Fashion Business Club

The ICA’s Annual Fundraising Gala was awash with famous faces, and a sprinkling of them were our very own FBC members.  I travelled over to EC1 with FBC member and Aquascutum’s head of womenswear design, Michael Herz.  His date was head of menswear at Boden; mine was a hat designer-cum-judge for the next Britain’s Next Top Model.

I wore Jasper Garvida’s Relative Velocity dress, and Michael was of course suited in Aquascutum.

Courtney Blackman & Michael Herz

We ran into FBC member and journalist, Navaz Batliwalla, who was covering the event for Grazia.  You can read her report by clicking here:  Art and fashion collide at the ICA gala

Poppy & Daisy de Villeneuve

We tucked into champagne and canapés, and then were ushered into a massive room where we shared a table with the artistic sisters de Villeneuve.  FBC board member Daisy (who’s on the ICA Committee, and was donning a stunning dress by Felder Felder), and her sister Poppy, donated their combined arts for the live auction.  £2,000 later and some lucky person will get a diptych of their own portrait, photographed by Poppy, then illustrated by Daisy.

Courtney Blackman Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

There’s no stopping us at Fashion Business Club, and we’re pleased to announce that Drapers, the premier trade magazine in the UK for the fashion business, is now our official media partner.  This means  FBC members will receive the latest copy of Drapers magazine at each of the six annual meetings, and there will be some serious content sharing going on, so members, prepare yourselves for editorial exposure.

The partnership comes just in time to celebrate FBC’s most talked about event to date:  Vogue on Vogue, where Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue will be interviewed by Dolly Jones, editor of Vogue.com, on the 26th of March at One Alfred Place.

“This is a great example of a win-win situation.  And just another reason why Drapers are the No. 1 industry magazine – they’re great at spotting new talent and supporting fashion business initiatives – namely FBC.” – Alison Whelan, Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

For more details about Fashion Business Club visit:  www.fashionbusinessclub.net
For more information on Drapers visit:  www.drapersonline.com

Courtney Blackman Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

“I think FBC may have struck gold.  Alexandra Shulman and Dolly Jones, two Vogue editors in the same room, talking exclusively about the challenges and opportunities of print and digital publishing immediately after the A/W09 collections and during a world recession?  Whatever else is happening in the fashion industry on 26th March at 3pm, this meeting should not be missed,” says FBC’s Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, Alison Whelan

That’s right, next Thursday FBC has secured a talk that will go down in networking club history.  Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue, will be interviewed by Dolly Jones, FBC board member and editor of Vogue.com at One Alfred Place.  “Having two of the industry’s most powerful players in the media sector, is going to be explosive,” says Courtney Blackman, Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

Alexandra Shulman

Alexandra has been the editor of British Vogue since April of 1992 and under her guardianship, Vogue’s readership has risen to over a million.  Her many other achievements include being named Editors’ Editor of the Year in 2004 by the British Society of Magazine Editors, awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to the magazine industry, and being named Womans Magazine Editor of the Year 2008.

The more Vogue bit?  Vogue.com’s fashion features editor, Jessica Bumpus will be photographing members for the website’s Street Chic section, so all members should ‘Strike a pose, Vogue! Vogue!’

See you next week!

Sarah Hardy Editor

I’ve been a very faithful attendee of London Fashion Week over the last several years.  It’s an optimal time to network, to see what FBC members are up to, and it’s always good to catch up with friends and acquaintances that I haven’t seen since the previous September or February.

Well, this past season I took on a new challenge and reported on the London shows for a magazine in Panama as the contributing fashion editor for their fashion issue… en español.  The magazine, BLANK, is a great editorial outlet for FBCers looking to expand to Central America, and a couple members were directly involved in shows – Michael Herz, as head of womenswear design at Aquascutum and Rebekah Roy, as stylist at William Tempest – so I was able to legitimately include them.

If you’re interested in reading it (brushing up on your Spanish), subscribing to it or just being in it.., let me know and I’ll send you the PDFs and details:  courtney@fashionbusinessclub.net

Courtney Blackman Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

A trade mark is what distinguishes you in the marketplace.  It’s your logo, words, or both, and it’s what sets you apart from other brands.

FBC’s Louisa Hetherington is an intellectual property expert and a senior legal advisor (specialising in fashion) at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain and has prepared an article on a recent trade mark case that FBCers just might be interested in.

The case and her article concern fashion branding and the possibility that if you register a trade mark, but only use it for promotional giveaway items (i.e. a little something in those notorious Fashion Week goodie bags), rather than applying it to the product being sold, you risk losing it as a registration and thereby losing your rights in the brand!

If you would like a copy of Louisa’s single page article, you can request one from her by emailing:  Louisa.Hetherington@rpc.co.uk

…you can also get in touch for any IP concerns.

Courtney Blackman Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

The finale filming of Season 5 of Britain’s Next Top Model (airing in a couple months-ish) took place on Tuesday evening, and FBC’s Lee Lapthorne was there helping with the production of the fashion side of it.

FBCers Lee Lapthorne and Rebekah Roy, wearing the Azzure headpiece from Louis Mariette

A little shindig with lots of cocktails, canapés and cupcakes was held, and the show’s three judges:  Lisa Snowdon; photographer and creative director, Huggy Ragnarsson; and milliner, Louis Mariette, were dressed to impress (jewelled Sultan’s jacket, leather trousers, pink leopard print shoes) and mingling around.

Lisa Snowdon’s Jimmy Choos

Fashion stylist and FBC member, Rebekah Roy helped style Louis for the show, and was there along with Jodie Kidd, loads of journos and TV people.

Jodie Kidd and Louis Mariette

New FBC members, Jamie de Cesare and Elle Nadal from Chrisanne also worked with Louis to ensure that he would be sartorially bejewelled for multiple episodes.  The series will be on LIVING TV…soon.

Courtney Blackman Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

Photos taken with my BlackBerry