Trends trends trends….that’s what fashion is all about! Hence we are delighted to announce the return of Trend Specialist Caroline Shaw to FashionCapital! Caroline has over 20 years experience in the fashion sector working for well established retailers such as Oasis, Coast, Miss Selfridge and Warehouse providing key colour, mood and silhouette trends. Over the last two years Caroline has been working for the Mosaic Fashions Group in Hong Kong. Mosaic is the owner of Whistles, Karen Millen and Oasis and has just bought out Rubicon who own Warehouse, Principles and five shoe brands.

Caroline says “When I worked on the Trends section for FashionCapital I was genuinely thrilled to see a massive increase in hits that were attributable to my work on the weekly Fashion Focus and the generic trend section. Whilst I have been away I have experienced even more exciting new trends and fashion influences and this can now be shared with the FashionCapital users.  I will be starting next week on key trends for the fashion industry working along side Vanessa. Its great to be back and I can’t wait for your feedback and comments!”

  Caroline Shaw

We have also listened to more of your comments! Designers need to know what agencies are out there to help them and it can take hours trawling through the internet to find the right company to offer you support. Consequently we have been beavering away and we are now going live TODAY with our Fashion Network – your UK wide guide to what’s out there in terms of business support. More companies will be added in time.

Ever wondered who the motley crew is behind FashionCapital and Fashion Enter…well feast your eyes on the picture below! This is the team that makes business really happen on your behalf.

From top left: Jojo, Jade, Yoel, Jenny, Hayleigh, Jenni, Emily, Tracy, Ferida, Vanessa, Rosalba and Maciej.

This was from our raucous Christmas do which had to be brought forward as one of our girls, Jenni, is off to work in South Africa for us for three months.

Jenni Sutton (popularly known as Fag Hag….this is one long story but is partyly explained by the picture below!)is off to network our companies and your designs in Johannesburg to see what export opportunities are out there YOU! There will be weekly reports from Jenni and who knows what windows of opportunities lie out there for us all!

  Jenni Sutton

As you can see, Jenni has great pins!

Yoel is off to Cuba for two weeks and again we are looking to see what doors can be opened over there too. Have a great time Yoel and Jenni and hurry back.

 Yoel Morales

Yes…Yoel really did enjoy the Christmas bash; this was taken before everyone went on to a club!

We have been keeping our beady eye on the Leitch Report that was announced yesterday regarding Skills shortages. There is also a Creative Economy Green Paper that is currently being worked on by DCMS. There have been some interesting comments and conclusions draw and Fashion Enter and FashionCapital will, in the future, be involved in such discussions. My words of warning to the sector are very simple; “Let’s work together. Let’s not duplicate. Let’s disseminate lessons learnt and listen to the “little” people out there too”! I reckon we have some interesting times ahead and I am really looking forward to the meeting in January!

Remember to keep sending in your DVDS and mini clips of what your news, views and reviews of fashion are. If you are holding a Christmas fashion event film it and we will play it on the site for you!

Until next week.

Jenny Holloway