Fashion Roundtable and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles launch London Fashion Week Representation and Inclusion in the fashion industry

Today Tuesday 3rd September 2019, marks the soft launch for Fashion Roundtable and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles Representation and Inclusion in the Fashion Industry #areyourepresented campaign. During London Fashion Week (13th – 17th September) our street teams will meet with fashion insiders to ensure our survey connects with all within our fashion sector, driving evidence and survey respondents for our upcoming Representation and Inclusion in the Fashion Industry policy paper.  Link to take the survey here.

Fashion generates a £60bn turnover each year for the UK economy, as the largest part of the fastest growing sector, the creative industries are forecast to grow to £150bn GVA by 2023. Yet BAME and those from less advantaged backgrounds with access to jobs in the fashion design economy are currently cited at just 9% for both groups, according to data released for the launch of the Creative Sector Industrial Strategy last year by DCMS and NESTA. This is visibly lower than the BAME figures for London which are currently at 33% of the population. Globally there are 1.3bn people with disabilities, representing a market the size of China, and in the UK the spending power of disabled people and their households, known as the purple pound, is worth £249bn. 

Fashion Roundtable’s Representation & Inclusion in the Fashion Industry Paper will focus on will focus on BAME and Equality Act Disabled persons and consider religious and LGTBQ+ identity. This is the first time that fashion has been called to give evidence and share its insights across such important issues and offers a fantastic opportunity for the industry to not only raise its concerns, but also generate solutions. 

Tamara Cincik CEO and Founder of Fashion Roundtable said: “I am so excited to be launching this important and timely policy work. Fashion has always led in cultural narratives with amazing visuals which make all our minds soar with dreams and aspirations. But it is time for fashion to be as inclusive as a business as it is magical in its visuals. We cannot carry on having fashion shows in wheelchair inaccessible venues and consumers who are marginalised by a lack of inclusion: be that non-binary citizens, who are unable to try on clothes in-store, to a focus on youth markets which doesn’t cut through to consumers over 27, and of course a structural imbalance, which means despite this being a sector filled with super talented women, we still have men at the top of the career triangle, meaning the gender pay gap is actually going backwards. By creating this work, we hope we can highlight and indeed reverse these inequalities and thereby improve access, reach and opportunity for many more within our wonderfully creative community to realise their potential.”

The policy work is being led by Dr Royce Mahawatte, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at CSM, with an advisory committee including Caryn Franklin MBE, Karen Binns, Sara Ali, Eden Loweth from ArtSchool London, Claire Barnett from UN Women, Meg Ellis from iWeigh, Grace Woodward, Cynthia Lawrence John, Michelle Noel, Lottie Jackson, Jamie Winddust, Alex Pleasants from APPG for Diversity, Tolu Coker, Zowie Broach Head of Fashion from the RCA, Zebedee Management and more.

During London Fashion Week our street team will aim to gather oral evidence and survey responses, to add to the qualitative and quantitative research for the forthcoming paper. We shall then host our evidence sessions at the Houses of Parliament.

Notes to editors

If you would like to support the campaign please see https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/are-you-represented and contact admin@fashionroundtable.co.uk or click on the link here to be supplied with additional imagery and information. Please also follow on social media #areyourepresented 

If you wish to find out how you can sponsor the paper please contact admin@fashionroundtable.co.uk

Fashion Roundtable LTD is the only fashion-focused consultancy providing industry leading events, public affairs and policy. Fashion Roundtable Organisation LTD is our NFP which covers our APPG and policy work. 

Fashion Roundtable’s founder, Tamara Cincik, has over 20 years’ experience in the industry and since the launching Fashion Roundtable, has spoken publicly on Fashion & Politics with a range of high profile business press including SKY TV, Vogue Business and Business Of Fashion. 

Fashion Roundtable’s community includes the most influential Fashion Activists and politicians such as Katherine Hamnett CBE, Nick Knight OBE, Sarah Mower MBE, designers including Ashish, Richard Malone and Bethany Williams winner of this year’s Queen Elizabeth II Award For Design, as well as All Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles and Fashion members including Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Dame Eleanor Laing, John McNally MP, Rushanara Ali MP, Catherine West MP and Andrea Jenkyns MP.