Fashion Business Club

FBC would like to congratulate Dave Wise, FBC Member and photographer on his appointed as Contributing Editor of Fiasco Magazine. Along with the Editor-in-Chief Vince Nord, Dave will be working on the pictorial selections, maintaining the current standards and developing the image content in the magazine.

Dave Wise said on the appointment “It is very exciting, I’ve been looking around for a while at current publications and found magazines with consistent pictorials to be becoming very rare, there was a gap, whilst I was debating what to do, along came Fiasco Magazine and filled it. I am very proud to be a part of the integral team and also contributing to the magazine on many levels rather than just imagery“.

For more information please contact dave@fiascomag.com.

FBC gets the inside scoop on FBC member Sasha Wilkins and her renowned blog Liberty London Girl.

This is the second season that you have collaborated with Mercedes-Benz UK at Canon London Fashion Week. Congratulations! What does your role entail?

Mercedes-Benz UK are one of the major sponsors at London Fashion Week, providing the official transport for international and UK fashion editors and journalists. Last season I worked with MB-UK to run their Twitter feed at LFW, migrating my followers @libertylndngirl to @MercedesLFW where I was tweeting from the fashion shows and presentations. This season we’ve revved up the coverage: I officially started tweeting from @MercedesLFW on the 30th of August and will be blogging on MB-UK’s Fashion Week site: ‘Voices of Fashion’.
I will also be filming a London Fashion Week diary, which is equally exciting: each day I will be carrying a camera to record front stage and backstage footage which will run as a daily edited film on VoicesofFashion. Mercedes Benz is once again providing me with a car and a driver that will make this all much easier. After all, I can’t think of a better way to travel around LFW than in the back of a Mercedes!

Obviously you are active on the social media front. What do you consider to be the role of tools such as Twitter in the fashion world and specifically at events such as LFW?

I use Twitter as a news-aggregator: it keeps me updated with breaking news across the industry that, even in the blogging age, I might have to wait 24hrs to read about. Twitter is incredibly useful at Fashion Week for taking what is essentially a closed industry event and making it interesting and accessible to the general public. It’s also a great way to connect directly with people who love fashion, both insiders and enthusiasts. (I also use it to find out which shows are running late!)
Although I think a Twitter presence is vital for fashion brands, it’s very easy to get it horrible wrong. I have recently launched a social media consultancy, LLG Consults, through which I advise publicists and PRs how to deal with social media and guide them through the on-line maze of Twitter, Tumblr, blogging, Foursquare, Facebook and the rest.

Fashion Week in London is going from strength to strength. What do you consider to be LFW’s strong points and how does it differ from the other FWs?

Watching LFW grow has been enormously exciting. Each year LFW gets larger with enormous & exciting talents showing and exhibiting, and the British Council does a great job making it all happen. LFW is, rightly, considered the fashion world’s laboratory of ideas, allowing fashion designers to experiment and providing them with an effective platform, unlike in Paris, where the structure is far more rigid.
After years when we travelled from one end of London to another to find shows in out of the way venues, I find LFW has become the most accessible fashion week – unlike Milan which is very difficult to get around without a driver, and New York which has a plethora of venues in public transport-free zones.

Finally, we haven’t seen you at an FBC meeting for a while. When are you coming back to visit us?

I travel constantly, so it’s been tricky to coincide my visits to London with meetings, and I have been away for all the recent meetings. However, I am hoping to be the next one at the end of September.

FBC member Dessy Tsolova will be exhibiting her collection Decï at the International Jewellery London show at Earls Court 2, Sunday, 5th – 8th September. Decï is a collection of fine jewellery inspired by the treasures of ancient Thrace, Greece and Byzantium designed by Dessy Tsolova.

For more information or if you would like to attend the event please e-mail info@decilondon.com

FBC member and editor of Fashion Monitor, Victoria Todd wants to make sure that no one misses anything at London Fashion Week.

Victoria says that, “Fashion Monitor is proud to support London Fashion Week and the amazing British designers whose collections keep London on the map as one of the key four Fashion Weeks. Our dedicated Microsite brings together the complete show schedule as well as the latest news and updates from the event.
This season we will be offering everyone at LFW free access to Fashion Monitor at the Vauxhall Fashion Scout Media Centre. Our team will be on hand to get you started so please come and introduce yourself.”

So FBC members, head over to Fashion Monitor and get your diaries organized. Fashion Monitor has the full on-schedule catwalk show line-up, all off-schedule shows with exclusive content from Blow, static designer exhibitions and presentations.

For more information go to www.fashionmonitor.com

FBC member and editor of Style News, Charlene Cambell will be covering all the shows at London Fashion Week and supplying articles to publishers. It’s a great way to keep on top of the shows and get content about next seasons trends. FBC members that subscribe to the Style News article wire will receive a ‘first month free’ exclusive deal.

For more information contact Charlene Campbell at charlene@stylenews.co.uk

An interview with FBC member and Founder/Director of Lily and Lionel, Alice Stone.

What is your fashion background?

After graduating, I spent 3 years working in fashion/lifestyle PR before moving on to more of a design focused environment where I had experience at Topshop and Matthew Williamson. It was after my placement at Matthew that I realised my passion for one day setting up a brand of my own.

How important has having an e-commerce site been to your business?

Having a website has certainly leveraged Lily and Lionel; especially from a PR point of view as it allows us to reach out to consumers via editorial content. The site also provides a springboard for new stockists to initially look at our range and company ethos, to get an idea of where we stand in the market. It was important to sell direct to the public as we have always been keen to build the brand from a direct to consumer perspective.

What’s your bestseller?

It is difficult to pinpoint one particular item as several styles come to mind. Our ‘ Oversized Carnival‘ and ‘Italian Job‘ scarves continue to be winners for us- plus in the last two seasons we’ve seen a massive surge in our Leopard printed styles. The newest release of City scarves are proving to be the top sellers in Europe.

