With all the design competitions on offer it’s certainly an interesting time for emerging fashion talent. The Clothes Show Live announced it is once more supporting emerging designers of the UK with the Clothes Show Live Design Awards. The event offers a platform for aspiring designers to take their changes and showcase their creations to fashion lovers and industry experts. Clothes Show Live wants to help young creatives aged between 13 and 25 to gain recognition within the fashion industry and offer them their first big break.

“At a challenging time in the world of retail and fashion these awards are even more important than ever before. Where other fashion organisations are cutting back, we’re continuing to support and nurture young talent to help them make that all important first step into the world of fashion”, says Gavin Brown, Managing Director, Clothes Show Live. “By hosting the Design Awards we can nurture new talent from across the country and give them the recognition they deserve.”

The Awards feature six different categories including Young Artist of the Year, Prom Award, Handbag Designer Award, Journalist of the Year Award in association with Cosmopolitan, Fashion Photographer Award, Designer of the Year Award in association with Internaçionale. Students are invited to enter their work from now until November 2009. The entries will be short listed by a judging panel made up of industry experts, they will then be short listed in November and invited to attend the award ceremony at Clothes Show Live in December 2009.

The winners will be announced at Clothes Show Live, 4-9 December 200 at Birmingham NEC. The finalist’s work will be showcased at Clothes Show Live and will be open for public viewing.

Image: Clothes Show Live

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Marks and Spencer has reported sales growth ahead of expectations in the three months to 27 March. UK like-for-like sales increased by 5.1%. Analysts had forecast a 1.7% rise. In its trading statement, Marks and Spencer said it had seen improvements across the board in the UK, with sales of general merchandise – which includes clothes – increasing 9.1% and food sales up 1.8%.

The retailer said sales of formalwear and knitwear were particularly strong. Sales at its online shopping division M&S Direct were up 48%.

Its results were also boosted by the inclusion of the first day of the Christmas sale, which was not included in the corresponding quarter last year. However, the retail giant said international sales fell 5.9% as a result of difficult trading conditions in the Irish Republic and Greece, while foreign exchange rates also had an adverse impact.

“These are strong quarterly results by any measure,” Sir Stuart said. “We have weathered the immediate impact of the recession but remain cautious about the outlook for 2010-11 given the current challenging environment. “We hope that after the election there will be greater clarity on economic policy and how this will impact our customers individually.”

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The company said it expected to make a pre-tax profit in the range of £620m to £630m for the year to 27 March.

The trading statement is the last to be presided over by Sir Stuart Rose. He will be replaced as chief executive by former Morrisons boss Marc Bolland in May, but will stay on in a part-time role as chairman.

Shares in M&S were down 1.4% to 373 pence in midday trading.

Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said: “Despite headline reassurance, real belief in the group’s long-term growth prospects has yet to be mustered – a task which now looks to fall to the new chief executive, Marc Bolland, in order to deliver.”

Image: M&S chairman & models

George Davies, the founder of Next, has invest £20m of his own money into a new fashion chain called Give, reported The Times. Give aims to offer affordable luxury on the high street offer in-store style advisers and tailors to help customers create individual looks. Davies, who also founded George at Asda and Per Una for Marks & Spencer, hopes to give 5%-10% of profits to charity.

Give will open in 25 locations during the autumn, with flagship stores in London’s Regent Street and regional shopping centres. A tie-up with Beales, the department store, will give it access to town-centre locations. Regent Street is to open first, on September 30.

Davies hopes to expand overseas and has had talks with one of Saudi Arabia’s shopping-centre owners. He said he would be disappointed if Give did not see sales of £50m-£60m.

It is less than a year since Davies left Marks & Spencer, where he was chairman of Per Una. He had a tense relationship with Sir Stuart Rose, but this weekend dismissed concern over Rose’s combined role of chairman and chief executive at M&S. “I don’t really see the problem — he’s obviously capable,” Davies said. A more pressing issue was the nonexecutives, he added.

Source: The Times
Image: GIVe logo

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The Catalan fashion chain, Mango, which tops the European market for the most stores open, continues its international expansion plan despite the crisis and aims to open establishments all over the world. FashionUnited talks to Mr. Enric Casi, Mango’s General Manager and Partner.

