeting to find solutions to the issues, which are impacting on our industry already, has not yet been granted. We have replied by reiterating the importance of holding a roundtable meeting with the Government, as a matter of urgency.
We include their full letter in this link here and our response here.
Fashion Roundtable’s Open Letter and #dontmakefashionhistory campaign represents the almost 900,000 creatives and business owners; the UK fashion industry has over 59,000 SMEs, plus many more thousands of freelancers. These small to medium enterprises and growing freelancer numbers are the backbone of the thriving economy across the UK. But without the right support they are the most vulnerable, as they do not have the safety net of wide margins to buffer against negative financial impacts.
The fashion industry is the largest of the creative industries, making more than the automobile, film, music and pharmaceutical industries combined, contributing £35bn to UK GDP and employs almost 1 million people, which was growing 11% year on year, at 4 times the growth of other sectors. We note the Government’s £20m commitment to help the UK’s 6m SMEs with up to £2000 to support businesses; but this is not in line with the £23m to support the fishing industries 12,000 workforce (the same number of people as Debenhams employed for reference) with their EU exports. We are concerned by a clear prioritisation of one industry above another for reasons other than economic factors. The UK fashion industry is largely composed of freelancers and SMEs. These creative innovators could be at the forefront of a post Brexit, post pandemic UK; but without Government reaction and support now, they simply won’t survive to help the UK build back better.
Alice Temperley, Designer: “For the government to come back with this, they are hiding, they are cowards. The government likes to entertain us during fashion week when we are all invited to 10 Downing Street to meet the prime minister. But now the government isn’t here to help, there is no voice, there is no guidance and there is no clarity on the situation. No one is talking about the fashion industry.”
Katharine Hamnett CBE: “The government keeps fobbing us off. It is a catastrophe for Made In Britain and the British fashion industry. Made in Britain has a supreme market quality in Japan and across Asia while the Government renegotiates the terms of the Brexit deal with the EU, our largest trading partner. We have an amazing opportunity to build on that and the Government is not working with us to understand that, it is destroying it.”
Tamara Cincik, CEO Fashion Roundtable: “My ‘star power’ from the lockdown sofa, is somewhat limited compared to that of our elected government. If the Government would like to hire me as a fashion czar: a role which Biden is looking at for the US Government, I am all for it and would happily engage at that level, as it is clear that fashion needs an approach which maps across all of the Whitehall briefs as fashion sits across business, creative and innovation, with a clear sustainable agenda to mitigate against the climate crisis. However until then, surely it is best to work with us, so we can map out our solutions to support the Government and our stakeholders in this challenging time.”
Note to Editors
Background
Fashion Roundtable’s Open Letter, signed by over 455 signatories, was presented to the Government on Tuesday 2nd February. A follow-up letter was sent Tuesday 9th February and again on Tuesday 16th February. We received a reply from Oliver Dowden MP and Paul Scully MP on Thursday 18th February and we replied on Friday 19th February. All of our letters request that we can organise an urgent roundtable meeting with the relevant Ministers for the fashion industry in the coming days, to work together and create solutions which will help save our industry.
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 Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE (Vivienne Westwood), 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), ASBCI, Patrick Grant (E.Tautz and BBC’s Sewing Bee), 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 (model), Katharine Hamnett CBE (Katharine Hamnett), Sarah Mower MBE (Vogue Runway and British Fashion Council), Julian Vogel (Modus BPCM), 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).
The Open Letter can be found here: https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/openletter
About Fashion Roundtable
Fashion Roundtable is the only fashion organisation that sits between the fashion industry and policy leaders: Front Row to Front Bench
We are secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles and Fashion chaired by Dr Lisa Cameron MP, with members including Dame Eleanor Laing, Lord Taylor of Warwick, John McNally MP and Baron Vaizey of Didcot.
Fashion Roundtable are also the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, co-chaired by Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey and Catherine West MP.
Tamara Cincik, Founder & CEO of Fashion Roundtable has over 20 years’ experience in the fashion industry and has also worked in parliament. Since launching Fashion Roundtable, Tamara has spoken publicly on fashion and politics with a range of high-profile business press including SKY TV, BBC, CGTN, Telegraph, Financial Times, Times, Guardian, New York Times, Liberation, Stern, Vogue Business and Business of Fashion.
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