Latest news with #SimonPlatts
Fashion Network
02-07-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Source Fashion releases debate line-up, looks at ethical AI, decoupling profit from volume, sustainable luxury
Responsible sourcing show Source Fashion has released the presentation line-up for its Debates Stage platform from 8-10 July at Olympia, London. Promising to deliver 'Provocative Conversations', the 'bold and unfiltered platform' aims to tackle 'fashion's most urgent challenges and exploring the ideas shaping its future'. Headliners include Jade McSorley, head of Knowledge Exchange (Sustainability) at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF). Her presentation-- 'AI - Just because we can, does it mean we should?' -- explores the 'intersection of artificial intelligence and human-led design. How do we ensure ethics, ownership, and creativity stay intact?' 'Can we decouple profit from volume - or is that a fantasy?' will be presented by Simon Platts, founder of SP&KO Consultancy, who discusses whether reducing output can sharpen commercial strategy and increase brand value. Mark Sumner, Textiles Programme lead for WRAP, reimagines fashion's supply chain from the ground up via 'Rethinking the rules - what would a smarter fashion system look like?' and asks what it would look like 'if we priced for reality, not just margins'. 'Can luxury fashion really be sustainable?' is presented by Dax Lovegrove, consultant - Planet Positive and former director of Sustainability for Versace, who 'confronts the contradictions at the heart of high-end fashion, examining whether true sustainability can exist amid exclusivity, global supply chains, and opacity'. 'Each session invites attendees to engage with real-world issues and bold ideas, offering a dynamic space for collective insight and practical discussion', said event organiser Hyve. Suzanne Ellingham, event director of Source Fashion, added: 'The Source Debates Stage is designed to ask difficult questions and encourage collective problem-solving. As businesses are being tested like never before, these sessions are a call to arms provoking honest discussion about what needs to change, and how we get there together.'
Fashion Network
02-07-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Source Fashion releases debate line-up, looks at ethical AI, decoupling profit from volume, sustainable luxury
Responsible sourcing show Source Fashion has released the presentation line-up for its Debates Stage platform from 8-10 July at Olympia, London. Promising to deliver 'Provocative Conversations', the 'bold and unfiltered platform' aims to tackle 'fashion's most urgent challenges and exploring the ideas shaping its future'. Headliners include Jade McSorley, head of Knowledge Exchange (Sustainability) at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF). Her presentation-- 'AI - Just because we can, does it mean we should?' -- explores the 'intersection of artificial intelligence and human-led design. How do we ensure ethics, ownership, and creativity stay intact?' 'Can we decouple profit from volume - or is that a fantasy?' will be presented by Simon Platts, founder of SP&KO Consultancy, who discusses whether reducing output can sharpen commercial strategy and increase brand value. Mark Sumner, Textiles Programme lead for WRAP, reimagines fashion's supply chain from the ground up via 'Rethinking the rules - what would a smarter fashion system look like?' and asks what it would look like 'if we priced for reality, not just margins'. 'Can luxury fashion really be sustainable?' is presented by Dax Lovegrove, consultant - Planet Positive and former director of Sustainability for Versace, who 'confronts the contradictions at the heart of high-end fashion, examining whether true sustainability can exist amid exclusivity, global supply chains, and opacity'. 'Each session invites attendees to engage with real-world issues and bold ideas, offering a dynamic space for collective insight and practical discussion', said event organiser Hyve. Suzanne Ellingham, event director of Source Fashion, added: 'The Source Debates Stage is designed to ask difficult questions and encourage collective problem-solving. As businesses are being tested like never before, these sessions are a call to arms provoking honest discussion about what needs to change, and how we get there together.'