FU: Which new markets has Mango entered during 2009?
Mango has over 1300 shops in 95 countries. In 2009, it entered the Dutch Antilles, Byelorussia, Guatemala, Iraq, Iran, Martinique and New Caledonia for the first time.

FU: Which markets does Mango expect to enter in the near future?
We want to enter all markets whenever we find places that interest us. In Europe, each country has the capacity for 400 stores and there still a lot to be opened. In Spain, we already have 300 sales points. In France, for example, we only have 100 stores. In the meantime, we are focusing on Europe, China and Japan because they are very demanding sophisticated and affordable fashion markets. We have new sales points in Belgrade, Dubai, Kuwait, Johannesburg, Manila, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Peking, Tehran and Tokyo.

FU: If the economy stays flat over the next few years, is the firm still going to keep opening stores every year?
Our idea is to open 200 stores a year regardless of the crisis.

FU: Which is the best market now in terms of sales? And benefits?
Spain has the most stores, which is reflected by its sales. With regard to benefits, turnover is greater in Spain. Turkey is a very interesting country for us in terms of sales and benefits.

FU: How could you compare your international strategy with that of Inditex?
Mango has stores in more countries than Zara. Zara has more product lines than Mango. It has clothes for women, men, children and the home. We have been working almost exclusively with women and men’s clothing for one year now but we want to enter countries that prefer quality and sophisticated products.

FU: Where are your products made?
China represents 50 per cent of our production, Morocco 20 per cent and the rest is made in Turkey and Eastern countries like Romania and Bulgaria. Each country is specialised in one production phase.

FU: Have you had to adopt any important measures due to the world crisis such as renegotiating lease agreements, altering working hours, lay-offs or adjusting salaries?
Business has dropped with the crisis. But everything is pretty much the same. The only difference is that we have renegotiated some lease agreements and we have closed some shops due to the expiry of the franchise contract.

FU: Does Mango use Facebook as a real communication tool and do you think it more efficient in terms of communication than your own website?
Mango is still investing in interactive formats to introduce fashion to net surfers. In this case, we have launched a new application on the famous social network, Facebook, where users can interact and create their own Mango wardrobe.

FU: For the first time ever, ‘He by Mango’ has exhibited at the latest ‘Who’s Next’ in Paris. Have you thought about participating in other fashion fairs next year?
We hope to participate in HKTDC World Boutique Hong Kong and Franchise Expo Paris in 2010.

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It took Mulberry a year to find its new creative director, but the search
for a new chief executive officer continues. The luxury British fashion
house previously voiced its desire to have its new CEO and creative
director begin working at the same time, so with Johnny Coca poised to
begin his new role in July, time is ticking for Mulberry to sign on a new
CEO.

The luxury label is said to be moving in on signing a new CEO to start this
summer, a source revealed to Reuters, to take the reins over from chairman
Godfrey Davis, who has led the label for close to a year now. As the former
CEO of Mulberry, Davis has been hard at work trying to reconnect the brand
with the core customers after his successor Bruno Guillon failed to
reposition Mulberry as a higher end label.

Mulberry aims to have new CEO in place by July

Guillon aimed to transform the British brand into a global exclusive brand
by increasing the quality of Mulberry
‘s
handbags as well as its prices, but the move ultimately backfired on the
brand and led to severe profit warnings and Mulberry’s share value dropping
67 percent. When Guillon threw in the towel last March and stepped down
from his role, Davis stepped in on a interim basis until a new topman was
found. His goal was to repair the damage caused by Guillon and and
reconnect the brand with its roots.

Mulberry’s new CEO candidate should be well suited to work alongside the
label’s new creative director, Johnny Coca, who will join the team at
Mulberry from French fashion house Céline in four and half months time. Coca
will be replacing Emma Hill, who left the brand in June, 2013. She was the
creative mind behind some of the most most iconic bags, such as the Alexa
and Del Rey.
Hill reportedly left the label after disagreements with Guillon concerning
the creative and operational strategy of the brand.

According to the source at Reuters, Davis will help guide the new CEO and
Coca in their new roles and new strategy, whilst stepping into the role of
non-executive chairman, although Mulberry declined to comment on the
speculation.
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