"Just Ask Eric Musgrave"

I’ll be dusting down my best cocktail dress in London this Thursday evening for the inaugural People, Planet & Purpose Awards from TheIndustry.fashion & TheIndustry.beauty But there’s no such thing as a free canapé in my world. Apparently I’ll be handing over one of the awards (but, alas, not to myself). It all sounds like a lot of fun will be had while we celebrate fashion companies with a conscience. If you’d like to join the bash, here’s the link for buy tickets: https://lnkd.in/eQuW8Kum No doubt I’ll be posting a few pix from the event on Thursday to show you what you were missing. Well done Lauretta Roberts and all the team at theindustryfashion 👏

The UK womenswear trade show merry-go-round just never stops turning. Forget London Fashion Week. The real business about real clothes for real people is done elsewhere in the capital, in Harrogate and at the NEC. I share some new (and old!) thoughts in my latest column for TheIndustry.fashion & TheIndustry.beauty https://lnkd.in/e2tZwrJp As always, the views of others are very welcome! NB This is my 48th column for theindustry.fashion. Thanks to Lauretta Roberts for calling me up four years ago to ask if I'd like to contribute a monthly opinion column. I have lots of opinions!

RIP PETER LAWLEY I have been informed Peter Lawley’s funeral will be held at 10.45am on Wednesday, 12th March at Rawdon Crematorium, Leeds Road, Rawdon LS19 6JP. If you wish to attend, please message Peter’s niece Jennie on jen@thewildandwell.co.uk Jennie has told me Peter’s family have been touched and comforted by the great outpouring of comments following his sudden death a couple of weeks ago, aged only 67. Jennie would like to receive any thoughts, memories, photographs etc from his fashion friends and industry colleagues to create a Book of Remembrance about Peter’s long career for the family. Please share this message round with people who knew dear Peter. Many thanks, everyone.

Has Marks and Spencer boss @stuartmachin been reading my columns for @theindustryfashion ? His comments in The Sunday Times (attached here) about the impact on retailing of the autumn Budget and about successive governments’ disinterest in the sector (apart from its tax-providing capabilities) echoed precisely what I have been stating for years. My March 2024 column referred to retailing as the invisible industry: https://lnkd.in/evusG55T My January 2025 column highlighted the oh-so-inevitable consequences of Labour’s Budget: https://lnkd.in/e53fP577 I know many retailers are smart and resilient, but the situation is getting ridiculous, isn’t it?

Congratulations to Mr Bernard Lewis, who reached his 99th birthday today. The founder of Lewis Separates, Chelsea Girl and River Island is the most impressive individual I have interviewed in my 45 years in the fashion biz. We are seen here with Bernard's wife Vanessa in November 2022 when I interviewed the great man at a celebration dinner of The Twenty Club. What a fashion retailer Bernard is.

How can SHEIN have a turnover of £1.55bn in the UK but only show pre-tax profits of £24.2m? And that was the 2023 sales figure, up 38% on 2022. What was its turnover in 2024, I wonder? This is the Chinese-controlled company that the current government is eager to see floated on the London Stock Exchange to give the City a much-needed boost I am disappointed Labour's ethics are so (ahem) "flexible". This piece appeared in Private Eye Magazine No 1641 (24 Jan - 6 Feb). The Eye is keeping a close watch on Shein, which apart from its many other failings, is crushing UK brands and retailers with its hyper-low prices. I can recommend the fortnightly Eye for its tireless work in producing excellent exposés on all manner of dodgy dealings and wrongdoings.

