Belinda Earl: Nurturing young talent is the key to fashion’s future

Over the last week, the fashion world has descended on the capital, but at its heart, London Fashion Week is a showcase for both emerging and established creativity.

It’s this talent that cements Britain’s position as one of the most influential places in the world for fashion and style.

M&S is a long-standing patron of the British Fashion Council (BFC), an organisation that strives to bring the fashion industry together to uphold its global reputation and secure the pipeline of future talent.

Behind the glamour of the shows, fashion is a hardworking industry, supporting almost 900,000 jobs and contributing over £28bn to UK GDP.

“In an increasingly digital age, fashion and style have become more accessible”

Editing this Runway issue, it’s immediately clear we’re in an exciting time for this vibrant sector. In an increasingly digital age, fashion and style have become more accessible.

Previously, the show season was the key source of trend inspiration. But now we see this complimented by platforms like Instagram, giving us a daily stream of new looks and ideas.

Consumer changes

The consumer demand for newness is greater than ever before, and even more immediate. The commercial outturn of this has been the shift to the see-now, buy-now model, which M&S pioneered on the high street for its 2016 preview.

Enabled by technology and social media, positive disruption has been driven by this consumer quest for newness. If they want to be, our customers are more informed than ever before – with shopping missions planned, researched and completed across multiple channels.

Social media has also contributed to a number of new entrants to the market – bringing more choice, competition and ways to shop.

During my career, change has been the only constant; be it the entry of the supermarkets, the rise of internet retailing or today’s tech-empowered consumer.

That’s why nurturing young talent is a commercial imperative – it ensures we can continue to innovate as an industry, evolve our culture, develop our leaders and, crucially, think like a customer of the future.

Indeed, the long-term success of British fashion relies on the next generation having the training and expertise our businesses need. We have world-renowned colleges and training facilities in this country – and organisations like the Fashion Retail Academy and the BFC are working hard to ensure we are developing the next generation in skills that will be truly embedded in the industry.

“Nurturing young talent is a commercial imperative”

As retailers of scale, we at M&S have the opportunity and infrastructure to prepare young talent for a career in a global marketplace.

For example, as sponsors of the Graduate Fashion Week Womenswear Award, we selected the winner and four other frontrunners to join us for a range of three to 12-month placements.

When they come to us, the focus is not simply on their technical design expertise. We want to expose them to the scale and pace of global retail activity, the skills of negotiation, an appreciation of supply chain logistics and the importance of knowing your customer, along with upholding an ethical sourcing model – all vital components for today’s successful retail businesses.

The next generation

We must continue to attract top talent by educating young people about the breadth of opportunities available in this dynamic sector.

It was 34 years ago this month that I took my first step on the ladder as a Harrods graduate trainee. I still look back on the experiences gained on this programme as some of my most valuable – building the customer and retail instincts that have stood me in good stead.

My own career, as with many of my M&S colleagues, has prospered from the shopfloor to become a senior business leader.

One of the reasons I support the excellent Retail Week Be Inspired campaign is because I genuinely believe there are few better sectors in which to build a diverse and fulfilling career.

After more than three decades, it’s still an industry I love. From international travel to the high street, the fascinating range of skills and the talented people involved, the next generation of designers, merchandisers, stylists, buyers, retail managers, visual merchandisers really do have the world at their feet.

As retailers, we must keep playing our role to ensure our nation’s fashion talent continues to excel on a global stage.