Out here at the Paris menswear shows, I asked a buyer from a major London store: how will the Brexit vote affect their business? He breathed heavily. Their margins on new season deliveries have already been obliterated by the collapse of the pound. Those pieces were ordered a few months ago but still not paid for yet. How it affects the volume and scope of they’re about to order for next season? Who knows.
There are so many repercussions to the fashion industry, many of them affecting the new generation. Young British designers often rely on European factories to produce their clothing at an affordable cost. Will new import duties now make this prohibitive? What about the young graduates who move freely to Milan or Paris to take jobs in the design studios at major luxury houses?
This came to mind at Givenchy. I can think of two British graduates whose work has had a major impact on the Givenchy signature of loud graphics and sportswear cuts. Graduates like them are at every luxury house, their work unsung yet often of profound affect. It’s the sort of job where they turn up at short notice and then stay for years. With borders closed, will future graduates be denied such opportunities, and will their absence lessen creativity at conglomerates?