A New Year Message from Fashion Roundtable's Founder & CEO Tamara Cincik
When the Labour Party swept into power in May 1997, their anthem was Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream. I have seen a lot of similar statements across my social media during the holidays, as we welcomed in the new year— and while I hate to sound like a ‘party pooper’, they could honestly get a lot worse in 2021. The Brexit Transition Period where relations with the EU remained ostensibly the same for the UK, officially ended at 11pm on New Year's Eve. Large swathes of the UK could not celebrate, even if they wanted to as they were under Tier 3 or 4 restrictions, which on both ends of the spectrum have seen a party of ten playing dominos arrested in London, while families have not met for months.
As we head into another nationwide lockdown, we are living in a different world order, with parents juggling homeschooling and working (or looking for employment). But everyone - parent or not - has seen the world pivot in several swift months, from what they thought it would be, to massive uncertainty in all areas of their lives. This has resulted in a marked increase in mental health and financial issues. Children studying for exams remain unclear about when they can go back to school or university, those who wanted to study in the EU under the Erasmus Programme now can't, as the UK Government has decided not to continue partnering on this programme, while it is remaining a part of the Horizon Programme.
Which leads me to UK-EU trade and travel, once the borders do open up again from pandemicamania. My emails back and forth to the Government over the last 3+ years are yet to show a clear intention on what travel for a just-in-time business model (such as we have with fashion and the other creative industries) will look like in real terms. Currently, every time you travel to work in any of the EU countries, you will need a contract and a visa for that job with each member state; you cannot travel from one to the other (say Paris to Milan) on a job-to-job basis for work (such as shoots or shows) without the right paperwork. You can travel for meetings or a conference within a 90 day period, but not for a shoot or trade show, which means carnets, paperwork, logistics.
I have consistently pointed out that this current model just does not work for our sector. I signed up to ISM's #FreeMoveCreate campaign when I launched Fashion Roundtable, and across the holiday season, I was back and forth with civil servants asking for clarity on when there will be a pan-EU visa in place which will allow creatives to travel across Schengen, without the red tape of CITES, carnets and visa requests. Without this, it will lead to a talent and brain drain. Creatives and brands will have to decide whether staying in the UK (especially as we are all in lockdown mode, where the potential excitement of living in any city is somewhat abated) is worth it compared to ease to market if you live, or headquarter your business, inside the EU. Currently there is no such visa. This is despite myself and many other organisations asking for one since we had the Brexit Referendum. This is not down to a lack of knowledge of what the sector needs. It is either political will, or a massive oversight, and I hope that a visa which meets market needs above policy agendas is forthcoming very soon.
No one knew what 'Brexit means Brexit' really meant, but what has always been clear to me, deal or no deal, is that more red tape, delays, increased costs were always likely. Now, they seem inevitable. Imagine you are a small brand or a fashion tech company growing your orders, with a larger market share to access from the EU's 446m inhabitants, versus 66m in the UK where costs, visas to work and delays seem ever more likely. What would you do? Fashion Roundtable will be hosting a meeting of all the key trade bodies and organisations this month. It seems necessary that we unite voices and issues if we are to get the same recognition as other industries. More on this soon.
I still have no governmental clarity on why film workers, doing ostensibly the same job as a fashion creatives on shoots, are listed as critical workers when those working on fashion shoots aren't. Does this seem logical to you? Especially in terms of Covid safety, as fashion sets are often smaller in team numbers and of course the industry nationwide makes so much more for the UK than film, as you can see here on our specially designed Value of Fashion map. If a possible favouritism for film over fashion in policy from the UK Government seems unfair to you too, please use our template email to your MP here to ask them why. I appreciate that this is a difficult time for so many, however I fail to see why a director of photography for a dog food commercial is listed as a critical worker, but not a stylist for a fashion shoot.
Other issues which worry me include the Shortage Occupation Visa List, which doesn't include garment workers, who are needed if we are to build back better with an onshoring policy. You can see here about our on-going advocacy asking the UK Home Office to reconsider its position. The reason we don't have enough UK garment workers is because we haven't been training them. The necessary T' Levels are not set to start until September 2023, so how you square this circle with a commitment to meet the rise in demand for UK made production since lockdown, translates as something has to give.
Then we have the VAT Retail Export Scheme, which stops international consumers from claiming back their VAT now the UK has left the EU. This is forecast to impact more jobs and revenue than the entire UK fishing industry. It’s an issue we have covered extensively, as you can see here— including hosting a parliamentary event last month. In terms of our work on Modern Slavery, we shared the insights that workers for Boohoo in Pakistan were earning as little as 29p an hour and we delivered two submissions to the Environment Audit Committee outlining how we would like to see the UK tackle the climate crisis, and a commitment to ending modern day slavery across the UK and our global supply chains.
I could go on, but there are nuggets of gold in amongst all these concerns: I am proud of my team, of raising awareness of all these issues and more, of our collaboration last month with SHOWstudio, our forthcoming policy papers on Representation and Inclusion (the first for the fashion industry), Cleaning Up Fashion (if you haven’t already, please do take the survey here) and Brexit (as an update to our 2018 Brexit paper). I am proud that we have made Fashion Roundtable a space for thinkers and dreamers, the epitome of Front Row To Front Bench.
The fashion sector has to meet the changing demands that those on the FROW and our consumers demand from industry and policy leaders in an ever-changing world. Whatever that looks like, I am committed to ensuring it happens.