Sky News
28-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
'Leicester is embargoed': City's clothing industry in crisis
You probably recall the stories about Leicester's clothing industry in recent years: grim labour conditions, pay below the minimum wage, "dark factories" serving the fast fashion sector. What is less well known is what happened next. In short, the industry has cratered. In the wake of the recurrent scandals over "sweatshop" conditions in Leicester, the majority of major brands have now abandoned the city, triggering an implosion in production in the place that once boasted that it "clothed the world". And now Leicester faces a further existential double-threat: competition from Chinese companies like Shein and Temu, and the impending arrival of cheap imports from India, following the recent trade deal signed with the UK. Many worry it could spell an end for the city's fashion business altogether. Gauging the scale of the recent collapse is challenging because many of the textile and apparel factories in Leicester are small operations that can start up and shut down rapidly, but according to data provided to Sky News by SP&KO, a consultancy founded by fashion sector veterans Kathy O'Driscoll and Simon Platts, the number has fallen from 1,500 in 2017 to just 96 this year. This 94% collapse comes amid growing concerns that British clothes-making more broadly is facing an existential crisis. In an in-depth investigation carried out over recent months, Sky News has visited sites in the city shut down in the face of a collapse of demand. Thousands of fashion workers are understood to have lost their jobs. Many factories lie empty, their machines gathering dust. The vast majority of high street and fast fashion brands that once sourced their clothes in Leicester have now shifted their supply chains to North Africa and South Asia. And a new report from UKFT - Britain's fashion and textiles lobby group - has found that a staggering 95% of clothes companies have either trimmed or completely eliminated clothes manufacturing in the UK. Some 58% of brands, by turnover, now have an explicit policy not to source clothes from the UK. Jenny Holloway, chair of the Apparel & Textile Manufacturers Association, said: "We know of factories that were asked to become a potential supplier [to high street brands], got so far down the line, invested on sampling, invested time and money, policies, and then it's like: 'oh, sorry, we can't use you, because Leicester is embargoed.'" Tejas Shah, a third-generation manufacturer whose family company Shahtex used to make materials for Marks & Spencer, said: "I've spoken to brands in the past who, if I moved my factory 15 miles north into Loughborough, would be happy to work with me. But because I have an LE1, LE4 postcode, they don't want to work for me." Threat of Chinese brands Shein and Temu That pain has been exacerbated by a new phenomenon: the rise of Chinese fast fashion brands Shein and Temu. They offer consumers ultra-cheap clothes and goods, made in Chinese factories and flown direct to UK households. And, thanks to a customs loophole known as "de minimis", those goods don't even incur tariffs when they arrive in the country. According to Satvir Singh, who runs Our Fashion, one of the last remaining knitwear producers in the city, this threat could prove the final straw for Leicester's garments sector. "It is having an impact on our production - and I think the whole retail sector, at least for clothing, are feeling that pinch." While Donald Trump has threatened to abolish the loophole in the US, the UK has only announced a review with no timeline. "If we look at what Trump's done, he's just thinking more about his local economy because he can see the long-term effects," said Mr Singh. "I think [abolishing de minimis exceptions] will make a huge difference. I think ultimately it's about a level playing field."
Sky News
28-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
'Sweatshop' scandals have left Leicester's once-thriving clothing industry in existential crisis
You probably recall the stories about Leicester's clothing industry in recent years: grim labour conditions, pay below the minimum wage, "dark factories" serving the fast fashion sector. What is less well known is what happened next. In short, the industry has cratered. In the wake of the recurrent scandals over "sweatshop" conditions in Leicester, the majority of major brands have now abandoned the city, triggering an implosion in production in the place that once boasted that it "clothed the world". And now Leicester faces a further existential double-threat: competition from Chinese companies like Shein and Temu, and the impending arrival of cheap imports from India, following the recent trade deal signed with the UK. Many worry it could spell an end for the city's fashion business altogether. Gauging the scale of the recent collapse is challenging because many of the textile and apparel factories in Leicester are small operations that can start up and shut down rapidly, but according to data provided to Sky News by SP&KO, a consultancy founded by fashion sector veterans Kathy O'Driscoll and Simon Platts, the number has fallen from 1,500 in 2017 to just 96 this year. This 94% collapse comes amid growing concerns that British clothes-making more broadly is facing an existential crisis. In an in-depth investigation carried out over recent months, Sky News has visited sites in the city shut down in the face of a collapse of demand. Thousands of fashion workers are understood to have lost their jobs. Many factories lie empty, their machines gathering dust. The vast majority of high street and fast fashion brands that once sourced their clothes in Leicester have now shifted their supply chains to North Africa and South Asia. And a new report from UKFT - Britain's fashion and textiles lobby group - has found that a staggering 95% of clothes companies have either trimmed or completely eliminated clothes manufacturing in the UK. Some 58% of brands, by turnover, now have an explicit policy not to source clothes from the UK. Jenny Holloway, chair of the Apparel & Textile Manufacturers Association, said: "We know of factories that were asked to become a potential supplier [to high street brands], got so far down the line, invested on sampling, invested time and money, policies, and then it's like: 'oh, sorry, we can't use you, because Leicester is embargoed.'" Tejas Shah, a third-generation manufacturer whose family company Shahtex used to make materials for Marks & Spencer, said: "I've spoken to brands in the past who, if I moved my factory 15 miles north into Loughborough, would be happy to work with me. But because I have an LE1, LE4 postcode, they don't want to work for me." Threat of Chinese brands Shein and Temu That pain has been exacerbated by a new phenomenon: the rise of Chinese fast fashion brands Shein and Temu. They offer consumers ultra-cheap clothes and goods, made in Chinese factories and flown direct to UK households. And, thanks to a customs loophole known as "de minimis", those goods don't even incur tariffs when they arrive in the country. According to Satvir Singh, who runs Our Fashion, one of the last remaining knitwear producers in the city, this threat could prove the final straw for Leicester's garments sector. "It is having an impact on our production - and I think the whole retail sector, at least for clothing, are feeling that pinch." While Donald Trump has threatened to abolish the loophole in the US, the UK has only announced a review with no timeline. "If we look at what Trump's done, he's just thinking more about his local economy because he can see the long-term effects," said Mr Singh. "I think [abolishing de minimis exceptions] will make a huge difference. I think ultimately it's about a level playing field."
