Source Fashion has become a very important event in the show calendar and this season has attracted thousands of visitors through its doors.
Attendees included representatives from brands and retailers including Clarks, French Connection, Lyle & Scott, Paul Smith, PepsiCo, Reiss, Jadeed, River Island, Sainsbury’s, Fairy Group, Axe Paris, Debenhams, Hunter, Boden and Amazon, to name a few.
This was the last edition of the show in the National Hall at Olympia as it evolves and moves to the larger Great Hall space in February 2025. This reflects its position as the largest clothing manufacturing fair in Europe, attracting hundreds of exhibitors and increasing visitor numbers by 120% since last July.
Source Luxury has also tripled in size since its launch in February 2024, and the show will be even bigger next time around with shoes and leather making their debut in the next edition.
The event also changes from being divided by country to product category, such as women’s wear, men’s wear, footwear, accessories, luxury goods, technology and services.
So what did visitors think of the latest edition? Simon Platts, co-founder of Recomme, who attended for two days, said: “The suppliers here today have shown great speed and flexibility, and you have representation all over the world including the UK which is great from a sourcing point of view.
“A number of suppliers have caught my attention at different levels, one supplier I know makes products for Finisterre, which is my favourite brand, Patagonia UK.
Scott Taylor of Hoggs of Fife emphasised the value of the show as a UK fair: “The beauty of this show is that I can travel less. We don’t have huge teams, so a UK fair is great. I’m here looking for new fabrics and wanting something a little different and fresh to carve out a niche for myself. We’ve picked up a couple of potential new manufacturers today.”
On the exhibitor side, Anabela Carvalho of Miguel Sousa Portugal (which is exhibiting at Source Luxury) said the company made 50 contacts at the event – “a mix of new businesses and established brands, which is very positive and the main reason we came to the show. Now we will follow up and work out ways to work together, including inviting them to visit us in Portugal. We wanted to be[here]to introduce ourselves to new contacts in the UK, and save them the hassle of travelling and finding us.”
Prince Arthur Uche of Beyond Clothing, a Nigerian company, stressed the importance of making such connections: “We’ve been manufacturing for 18 years, but we’ve always been local, never going beyond the shores of Nigeria. It’s been a learning experience, and we’ve gotten some very interesting leads. People seem to be excited about the fact that we’re from Africa.”
Sayed Kazmi of Varsity City, which specialises in producing Varsity jackets, has also made contact with all the retailers from “a huge number of independents as well as the big brands and high street names, these are the movers and shakers you want to partner with”.
on the stage
Particularly interesting, apart from the exhibitors, was the line-up of speakers, with Nick Bigton a standout. He is always a big draw after running ASOS at its peak and the recently concluded Matches show.
He said that a focus on profit and a more conscious approach can go hand in hand and that shareholders need to be educated not to focus solely on profit.
“I’m an outspoken capitalist, but capitalism creates problems and issues,” he explained. “Conscious capitalism generally delivers better outcomes. I reconcile that with creating purpose for the brand. Purpose should drive profit, not profit driving purpose. We can use capitalism to change the agenda and the future of businesses. It can enrich and change the ecosystem.”
But he’s not an advocate of shrinking the fashion industry to make it more sustainable: “I don’t think we should make lessI think we should make better. Make the clothes transparent so you can see where the materials are grown and the conditions of the factory. Imagine the farm and factory had glass walls – if you could see everything that was going on there, would you still want to wear that garment?
“There is no competitive advantage in abusing the planet. We need to work together to find better solutions for everything from packaging to plastics.”
Meanwhile, Mike Coates of the Competition and Markets Authority pointed to environmental misinformation and stressed that “companies will have to work together to achieve the incremental changes they need to make. Being able to show the full product journey to the consumer is the ultimate goal.”
PepsiCo’s design director Hayley Shore showed pieces from the new Pepsi fashion range that were mostly produced in the UK or Europe, with leftover pieces and waste being reused in the next collection. “It’s important to ask who’s making it, what’s the footprint, what’s the lifecycle of the product, is it fit for purpose, why are we making it, are we giving ourselves the time to make it better? It’s also about educating our partners to invest more in making things better,” she said.
Event director Susan Ellingham said the recurring theme was that “collaboration, sharing best practice, education and storytelling are key to a better fashion industry. There is a need and desire to do much better business and with new legislation and the opportunity to have open conversations I feel very positive that these changes are becoming more and more possible.”
The third day’s seminar programme was also interesting for its practical advice. Focusing on ‘Learning, Education and Certification’, the seminar saw visitors hear about the Developing Nations Trade Scheme which removes or reduces tariffs on imports from 65 developing countries. UK policy advisers Sabiha Ahmed and Yasmin Dirie from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office spoke about how to take advantage of new legislation which aims to stimulate trade with developing regions seeking to diversify and increase their exports while providing financial incentives for UK companies looking to source better.
The B Corp certification session was hosted by Jeff van Sonsbeek, CEO of House of Baukjen, and Joanna Adjeti de Palmer, Engagement Director at B Lab UK. They provided insight into the certification process, how to prepare, and most importantly, how to undergo internal transformation to meet B Corp standards.
“Part of the B Corp principle is to work very closely with suppliers,” Sonsbeck said. “There was a very old attitude towards the supply chain that was full of secrecy. But if you start to lift the veil, you can start to collaborate on reducing the environmental footprint and reducing waste and then you end up making more money. It becomes self-fulfilling. We do our best to inspire our suppliers to embrace the journey.”
There were also sessions on building a profitable sourcing strategy, understanding the Global Organic Textile Standard, and key things to think about and do when moving sourcing to new areas.
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