Gabriele Dirvanauskas

The autumn/winter 25 edition of London Fashion Week is Rush's last as CEO, capping off a 16-year tenure at the British Fashion Council. At the opening event of LFW this morning [Friday 21 February], Rush called for the government to keep its support for the fashion industry: "Further support from the government is absolutely crucial. We need to work with government to help businesses access low-cost finance. It's incredibly important to make sure [designers] have the opportunity to have the finance to grow their businesses. We have the talent, we just need that support mechanism to help them grow." The British Fashion Council recently secured a further £1m from the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to support its emerging talent initiative, Newgen. Rush also called for "an improved trading agreement with the EU": "At the risk of sounding like a broken record," she added, "we really do need to bring back tax-free shopping." Rush will exit the industry body in June following a hand

The designers on this year's shortlist are Conner Ives, Di Petsa, Dilara Findikoglu, Edeline Lee and Talia Byre. The winner will be announced in May. Launched in 2008, the Designer Fashion Fund provides mentoring and awards businesses with a £150,000 cash prize to grow their business. The fund is supported by British Vogue, Burberry [main image above] and Paul Smith. The judging panel is chaired by BFC CEO Caroline Rush and Chioma Nnadi, head of editorial content at British Vogue. Previous winners of the BFC/VDFF include Chopova Lowena (2024), 16Arlington (2023), Richard Quinn (2022), Bethany Williams (2021), Wales Bonner (2019), Molly Goddard (2018), Mother of Pearl & palmer//harding (2017), Sophia Webster (2016), Mary Katrantzou (2015), Nicholas Kirkwood (2013), Christopher Kane (2011) and Erdem (2010). British Fashion Council CEO: 'London Fashion Week has always been the home of innovation'

LVMH- prize winning designer SS Daley is the second buzzy London Fashion Week designer to work with John Lewis, through the retailer’s partnership with the British Fashion Council (BFC). Creative director Steven Stokey Daley also received the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in September 2024. Artist Harry Styles is an investor in the label, where a particularly eye-catching goldfish cardigan retails for £525 – how will John Lewis shoppers react? “It’s a higher price point but we feel confident, [from the] customer data we’re seeing, that if they see the value and quality then they will spend it,” explains John Lewis’s fashion director Rachel Morgans, who joined the business last June. Morgans is a Topshop alumnus. She joined Topshop in 1998 as a buyer and has held held buying director roles at Asos (2012-14), Finery London (2014-16), Topman (2016-18) and Brown Thomas (2019-23). Morgans worked at Topshop alongside Marks & Spencer’s Maddy Evans, who last week was promot

Moss is readying a store in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre in May, as it continues to refurb and resize sites in its portfolio, CEO Brian Brick told Drapers. The menswear business, which was established in 1851, rebranded as “Moss” in late 2023 and is on a drive to update stores located in large footfall areas. The Moss store at Birmingham New Street will remain open. Moss's store at 299 Oxford Street closed last week for a 12-week refurbishment and will reopen before Easter. The business will sell across three storeys at the site after adding an additional floor of selling space. Its store at 34 Oxford Street remains open. Signage across half of its 114-store portfolio will be updated with the modernised moniker by the end of this year, said Brick. He added that the business will complete two to three additional resites this year in major cities. The business opened in Edinburgh last year, Brick says there is “more potential” in Scotland. A host of retailers, including Next

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