The Manufacturing Alliance

The Manufacturing Alliance, formed to look at challenges facing designer fashion manufacturers in the UK, has identified the need to create a framework to support growth in this sector that is already in place in France, Italy and highlighted as a need in New York. The Alliance comprising British Fashion Council, Centre for Fashion Enterprise, London Manufacturing Advisory Service, Skillset and UK Fashion & Textile Association has drawn up the framework which will commence by assisting designers to improve communication and work more closely with manufacturers through a series of toolkits launched today: Code of Practice, Garment Specification, Factory Assessment, Resource Guide, Production Schedule, Critical Path, Production Management and Quality control. These toolkits have been created by Alliance partners and are available on NESTA and Alliance Partner websites. NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) supports the Alliance project.



Many designers showing at London Fashion Week manufacture their collections in London and production units throughout the UK. Their challenges include achieving high quality garments and products at competitive prices. The Alliance recognises that the toolkits are just a starting point in an initiative that could secure manufacturing and skills here in the UK. It will continue to look at the broader issues facing manufacturers and designers and aims to establish a network that is able to carry forward the NESTA initiative looking at identifying and supporting growth opportunities for both parties.



UK based manufacturers are also being asked to register themselves on a ‘Let’s Make It Here’ database accessed through www.ukft.org to create the first comprehensive searchable manufacturing database here in the UK.



Chairman of the British Fashion Council, Harold Tillman who has spearheaded the Alliance commented “This project has sought to explore how the relationships between designers and smaller manufacturing units can be improved to help both parties capitalise on the growing order books of British designer businesses. The small scale atelier type production units used by designers, most of which are based in London, are vital for our top end designers to sustain and develop sales growth each season.”



Toolkits can be downloaded from www.fashionalliance.co.uk

www.nesta.org; www.britishfashioncouncil.com/businessupportnetwork; www.ukft.org; www.fashion-enterprise.com







>>Access the Fashion Toolkit



>>Find a UK manufacturer

Top 10 Fashion Films of the Season

LONDON, United Kingdom — According to network technology and services company Cisco, the number of people who watch web videos will surpass 1 billion by the end of 2010. By 2014, web video alone will account for 57 percent of all consumer internet traffic. Already, more than 2 billion videos are played each day on YouTube alone. With staggering statistics like these, it’s no surprise that fashion brands, both large and small, are investing in online video content, while agencies that represent commercial artists are urging their fashion photographers to reposition themselves as image-makers who can direct short films.

But what makes a good fashion film? And are these the same primary concerns that go into a good fashion photograph? While these questions have been circulating since SHOWstudio’s early experiments in moving image, this season, as the medium of fashion film matures, we saw the debate condense around two distinct points of view.

Some industry figures say that creating a successful fashion film is very different to creating a fashion photograph and underscore the primary importance of elements like narrative and acting. “What makes a good fashion film is exactly what makes any good film: direction, lighting, acting, script, sound,” said Diane Pernet, influential fashion blogger and founder of A Shaded View on Fashion Film. “These are elements that go beyond a static photo shoot,” she continued.

Ms. Pernet’s emphasis on the fundamentals of filmmaking was echoed by Alistair Allan, Digital Director at Dazed Group: “Anything near or over two minutes needs to have some form of narrative to keep the viewer engaged. The pace of editing is also important, as is the correct use of cinematography technique, which sadly a lot photographers don’t understand or sympathise with.”

Others think that great fashion films are driven by exactly the same concerns as great fashion photographs where the visual or stylistic story comes first. “I don’t think there are any rules when it comes to communicating a feeling, but for me, a fashion film is always led by the fashion — the lines, the colours,” said pioneering fashion filmmaker Ruth Hogben, who frequently collaborates with Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio. “Rather than film, it’s better to think about fashion: what makes a good fashion communication? It’s exactly the same as a photograph,” she emphasised.

Over the last two fashion cycles, we’ve brought you our seasonal ranking of the Top 10 Fashion Films. This season, the Top 10 includes powerful narrative films, like Karl Lagerfeld’s “Remember Now” for Chanel, as well as stunning films driven primarily by a stylistic story, like Ruth Hogben’s latest film for Gareth Pugh. We’ve also included “Act da Fool,” Harmony Korine’s controversial piece for Proenza Schouler, a piece that, we think, manages to place equal importance on narrative and visual storytelling. As you sit back and enjoy the films, let us know which approach you think works best.

(RSS and Email subscribers, click here to view the films).

1. Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 by Ruth Hogben

Starring a future-forward, silver-haired Kristen McMenamy, Ruth Hogben’s 11-minute geometric epic for Gareth Pugh captivated hundreds of editors, buyers and other industry insiders at Paris Fashion Week, where it was projected at giant scale in the Palais Omnisports in Bercy. Since then, it’s been beamed across the world via SHOWstudio and video sharing sites Vimeo and YouTube, entrancing thousands more. Directed by Ruth Hogben and conceived in collaboration with a close-knit team that included artist Matthew Stone, stylist Katie Shillingford and set designer Simon Costin, this is a film that puts fashion first, exploring Mr. Pugh’s S/S 2011 collection with laser-like focus. But the film also demonstrates with great effect how a designer can leverage abstract, visually-centered storytelling to perfectly communicate a collection and articulate a broader brand vision in one powerful communication.

2. Proenza Schouler “Act da Fool” by Harmony Korine

Proenza Schouler gave Harmony Korine, writer of “Kids” and director of disturbing features like “Gummo” and “Julien Donkey-Boy,” carte blanche to create this controversial film about teenage angst, resulting in what is possibly the most controversial fashion film released since the movement began a few years back. Shot in Nashville, Tennessee (where Korine lives) the film follows a group of African-American girls in as they drink, smoke, write graffiti and skulk around a schoolyard in Proenza Schouler’s Fall 2010 collection. “It’s about girls who sleep in abandoned cars and set things on fire,” said Korine. “It’s about the great things in life. The stars in the sky and lots of malt liquor.” While the film has attracted both severe criticism and praise — provoking a raging debate and discussion online — we rate it highly because it feels like an authentic piece of cultural content and perfectly integrates both narrative and visual storytelling by threading a poetic and mesmerising voiceover through a series of beautifully composed “moving stills.”

3. Chanel: Remember Now by Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld’s “Remember Now” for Chanel is a great example of a successful fashion film that’s driven primarily by narrative. Pascal Greggory stars as a veteran playboy who encounters a young and glittering group of friends played by a high-wattage cast including Elisa Sednaoui, Baptiste Giabiconi, Heidi Mount, Abbey Lee and others. We think the film nicely complements Mr. Lagerfeld’s nostalgic, Riviera-inspired 2011 cruise collection and tells a powerful brand story that perfectly captures the gilded and care-free hedonism of summer in Saint-Tropez. Mr. Lagerfeld’s cameo appearance is fun. But our favourite part is the brief intro sequence where Leigh Lezark plays Coco Chanel.

4. Iris by Barnaby Roper

Barnaby Roper’s techno-robotic “Iris,” starring Iris Strubegger, is a stunning visual experiment that dissects a range of fall looks from Stella McCartney, Miu Miu, Givenchy, Céline and Proenza Schouler. We love the way Roper — who has directed music videos for bands like Razorlight, Snowpatrol and Moby, alongside his work for fashion magazines — hypnotizes the viewer with his surgically precise editing technique. “It’s the rhythm of the edit that’s the key to the film, the key to all films,” said Roper in an interview with Nowness, where the film first appeared.

5. H&M Designer Collaboration Teasers (series)

H&M developed a brilliant short video teaser campaign to get consumers excited for the launch of their annual designer collaboration. Featuring stereotypical designer types like a man in a skinny dark suit and a woman in an extreme blouse and chunky jewelry, the series of black-and-white videos engaged viewers in a collective guessing game on the identity of the yet unannounced designer, dropping a sequence of clues specifically designed to lead fashion-savvy viewers one way, then another. Discussion raged on YouTube, spilled onto Twitter and sparked countless posts in the fashion blogosphere that named Carolina Herrera and Thomas Maier of Bottega Veneta among suspected collaborators, before the identity of the real designer was revealed to be Alber Elbaz of Lanvin. Overall, we thought this was a fun and highly effective use of the short video format that was intelligently conceived to generate positive conversation across the social web. Bravo.

5. Holly Fulton by Quentin Jones

“Holly Fulton” by London-based illustrator, animator and director Quentin Jones is a riot of flash bulbs, humming birds, lions and Manhattan skyscrapers that brought a great big smile to our faces, and recalled the signature aesthetic of one of London’s rising design talents. Commissioned by British Vogue art director Jaime Perlman for her experimental fashion platform TEST, we think the film is a perfect complement to Fulton’s bold and graphic, 60s meets Art Deco collection.

7. Burberry Acoustic (Series)

Debuting three days before the brand’s menswear show last June, the “Burberry Acoustic” series cleverly highlights the brand’s longstanding connection to British rock bands with a collection of nicely styled music videos that populate the brand’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. The short films feature Burberry product, integrate with in-store happenings and function as a kind of digital support platform for emerging British music talent. Plus, the music selection is great.

