Today in London: LFW opens with Business Pillar initiative

The start of London Fashion Week's Autumn/Winter 15 season began not with a catwalk presentation, but with a photo call of the British Fashion Council's Business Pillar initiative.

For the past 4 seasons the BFC has focussed in strengthening its business support for London's designers and brands, working together with Anya Hindmarch CEO James McArthur.

London's reputation is more about new talent than nurturing fashion businesses

Undounbtedly London has the global reputation of finding and nurturing bright new talent, but developing big fashion businesses has been something the Americans and Italians have put greater resources into.

Still, the BFC calculated that each year 10,000 hours is spent on mentoring London Fashion Week (LFW) designers through BFC initiatives which include BFC Rock Vault, BFC Headonism, Newgen sponsored by Topshop, Newhen Men sponsored by Topman, BFC Contemporary sponsored by eBay, BFC / Vogue Designer Fashion Fund and BFC / GQ Designer Menswear Fund supported by Vertu.

The BFC aims to increase its Business Pillar activity in three stages; making the industry transparent and providing a foundation for start-up designers; making closer links with business school to find strong leaders and managers; and re-structuring its business support schemes.

James McArthur stated: With the Business Pillar programmes now set to launch, our next step is to develop better access to growth finance for designer businesses. Now that we have launched the pillar, this is the next challenge to tackle.”