LONDON — The British Fashion Council on Friday unveiled a latest strategy, vowing to generate “responsible growth, relentless innovation, and the worldwide and native amplification of the British fashion industry.”

David Pemsel, who succeeded Stephanie Phair last October as chair of the BFC, revealed the trade organization’s post-pandemic plans in a letter to BFC members and stakeholders.

“Our mission is to champion British fashion as a creative force on the world stage. We’ll do that by continuing to bolster our pioneering, world-class programs that unlock and elevate creative talent. Our work and success are fueled by you, an awfully diverse and galvanizing community of creatives, advocates, icons, experts, and fans,” Pemsel said within the letter.

In an exclusive interview, Caroline Rush, chief executive officer of the BFC, said the brand new strategy offers much-needed clarity to businesses and individuals “about how they become involved, how they’ll access the work that we’re doing, and why.”

The BFC said it’ll proceed to arrange businesses in any respect stages for positive change by embracing innovation.

Within the letter, Pemsel said that success will mean “positioning British fashion as a catalyst of change in core industrial and cultural areas of the industry, through DEI & B [diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging], Web 3, and the environment through our Institute of Positive Fashion.”

Unveiled in 2020, the Institute of Positive Fashion was meant to be a resource for businesses trying to ramp up their sustainability efforts, urging them to meld global collaboration with local motion.

Within the interview, Rush said the organization is planning to roll out webinars and forums in specific areas for members to examine how they’ll use these latest ideas of their businesses.

The BFC said it desires to create connections, insights and advisory opportunities for the community to return together and prepare for regulation, and support emerging talent.

“Success might be to see businesses grow responsibly yr on yr, to construct their networks to support growth, and to have the insights and advice they need at the several stages of their development. As a part of this, the community will support us to support the following generation of talent through the BFC Foundation and early-stage business mentoring programs,” Pemsel’s letter added.

Rush said mentorship has been “growing in strength and success” previously few years via the BFC community portal, which is accessible to designer members and patrons. It enables patrons to supply particular mentoring services to the entire of the design community, she added.

The letter also noted that London Fashion Week continues to be “a number one creative, diverse, and culturally influential platform” and described The Fashion Awards as “a celebration of London because the creative capital and the first fundraiser for the BFC Foundation.”

The London Fashion Week June edition runs from Friday to Monday. Qasimi, SMR Days, Saul Nash, and Ravensbourne University London will anchor the showcase, while Daniel Fletcher and Martine Rose will show off-schedule on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

There may even be panel discussions and a London fashion-focused pub quiz over the weekend for attendees.

Rush described the slim June showcase as “a transition period,” and promised that the following one will look drastically different. Next yr marks London Fashion Week’s fortieth anniversary, and the BFC has been talking to menswear businesses about making a latest platform, she revealed.

“We love the highly creative businesses which can be doing catwalk shows. But Savile Row, designers like Oliver Spencer, and other craft-led businesses don’t lend themselves necessarily to fashion shows. We wish each the industry and the buyer to have access to those businesses and have the option to have a good time their stories,” Rush said.

She also confirmed that the January edition of London Fashion Week, which used to concentrate on menswear, is unlikely to return. The timing — right after Recent 12 months’s Day — was awkward for designers, press, and buyers alike as they often skipped London to move straight to Pitti Uomo in Florence, and the showcase was placed on hold in the course of the pandemic.

Rush said the fast-changing buying model signifies that London-based menswear brands don’t necessarily need to stage a runway show so early within the yr.

“The January edition began quite small. We felt comfortable doing it right initially of January, however the pandemic made that incredibly difficult. We were practically under lockdown every January for the previous few years. Consequently, [men’s] designers have chosen to point out in February,” said Rush.

She added: “I used to be talking to a menswear brand yesterday. They said that because buyers at the moment are buying year-round, they’re actually able to write down their menswear orders during London Fashion Week in February.”

Rush said the annual Fashion Awards ceremony, which is on account of happen at Royal Albert Hall on Dec. 4, will “focus more on our British designers,” as an alternative of world names, which have long dominated the event.

Last yr’s edition spotlighted Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.

Rush said the BFC wants to provide “sensible British businesses a voice alongside the international fashion brands which can be here. We wish to have a good time our industry and equally support the following generation of designers coming through. A lot of them could find yourself within the design rooms all over the world.”

The BFC will resume staging global events as well, Rush revealed.

She is meeting with the delegation from Shanghai Fashion Week next week to speak about rebooting the exchange program that was introduced in 2018. On the time, the project was funded by Chinese e-tailers JD.com and Vip.com.

The BFC also hosted a cocktail reception in Recent York in 2019 with designer Christopher Kane and model and singer Karen Elson in attendance.

Global outreach was a key a part of Phair’s strategy for the BFC, which was revealed in September 2018 at a time when the U.K. was coping with the challenges of Brexit and a fast-changing industry.

The opposite key area Phair was pushing for the BFC was to secure more private funding and convey the investment community closer to the style one.

She delivered that with a BFC joint partnership with tech corporations including Google, Holition and Clearpay. She also helped to determine the Venrex BFC Fashion I fund.

The enterprise capital fund was a partnership with Venrex aimed toward supporting “nontraditional” fashion businesses which have “strong creative, modern and industrial credentials,” with seed, early stage or growth stage funding.

While Pemsel’s letter mentioned little or no concerning the role that personal investment will play going forward, it’s understood that the BFC will proceed to assist its community to interact with investors.