8. Chronology by Luca Guadagnino

Luxury fashion etailer Net-a-Porter worked with Luca Guadagnino, director of “I Am Love,” to create this abstract, surrealist film featuring a stunning Mariacarla Boscono in tightly edited highlights from the fall 2010 collections, styled by Cathy Edwards. In a characteristically sharp move from Net-a-Porter, famous for their shopable weekly web magazine and accompanying iPad app, the video content leads consumers directly to commerce opportunities. When the film launched, all the looks seen on Boscono — including fashion from Christopher Kane, Chloé, Miu Miu, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Sigerson Morrison and Azzedine Alaïa — were available for instant purchase.

9. Nike Gyakusou (Dark Edit) by Jamie Morgan

Jamie Morgan created this evocative film to launch the first collaboration between Nike Sportswear and Jun Takahashi’s cult brand Undercover: the Nike x Undercover Gyakusou performance running collection. The slow-motion visual treatment and playful yet deliberate soundtrack brilliantly capture the surreal sense of pace, stamina and inner focus that lies at the heart of performance running. We think the rain and smoke looks amazing as well.

10. Black Light by Suzie Q & Leo Siboni

Commissioned by Diane Pernet in collaboration with Vogue Italia, Suzie Q and Leo Siboni’s Blacklight appeared at A Shaded View on Fashion Film in Milan last May as part of a special series of one-minute fashion films inspired by “light.” The film plays on codes of fantasy and sporadically immerses the viewer in a blacklit netherworld to dramatic and haunting visual effect.

Did we miss someone? Which fashion films captured your imagination this season? Let the BoF community know which films you liked most.

LVMH scores stake in Hermès, Condé Nast Digital loses Style.com, Digital tools, Web traffic leaders, Obama effect

Hermès belt detail | Source: Hollyscoop

LVMH `Playing a Waiting Game’ for Hermès Takeover (Bloomberg)

“[LVMH said] it doesn’t intend to launch a tender offer, take control or seek board representation at the maker of Birkin bags after announcing it owns 14.2 percent of Paris-based Hermès, with the option to increase the stake to 17.1 percent.”

Conde Nast Digital Loses Style.com (WSJ)

“Conde Nast executives say the move is a natural pairing of two properties whose audiences increasingly overlap. The Internet has empowered shoppers to influence tastes and set trends, blurring the line between consumers and professionals.”

How the Fashion Industry Is Using Digital Tools to Increase ROI (Mashable)

“[The industry is] increasing efficiency and providing much needed data analysis and tracking components. Instead of relying on people to analyze, project and improve, fashion brands now have the digital technologies to meet these needs in a much faster way.”

Gucci, Burberry dominate luxury fashion sector for Web traffic (Luxury Daily)

“Gucci and Burberry have generated more Web site traffic than any other luxury fashion brand surveyed in PM Digital’s latest online trend report.”

Michelle Obama: The three billion dollar woman (Independent)

“Professor of Finance David Yermack cites 189 public appearances between November 2008 and December 2009 in which Mrs Obama wore pieces by 29 listed companies… He estimates that a single appearance by the First Lady can generate up to $14 million alone.”

Tommy Hilfiger Honored at Pratt Legends Gala, Tells Aspiring Designers to “Never Give Up”

Pratt Institute’s Board of Trustees conceived the Legends Awards in 1999 to honor icons within the worlds of art and design, whose accomplishments and values resonate with those of the school. The event is also a scholarship benefit for Pratt students, 80% of whom require financial aid to pursue their educations. Marc Jacobs, Julian Schnabel, Takashi Murakami and Bruce Weber are among past recipients.

In the 25th year of his brand, Tommy Hilfiger was one of the night’s honorees. He told us the best part of the night was reuniting with friends and supporters who believed in him since the very beginning, including his original backer Mohan Murjani, and George Lois, who created his first advertising campaign. “It’s kind of a fun, special night because I have a great group of people with me. It’s all about the people you surround yourself with.”

The night culminated in a performance by Johnny Cash’s daughter Rosanne Cash. Music has played a major part in Tommy’s branding lately. The Strokes performed at the designer’s fashion week bash and he recently launched a music-themed fragrance and and accompanying digital radio station called LOUD, on which he collaborated with the Ting Tings, who will headline a LOUD European tour.

When asked about what seemed like an increased focus on music, which some might see as a desperate attempt to appear hip, he explained, “I’ve been doing that for 40 years…My very first fashion show was a rock music fashion show and I started designing clothes for rock stars and sponsoring concerts and promoting concerts and using musicians in my advertising and marketing so it’s not a new thing for me; it’s just something I’ve continued to do.”

He also offered three pieces of advice for aspiring designers who might want to celebrate a 25th anniversary one day: “Listen to the customer, work in retail so you understand how clothes are sold, and never give up.”