Lulu Kennedy on London's Young Creatives

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

BoF’s Editor-at-Large Tim Blanks speaks with the Fashion East Founder about the future of London’s emerging designers.

LONDON, United Kingdom — For twenty years, London's Fashion East has helped incubate and support emerging designers hoping to establish themselves as the industry’s next big thing. The imperative to nurture emerging talent is even more urgent now, as young designers enter an increasingly uncertain industry. In the latest episode of the BoF Podcast, BoF Editor-at-Large Tim Blanks speaks with Fashion East Founder Lulu Kennedy about what the future of fashion might look like for emerging creatives and independent designers.

One major change in the last twenty years is the decline in funding available to stage grandiose fashion shows. “Sponsorship was very good [20 years ago],” Kennedy said. “It’s not as easy now; you have to work harder with the budgets you have.” While strict financial limitations can help foster creativity, it also adds pressure on young designers hoping to compete with more established players.
When asked why London remains a central hub of exciting new design talent, Kennedy points to its stellar colleges and powerful and pervasive youth culture. But London-based designers also face specific challenges. “There is a lot of frustration with designers trying to get stuff made on time, in budget and that’s good quality,” Kennedy said. “Going forward with Fashion East, I would love to secure some manufacturing partnership.”
Lookbooks and short films have become crucial for designers during the pandemic, when real-life shows are restricted. But standing out amid the social media noise is no easy feat. In fact, the best advice Kennedy has to offer is authenticity: “Be true to yourself. Don’t be second guessing and looking at what other people are doing over your shoulder. Just do you.”

In London, Emerging Designers Face a Critical Season

Where Do Independent Fashion Brands Go From Here?

How to Break Into Fashion When You Don’t Already Have Money

Watch and listen to more #BoFLIVE conversations here. To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail [email protected].

Ready to become a BoF Professional? For a limited time, enjoy 25% discount on an annual membership, exclusively for podcast listeners. Simply, click here, select the Annual Package and use code PODCASTPRO at the checkout.

For all sponsorship enquiries, it’s: [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm putting on the talent. The talent's the focus.
0:05.0	It's like, of course it's lovely all the very kind words people are saying and writing as we turn 20 and I really appreciate it, but I don't want to really kind of make it about me.
0:15.0	Now you say that when you came into fashion, you knew absolutely nothing about it. What do you think is the most significant thing that you've learned about it. Be true to yourself. I say this to designers. Don't be, you know, second
0:24.6	guessing and looking what other people are doing over your shoulder. Just do you. Once you embrace and
0:29.0	accept yourself, all else, kind of everything else flows. You know, when you're fighting yourself
0:33.7	and hating on yourself, it's anxious, it's not going to work.
0:45.6	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion and welcome to the BOP podcast. It's been a harrowing year for independent fashion designers all over the world,
0:51.5	in particular in London, which has long been recognized as a hotbed of creativity
0:56.0	with young, independent fashion designers coming from the city's top fashion school.
1:01.0	This week, our editor at large Tim Blank sits down with Lulu Kennedy, sometimes referred to as the fairy godmother of independent fashion designers,
1:09.0	who are now facing a whole host of new challenges
1:11.9	related to the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. Tim talks to Lulu this week
1:18.1	to talk about what it means for independent fashion designers going forward and how they can
1:22.5	navigate the ongoing uncertainty. Here's Lulu Kennedy, Inside Fashion.
1:36.1	Welcome to B.O.F. Live. Today we are talking to Lulu Kennedy, the godmother of British
1:41.9	fashion, who last night celebrated the 20th year of
1:47.8	Fashion East, the initiative that she started two decades ago, which has probably had as
1:57.8	much impact on the course of British fashion as the great fashion colleges.
2:03.6	It's like, what do they call that thing in baseball?
2:08.6	You have the team that produces, that, you know, shapes young players that then go on into the major leagues.
2:16.6	They have a sort of home team or field to seed or something like that.
2:21.3	Anyway, that's what fashion Easter's.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Business of Fashion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Business of Fashion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.