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Editors' Top Reads: News from Givenchy, PrettyLittleThing, Karen Millen and more...

TheIndustry.fashion Team
13 September 2024

Here are some of this week’s news and features highlights handpicked by TheIndustry.fashion team.

Umar Kamani returns to PrettyLittleThing with 'renewed focus' on customer journey

Umar Kamani announced his return to PrettyLittleThing this week, marking the beginning of a "new chapter" for the fast fashion giant following his exit from the company last year.

Announcing the news on Instagram, Kamani – who founded the business with his brother in 2012 - said he brings a "renewed focus" to put customers at the forefront of every decision. It seems the entrepreneur has been somewhat dissatisfied with the management of the business since leaving to "pursue new challenges" in April 2023. He even apologised for any negative experiences customers may have encountered during his absence, promising "nothing short of exceptional" moving forward.

One of his first actions will be reintroducing free returns for those who are part of its loyalty programme - a step aimed at improving the shopping experience. He also said customers can expect more exciting changes on the horizon as he returns to the helm.

As the common phrase goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself - and that seems exactly what Kamani intends to do.

Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer.

Sarah Burton: A British designer success story

Sarah Burton was to Alexander McQueen what a bee is to pollen… one didn’t go without the other. That was until Burton made an exit from the brand. This week, it was announced that the British designer would be once again stepping into the role of Creative Director under the French luxury house Givenchy.

In the wake of this announcement, TheIndustry.fashion took a retrospective look at British Burton’s career milestones and the memorable designs she made along the way. One of her most memorable designs was the gown Burton made for Kate Middleton on her wedding day gown, but, in my opinion, this barely scraped the surface of what the designer had to offer the industry. Turns out, I'm not the only one who thinks so, and in 2012 Burton was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Read the full feature here to reminisce about Sarah Burton OBE's most memorable looks and examine her contribution to British fashion as we await her return to the runway under a house that isn't Alexander McQueen for the first time in her career. Burton will first show for Givenchy in March 2025.

Chloé Burney, Senior News & Features Writer.

Karen Millen OBE

Karen Millen OBE on starting her fashion label: ‘If I knew what I do now, I would have never started’

I remember the early-ish days of Karen Millen. You couldn't buy it where I was brought up (in Dorset) but when I came to London in the early 90s and needed a posh dress for one of my first "formals", I went to Covent Garden to buy a fantastic full-length cream dress with some Japanese-inspired pleating in the back. I wish I still had it, but my sister borrowed it (if you can call taking it without my permission borrowing) and wrecked it with red wine. I cried.

Karen Millen back then was fantastic. The quality was so good and the designs were considered and different from everything else. But it all went downhill in the 2000s. Fashion did in general, to be honest. All the nice individual brands got sucked up by big groups and the output was homogenised and the quality was downgraded as production was moved from the UK to cheaper factories abroad in the great "race to the bottom". Millen herself laments this loss of control in this insightful interview. She also talks about the pain of losing the right to use her own name when she sold her brand.

But there is positivity in this article as she talks about supporting new designers with the 'THIS IS ICON' show in collaboration with the NSPCC at London Fashion Week. It's great to see her championing emerging talent and also to see her recognised herself with an award for her contribution to fashion and philanthropy. Also Millen recently co-created a collection with Karen Millen the brand (now owned by Boohoo Group), but she says it is her last one she will do.

It would be lovely to think she would return to the industry in some other capacity but, whatever she decides, the fashion industry (particularly the high street) should learn from the values and practices she first used to build her brand. We would all be the better for it. I still miss that cream dress...

Lauretta Roberts, Co-founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief.

How can fashion be redesigned for a circular economy?

For an industry not famed for its comedians (ever seen the uniform facial expression of a fashion week FROW?), fashion is a funny one.

Trends would not be trends without retrospection; design cannot function without the ability to take stock. For a sector so reliant on the old, why can we not shake off our need for the new?

According to circular economy charity the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry currently follows a take-make-waste model, where millions of tonnes of clothing are produced, worn, and then discarded each year. To address this, we need to rethink and redesign this wasteful linear system, transforming how we create, manufacture, and ultimately experience our clothing.

In this feature, we hear from the Foundation about how the fashion industry can uncouple revenue from production to work towards a circular fashion industry via its newest initiative, The Fashion Remodel.

Katie Ross, Content Marketing & Events Executive.


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