20/09/2010
The British fashion industry directly contributes 21 billion to the British economy every year, claims a new report.
The report, which was published to coincide with London Fashion Week, discovered that when IT, tourism and other industries are taken into account, the contribution of the industry is more than 37 billion.
As reported by This is Money, the amount the fashion contributes is twice that of car manufacturing and publishing.
"When I started out the 'rag trade' was seen as the riskier end of the market," said Harold Tillman who heads up Jaeger and Aquascutum. "Now it's a respectable industry. And we've for the very best education for design and textiles in the world."
The news might encourage business to expand into the industry which contributes to 2.7% of Britain's GDP. With sufficient capital, which can be generated from sales finance, and sufficient talent, anyone could have a slice of the industry which generates 3.5% of the government's total tax revenues.
In fact, fashion is the largest employer of all the creative industries: it directly employs 816,000 people and 1.3 million jobs are associated with the industry.
According to Annette Felder who is presenting a collection at London Fashion Week, Britain has a great history of helping new designers turn themselves into viable businesses.
Ed Vaizey, minister for creative industries, said that it is vitally important for people to continue to invest in the skills base of the country "so we continue to have world class fashion colleges and we also invest in business skills for fashion designers and the wider skills for fashion designers.''
Laura Nineham