Learnings from London Fashion Week (LFW)

The last two months have been exciting times for me as I had the pleasure to attend interesting events in London city. London Fashion Week (LFW) is an important bi-yearly tradeshow organized by the British Fashion Council (BFC). During this time, the city is bustling with fashionistas from all over the world, who visit the city to understand the latest trends in fashion. This is also a great opportunity to buy the latest designer collections and meet like-minded people from all over the world.

This is the first time I visited London and can say that it is one of the best cities ever. Being a globetrotter, I have visited and lived in many cities, but London is by far the most unique and multi-cultural place. Apart from being the oldest city and the center of banking & fashion, London is the hub for a wide range of events. Almost every day, there is an event for every taste palette you can think of. Think of, music concerts in Trafalgar Square on Monday or weeklong food festivals in Camden market – this is London! :)

During London Fashion Week, there are many other interesting fashion events like conferences, forums, fashion shows by independent designers, pop-ups, and more. Soho, Chelsea, and Hyde Park are places where most of the fashion events are organized. These are also places where the bulk of fashion community lives.

As an event planner/producer and business model innovator, my primary goal of attending events in London was to understand the latest trends in the event and fashion industries. Equally important was to network with people from these industries and expand my business to London. It was an awesome experience attending a wide range of fashion events.

Listed below are some of the important takeaways from these events and based on the discussions I had with decision makers in these industries.

• Sustainability is a hot topic among fashion designers and brands. Almost every supply chain player in the industry is pivoting their business model(s) to include green technologies, and processes. This includes using recycled & renewable fabrics, organic dyes, green transportation infrastructure, and green manufacturing at scale.
• Fast fashion has resulted in mass production of products which aren’t environment friendly. Approximately 40% of the global fast fashion inventory goes waste due to lack of sales or rejections due to minor issues. As a result, they end up in landfills polluting the surrounding water and land resources. However, most of the fast fashion brands have pledged to convert into sustainable manufacturing within a decade.
• Sustainable fashion supports the mantra of “less is more” which means that consumers can buy a smaller number of essential products that are environment friendly and lasts longer than traditional fast fashion products. Trend forecasting is less trendy in sustainable fashion. More importance is given for authenticity and cultural values.
• Sustainable fashion doesn’t mean that the products cost less or is made of low-quality fabric. In fact, it is the other way around - most sustainable brands in London sell products at greater than 4x that of fast fashion brands. The reason for this high cost is due to the usage of top-quality fabrics and the manual labor-intensive manufacturing processes. Sustainable brands can remain profitable while helping our planet at the same time. Also, with technological advancements, economy of scale can be achieved which in turn can bring down the manufacturing costs.
• The biggest challenge for sustainable fashion is to achieve mass production scale because fashion products are consumed by billions of people on our planet. Events are becoming important platforms to bridge this gap by bringing together decision makers to enable change in the industry. Pure London is a perfect example of such an event. 
• Fashionistas love attending events because it is a great opportunity to network with people in-person instead of using apps for networking. In fact, most business deals and contracts aren’t signed without meeting (at-least once) the business partners or customers in-person. It is anticipated that this trend will grow in the upcoming years instead of the other way around.
• Most fashion brands participate in textile forums and tradeshows by renting a booth or a stall at the venue. They have found these events to be very effective channels for marketing and selling their latest collections. Their target customers get a chance to sample the latest fabric collections and purchase on the spot. It is equally interesting to note that a majority of these brands will continue to invest more percentage of their marketing budgets on events (60%) compared to e-commerce channels (40%).
• There is a greater demand for experiential events in London. Even the simplest fashion show is magnified in a way that guests are left with memorable experience(s). IC Fashion Show was a perfect example where the venue was decorated with beautiful visual installations of participating brands. Every designer’s catwalk session was followed by a dance show. Plus, plenty of VIP goodie bags and yummy prosecco throughout the night!   

• Influencers play an important role in fashion. Be it PR or bloggers or celebrities, inviting them to such events can boost sales for event planners as well as the sponsors or individual labels. So, having VIP influencers at networking events and flea markets is gold!

• Brexit will transform British fashion by relocating manufacturing, R&D, and fabric sourcing to the United Kingdom from countries in Europe and Asia. This will result in new job creation and economic activity within the UK. This will also create a gap in the events market as there will be more demand for events such as textile conferences, designer forums, trade-shows, and more. 
• BFC and Venture Capital firms in the UK are pouring funds into creative and innovative startups to help disrupt the industry. This includes digital products, experiential activations, and sustainable manufacturing.   

• Fashion brands are investing their R&D efforts by implementing solutions on digital ledger technologies such as blockchains. Louis Vuitton (LVMH) is leading the race towards massive blockchain adoption. Peers of LVMH are becoming equally competitive. The reason for this development is because circular fashion is very much the future of fashion and blockchains are perfect technologies to realize this potential.
• Every single fashion brand is looking forward to host experiential events and brand activations. This includes experiential pop-ups, runway designs, tradeshows, fashion shows, flea markets, and more.

In a nutshell, London is a fantastic city for events and fashion. I am looking forward to organize experiential events in the city! :)