London Fashion Week: A new chapter for British fashion under Laura Weir
Last week’s London Fashion Week reignited the spark within the fashion industry, under the British Fashion Council’s (BFC) new chief executive, Laura Weir.
Weir is proving herself to be the right person at the helm of BFC as she works on improving the industry and the LFW brand.
She has achieved this by waiving the participation fees for designers physically showcasing at LFW, which removes financial barriers that restrict the industry, among other changes.
With the help of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), she is also extending the NEWGEN programme, a BFC-run initiative that supports emerging designers. The DCMS promised an additional £2m to the programme, extending it until 2029.
Fashion industry issues
In recent years, the British fashion industry has faced challenges, with many creative businesses relocating their operations to Paris following Brexit.
Rosie Wrighting, Kettering MP, said, “I believe that the challenges the industry faces at the moment mean that we are at a crucial point. Fashion brings so much to the UK, but unless it is correctly supported, we risk losing incredible talent.”
Rebecca Myers and Harriet Thomas, directors at BLACK PR, said, “There is a massive impact on London’s economy, which brings in international buyers and press.
“The international coverage creates sales for the UK brands, and the buyers purchase collections for international stores. Not to mention all the domestic buyers and press that are out and about over LFW, fuelling the economy”.
In 2023, LFW led to an 18 per cent increase in footfall across London as the event attracted talent from around the world.
Government support
A spokesperson for DCMS said, “As well as being of major cultural significance, our fashion industry is an engine of economic growth. The industry reports fashion is already worth nearly £30 billion per year to the economy and employs around 800,000 people.”
Myers and Thomas acknowledged that the fashion industry is growing larger and more exciting every year, and they have expressed their concerns about government support.
“The government’s support of the fashion industry and London Fashion Week Designer is significantly less than that of international governments, who support fashion and designers immensely,” they said.
They added: “We work with a lot of international designers who receive continued support from their own governments to further their businesses and brands.”
Italy’s fashion and luxury industry received a €250m (£215m) stimulus package from its government in 2025.
The DCMS shared that it is committed to continuing its investment in the NEWGEN programme, as outlined in its Creative Industries Sector Plan.
The plan also committed to investing £380m in the creative industries across the country and set out a framework for the growth of the creative sector up to 2035.