On that subject, why doesn't the British Fashion Council offer to host (i.e. pay for the flights / hotels of) some of the influential editors / buyers who skip LFW at the moment?
Because there’s no economy around the London Fashion Scene and apparently no politics support for the fashion industry.
You can’t just throw an event to throw an event. There are fewer buyers than before, too much brands and really no economy.
In the US, they have a fairly big market (even if it’s getting smaller) and some brands can even do well around the pacific coast.
LFW is not international enough, the pound as a currency is quite high, the brexit made it less interesting to come. London as a city has still a lot to offer with a lot of international clients still but it’s not enough. And there’s a sense of amateurism after many seasons of some brands too.
Italy has that advantage that they have a savoir faire, factories (and sweatshops). They are important for manufacturing. They have a bunch of big brands but the smaller brands in Italy are benefiting from the aura of luxury but are contemporary.
If we think about brands like Moschino, N21, Sunnei, MSGM and others, they are contemporary. Weirdly they aren’t that developed in Paris (I’m still wondering why N21 is still not available in Paris) but a lot of them are developing their retail in Asia.
But Milan is not a really fun city I think.
In Paris, there’s a whole eco-system developed for fashion week. Politics are involved (obviously as 5 of the biggest fortunes of the country are in fashion/luxury) unlike in Italy (where they have a lot of fashion billionaires too), cultural spaces are involved. I mean from the florist to the club promoter, everybody is involved in the success of PFW outside of the core business of fashion.
There aren’t that many stores in Paris either for a much more pleasing shopping experience (Tom Greyhound was a great shop that closed for example) but it’s cheaper to buy some brands than in NYC and LDN so it’s a city where commerce and arts really mixes well.
And now they are really trying their hardest to make Paris happen in a big way. After Fashion Week, it’s Art Basel and then Paris Photos. On top of that there are fashion exhibitions…It’s an on going thing.
And from a more pragmatic POV, can the clothes shown at LFW nowadays really compete against what is shown in Paris and Milan. And I’m not talking about crazy creativity. Clothes that people would want to wear and spend money on?