London Fashion Week in figures

Business is business and money is in fashion more than ever, hence the importance of taking into account the figures behind the scenes of the London Fashion Week (LFW): direct value of the UK fashion industry to the UK economy is £21 billion.

FashionUnited has gathered the main figures of this year´s first edition of the LFW:

• This season's London fashion week will feature 59 catwalk shows, with an estimated total audience of 5,000.
• Last season over £100m of orders were placed during the week.
• The direct value of the UK fashion industry to the UK economy  is £21 billion (source: BFC Value of Fashion Report 2010)
• Fashion’s wider contribution to the economy in influencing spending in other industries is estimated to stand at over £37 billion (source: BFC Value of Fashion Report 2010)
• The UK Fashion industry is similar in size to the food/beverages services and telecommunications industries and bigger than the wholesale and retail of automotives, sports activities, chemical manufacture and advertising/video sectors ( as revealed by the BFC Value of Fashion Report 2010)
• Major export markets are USA, Japan, Russia, France, Italy, Middle East, Hong Kong, China
• On the eve of London Fashion Week, which will see around 5,000 visitors from across the world coming to see the best of British fashion and design, the Mayor of London confirmed a cash boost of £2.3 million for the capital’s creative industries.
• The Mayor’s investment will be channeled into the British Fashion Council, Film London and London Design Festival as part of a drive to help London’s creative industries - estimated to be worth around £19 billion to the economy and employing more than 380,000 people.
•  The fashion industry accounts for 1.7% of UK GDP – twice as much as publishing, car manufacturing or the chemical industry – and supports 816,000 jobs.
• Jonathan Saunders has been awarded earlier this year the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund prize, which means an investment of £200,000 into his business.
• Last year Mulberry received £2.5m from the regional growth fund to build a handbag-making factory in Somerset which will create 250 skilled jobs. "That kind of money has traditionally gone to car factories, and those kinds of industries," explained for The Guardian Ed Vaizey, the minister for culture and the creative industries. "The fact that Mulberry can access that money is a reflection of the fact that the government acknowledges the role of fashion in our economy."
• In a similar vein, Sir Phillip Green, owner of TopShop, announced that Topshop's 10-year sponsorship of London fashion week's up and coming "NewGen" designers, which is in its final year, will be renewed. "We need as much focus on the next generation of production talent as there has been on new design talent. My goal is to see if we can achieve in manufacturing and business what we have achieved in design and retail," Green said.