You’ve been quite successful gaining stockist – what’s your secret?

There is no big secret! I guess it’s a mixture of my years working in PR combined with the fact that I am a people person. Perseverance and contacts have been a great help. The product also hugely speaks for itself and since we are purely accessory based, the collections appeal to an array of stores and demographics alike so in that sense we have been lucky enough to secure some diverse stockists.

We’re delighted with our latest addition to our customer base, Fortnum and Mason and the Victoria & Albert museum’s store.

You’ve just taken on a European agent? Was it difficult to find an agent?

Coincidentally enough around the same time we began looking into establishing ourselves in Europe, we were actually approached by someone who is incredibly well connected with top European stores carrying a brilliant jeans brand who wanted to add accessories to her portfolio. We’re already delighted with the sales so far to many of the top boutiques throughout Europe.

How important is FBC to your business?

My PR background has taught me that networking is a hugely integral part to promoting and building a brand. The FBC meetings have allowed me to make some wonderful connections with fellow people in the fashion industry.

Are you exhibiting anywhere during September?

This year we have decided to show the collection in Paris where we will be taking a showroom.

For more information contact info@lilyandlionel.com.

It’s been whispered around Twitter and exclusively announced by Leon Bailey-Green’s Online Fashion Agency, and we can officially confirm, FBC has a new website!

FBC’s members and brand importance have grown remarkably since first launching in 2006. This growth needed to be reflected through the FBC website, a task Urban Aesthetics alongside FBC co-founders and co-chairs Alison Whelan and Courtney Blackman, have succeeded in doing.

The first FBC website launched in 2006, three months after the club was founded. FBC’s dynamic online presence resulted in frequent advertising requests, whilst the popularity of FBCtv became a pressing topic, creating a need for FBC’s archive of unique media to be showcased on an adequate platform.  FBC co-founder and co-chair Alison Whelan says, “In the intervening years Courtney has become a technical wizard and I’ve focused my efforts on film and the identity of FBC – this website is the culmination of all our talents – and I hope the FBC team and members love it as much as we do.”

Co-founder & co-chair Courtney Blackman adds, “I love our new site. Alison and the boys at Urban Aesthetics have done an incredible job capturing the very essence of FBC. It truly is a piece of digital hotness.”

The updated site is visually rich featuring images from FBC events documenting the club’s voyage, an integrated archive of FBCtv films and the ability to commercialise the site with room for advertising banners, and pop-ups amongst many other surprises.

Jake Hardy, managing director of Urban Aesthetics and FBC’s “web guy” says, “I’m delighted with the results of the Fashion Business Club website. The site embodies the ethos of the FBC founders and its members – creativity, style and forward thinking.”

Let us know what you think!

FBCtv’s latest and exclusive production of stylist and creative director, Edward Enninful being interviewed by Bally’s creative director, Michael Herz at Swarovski CRYSTALLIZED™ is now available to watch on VOGUE.COM.

An interview with  FBC member and Founder and  Director of Milli Millu, Mireia Llusia-Lindh.

What is your fashion business background?
I don’t have a very traditional fashion background as I studied business and worked in management consulting for many years. I have always loved fashion though so I tried to focus on consumer and luxury goods clients and had the privilege of advising clients such as Burberry and LVMH on their strategy issues.

About 1.5 years ago, I decided it was time to move from the advisory to the execution side and decided to launch my own accessories brand. So I have spent the past 18 months searching for beautiful leathers and materials, selecting our manufacturing partner, developing the collection and introducing our brand to the press. It has been an incredibly exciting journey so far and I have enjoyed every minute.

What inspired you to create a handbag collection?
It was a combination of two things, on the one hand my passion for design and on the other the aim to fulfill a customer need that I felt was unmet. Working as a management consultant I always struggled to find the perfect handbag. The bags on offer were either cool or functional, none was the perfect fusion of the two. I ran a small survey among other working women and 95% said they couldn’t find their perfect handbag either. This confirmed the opportunity was there. I had other business ideas that I thought could work, but fashion and design is where my heart lies so when I became pregnant 1.5 years ago and had to take time off, I decided to go for it and launch Milli Millu.

What is a typical day for you like?
Like many women out there, I am juggling running a business with motherhood, so there’s lots of multitasking! When I am not with my daughter Olivia, product is my main focus and what takes most of my time, both developing the new collections and ensuring the production of the current collection is on track. There are several additional projects that take the rest of my time, at the moment I am working very closely with the agency to finalize the website and I also spending time introducing Milli Millu to the press. I work most evenings as Olivia is asleep and it’s when my creativity peaks… I’m a night owl!

When is your website launching?
www.millimillu.com will be launched in mid-September, offering the A/W 2010 collection exclusively across Europe.

How does being part of FBC have a positive affect on your business?
The FBC has been a great discovery for me, I was introduced by a friend 4 months ago and I cannot speak highly enough. I always learn something from the speakers and the networking is opening a lot of interesting opportunities for my business. I always look forward to the next meeting!

For more information visit Milli  Millu.

This season Jaeger (owned by FBC member Harold Tillman CBE) launched a new younger collection Jaeger Boutigue. They’ve just had a ‘Blogger Style Off’ to win an interview with Jaeger’s designer director Stuart Stockdale. One of the entrants was FBC member, stylist and blogger, Anne Look!

Anne says, “I wanted to incorporate the ideals that are associated with the brand Jaeger by using the British flag socks and a hat to mimick the Queen’s guards. I also added the mod look of the 60’s by keeping the palette black and white. I hope that my mix of today and the energy of the 60’s are enough to win the affections of Stuart Stockdale.”

Good luck, Anne!