May 8th, 2012

Is fashion design a man’s world?

Fashion is largely aimed at a female audience and the industry is populated by talented women, so Fashionista was surprised to read that American fashion design is a ‘boys club’. According to a recent article in Style.com, only just over a quarter of Swarovski Award winners in the last decade were women. The Swarovski Award recognises emerging talent in womenswear, menswear, and accessories as voted by members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and representatives from the fashion community. One of the reasons cited for this imbalance is the pressure faced by working mothers.

Fashionista wonders whether female fashion designers face similar challenges on this side of the pond? As reported in the Guardian, women actually dominated at last year’s British Fashion Awards – Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen won the ‘Designer of the Year’ award, Stella McCartney won the ‘Red Carpet’ award, Victoria Beckham was the recipient of the ‘Designer Brand’ award and Mary Katrantzou won the ‘Emerging Talent – Womenswear’ award.

Fashionista is proud to see that her British ‘sisters’ are doing it for themselves and hopes that female fashion designers will enjoy equal recognition internationally.

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Sports fans and Olympic fanatics aren’t the only ones making a dash to London this year it seems since London has just reclaimed the number one spot as the main target destination for international retailers (beating Dubai). The CBRE announced its annual survey results last week which maps the global footprint of top retailers around [...]

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April 26th, 2012

Get Shwopping!

If you, like Fashionista, find clearing out formerly-loved items from your wardrobe oddly satisfying then you will share our excitement in hearing that Marks & Spencer has just made this a little bit easier and a little bit more fun. As reported in the Daily Telegraph, with the launch of Shwopping, M&S is aiming to divert [...]

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With many commentators predicting at least a 1% cut in corporation tax, George Osborne’s 2012 Budget is expected to be pro-business, in order to give the economy a much needed boost and avoid the dreaded double-dip recession. Fashionista will be following developments closely in the lead up to Wednesday 21 March by logging onto Olswang’s Budget Blog [...]

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As readers will know from previous posts, Fashionista now has an outpost in Asia. Whilst she has been enjoying the delights of beaches and the ease of all-year round summer wardrobes, she has nonetheless been a little homesick for her familiar sartorial pleasures (as well as in constant shock at the price of Sauvignon Blanc [...]

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Fashionista is a big supporter of new British talent through her work with the Centre for Fashion Enterprise, a pioneering business incubator that nurtures young talent within the fashion industry.  And she was justifiably proud as she watched some of her favourite young designers triumph at London Fashion Week.  On Saturday she saw J JS Lee‘s [...]

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February 13th, 2012

Fashionista In the Dock…

Fashionista’s recent judicial jaunt to the Employment Appeal Tribunal north of the Border has uncovered a gem of a case that should prove useful to all you fashion houses and retailers that choose to sponsor budding or promising designers through university courses [G E Caledonian Ltd v McCandliss EAT/0069/10]. Even though such university sponsorship may [...]

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Providing a forum for customer feedback on websites and blogs is increasingly common including in the fashion retail sphere. Afterall everyone, including Fashionista, likes a recommendation before making a purchase. However, if you do provide this type of service or functionality you need to be careful that you don’t make any statements which imply (directly [...]

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Competition for key central London stores reached a new level following the decision by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of French luxury goods group LVMH (pictured) to purchase three stores on Bond Street for £300 million as reported in Reuters and Yahoo.   Fashionista understands that the shops include LVMH’s Louis Vuitton flagship store at 17-20 New Bond Street and two other stores let to [...]

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We reported a while back on leaked drafts of the new European data protection Regulation. Yesterday, the official version was published and Fashionista’s colleagues at Olswang spent a busy day analysing the practical implications of the proposal. Their more detailed analysis for in house counsel can be found here. The highlights Fashionista says you must know [...]

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