London Fashion Week - Fashionably Early and Hem Line Investing

2006: The Devil Wears Prada -Frankel

As a financial planner, I'm not one to suggest for a moment that I'm also a fashion expert - except I suppose when it comes to fashionable investments. The London Fashion Week closed yesterday - I don't really know if it's my interpretation or whether a week that starts on Friday and ends on a Wednesday is fashionably late, early, unconventional or simply the next big thing....anyhow of one thing you can be sure, fashion is by nature premature - in that this was a show for Autumn/Winter 2012.. after all this is showing what will be stocked later in the year. What I can report is that hem lines look set to be a little above the knee this September. There are some of the more "out there" financial speculators that see this as an indicator of confidence and use this to inform investment decisions. Yes you did just read that here. I don't know if there is any substance to the suggestion, but as investors tend to have a herd-like mentality (professional and private) it is possible to see that confidence could be contagious in many aspect of life, so why not the markets? After all, inflation will be lower (by mathematical analysis) and we will have gone through what transpires for Europe (though the out workings are likely to be very long-term).

To purists, fashion is designer clothing, to others it is making things that we see and use "cooler" by that read the anything pre-fixed with "i" (ipad, iphone etc). Great businesses will be seeking to ensure that their products and services are as "user-friendly" and "cool" as possible. The Chinese middle and upper classes (it seems George Orwell was right) have an appetite for luxury brands and cannot get enough of them... selling like hot cakes.  So although China's growth and inflation are slowing (which was inevitable) the new land of opportunity is proving to be something of a goldmine for those willing to create one and many will have attended the London Fashion Week.

The direct value of the UK fashion industry is reported to be worth £21bn and its wider contribution in influencing spending in other industries is over £37bn. In the UK the fashion industry is the largest creative sector for employment, with 816,000 jobs. It is about the same size as the food and beverage service industry and telecom industry. The UK is regarded as having world leading fashion colleges, so this is where the story begins. The major export markets for the UK are the USA, Japan, Russia, France, Italy, the Middle East, Hong Kong and China. Of course, much like having a tailor made suit or designer dress, a good financial plan is one that is unique, bespoke and fits you perfectly.