{"id":228493,"date":"2023-03-10T17:12:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T17:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?p=228493"},"modified":"2023-03-10T17:28:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T17:28:42","slug":"the-interview-george-davies-what-george-did-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/the-interview-george-davies-what-george-did-next\/","title":{"rendered":"The Interview: George Davies. What George did next"},"content":{"rendered":"
George Davies is a household name, the man who gave us Next in the 1980s, George at Asda in the 90s and M&S\u2019s Per Una in the 2000s.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now he\u2019s back, aged 81 - once again targeting womenswear and kidswear customers - with his latest brand, GWD, which launched at wholesale in the UK at the Pure London trade show at Kensington Olympia in February 2023, with the aim to supply some of the best independent boutiques, particularly in market towns. Davies tells us all about his colourful career and his new brand, which has an e-commerce website launching in the UK this September, alongside his daughter Melanie Davies, who is also the Managing Director of GWD.<\/p>\n George Davies is without doubt a living legend of UK fashion, best known for launching Next on the high street in 1982 and the Next Directory in 1987 \u2013 bringing fashion collections in to customers\u2019 homes complete with fabric swatches, before going on to bring us the first supermarket fashion brand with George at Asda in 1990.<\/p>\n He sold the George brand to Asda in 1995 and returned to run the brand until 1999 \u2013 leaving shortly after Walmart acquired the supermarket chain - and then went about elevating Marks & Spencer\u2019s fashion offer with the Per Una brand in 2001.<\/p>\n Davies quit Per Una in 2005 after a disagreement with Sir Stuart Rose, the then M&S Chief Executive, but returned to the company before leaving for good in 2008. He then launched his fourth brand in 2009, called GIVe, which stood for George IV, though the credit crunch at the time made trading out of several retail stores in prime UK locations, including on London\u2019s Regent Street, challenging, and costly. Still, Davies came away from that unscathed, putting the business into liquidation two years later to focus on other more lucrative ventures.<\/p>\n