Are rising production standards increasing, assisting the trajectory for British (based) designers?
Yes. In the eighties, people would send their designs to a factory in Italy, something hideous would come back, and then it either wouldn’t be delivered to the stores, or delivered too late and then returned because it bore no resemblance to the article the buyer had seen on the runway. That isn’t happening any more. Young designers have listened to retailers like Julie Gilhart of Barneys, Sarah Rutson of Lane Crawford and Mrs Burstein of Browns, who have taught them about what quality means. And then they have gone out and sourced it. What has amazed me lately is discovering that many are now working with very good factories in and around London – specialist units who want to deal with small runs and who are actually prepared to improve by working to the standards designers need to be able to sell in luxury stores. What designers like Erdem, Christopher Kane and Giles make in the UK is almost at couture level. That is another message we need to get out – and keep working at.