Who agrees with me that so many "observers" and "commentators", especially journalists, really have no idea how the fashion and textile industry works? Consider this recent news item in The Guardian that appeared under the byline of North of England correspondent Robyn Vinter. I was pleased to see West Yorkshire-based weaver Abraham Moon & Sons earning some publicity about providing the cloth for a baseball cap that was worn by pop sensation Billie Eilish at this week's Grammys. The LA Dodgers cap was produced by New Era Cap, the American brand well-known for its headwear, especially baseball caps. But what a mess the newpaper made of explaining Moon's role as supplier of the cloth. It stated in several instances that the textile producer had actually made the cap, or employed some very convoluted references to the cloth supplier - cap manufacturer relationship. In the standfirst: The singer paid tribute to her home city wearing an LA Dodgers baseball cap crafted by English woollen mill Moon In the pic caption: Billie Eilish in the LA Dodgers cap that was manufactured in Guiseley, West Yorkshire.  In the text: ...the sports brand New Era, which collaborated with the 188-year-old textile company on Eilish’s hat... Collaborated with? An odd expression for "bought the cloth from"... Joe McCann, the mill's brand and product director, throughout was clearly talking just about Moon's textile-making expertise, but the journo still seemed to be under the impression Moon's makes caps (or The Guardian's sub-editor's, who would have written the standfirst and caption, really messed about with the original copy). Also in the text: So Eilish’s hat was made in this little Yorkshire town? “Yes, every component of that fabric would have been made here,” (said McCann). On a positive note, well done to Moon's for getting the branding label on the cap. I have visited the Moon's mill in Guiseley, near Leeds a couple of times and I own several garments made in its cloth, but if Moon's is now making caps, it's kept the news pretty quiet. A quick check online informed me that New Era mainly uses factories in China and Vietnam to make its annual production of about 65 million items, (yes, 65 million). Apparently the only caps made in the USA these days are the ones worn on the field by professional Major League Baseball players. It's possible, I suppose, that Ms Eilish could have scored one of those for herself but the New Era factory in Florida is still an awful long way from West Yorkshire. Why does this sort of confused reporting matter? Well, if there is such basic ignorance about how UK-based textile, fashion, footwear and accessory producers work, how can they ever be given a fair hearing about the pressures they are under? I'd welcome the thoughts of others on this. https://lnkd.in/dWvGhTSA

The clever people at Little Gem TV did a fine job of shoehorning the 190 years of Harrods' history into an hour-long documentary for Channel 5 on Sunday. I was very pleased to drop in a few comments and observations in the discussion. In the modern way, the programme - Harrods, The Rise and fall of a British Institution - is available on catch-up: https://lnkd.in/eEs5f6jR It is an interesting programme for anyone interested in British retail and social history.

I was intrigued to learn Harrods has had just five owners since Charles Henry Harrod began trading as a grocer and tea merchant in 1834. After the Harrod family came the Burbidges, then Hugh Fraser and House of Fraser, the Fayeds, and now the Qatari royal family. The story of this unique business will be told in an hour-long Channel 5 documentary this Sunday, 2nd February, at 9pm. Many thanks to the team Little Gem TV for inviting me to contribute some memories of working as a Christmas casual at the store, then reporting on the long battle for control of the group in the early 1980s, and of mad Mo Fayed trying to get me sacked from my post as editor of Drapers in 2003. Even if I have ended up on the mythical cutting room floor, "Harrods: The Rise & Fall of a British Institution" should be an interesting show. To get us all started, I attach a snippet from 1993 about Mohamed Fayed and Roland "Tiny" Rowland announcing an uneasy truce after their eight-year battle for control of Harrods and the rest of the national store group.

I was saddened to hear yesterday of the death of fashion industry veteran Peter Lawley I'm told Peter suffered a heart attack last weekend. He was 67. I first met this very likable man in the late 1980s when he was a partner with the fashion agent Jamie Wood in the JWA agency. After Jamie's sudden and early death in the 1990s, Peter moved from the agency side to working in-house for high-profile brands. Since about 2002 DSQUARED2 and Maison Margiela (via Staff International), Diesel DOLCE&GABBANA D&G Ben Sherman and Lacoste were among those to benefit from Peter's professionalism, commercial nous, network of contacts and excellent reputation. In recent years Peter had been working as a consultant while looking after his elderly parents. His many friends in the business will cherish a lot of happy memories. Another splendid fashion industry personality leaves us. RIP Peter.