Big export sales

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33981, 23 October 1975, Page 6

Big export sales

tN.Z Presr Aisn—Copyright) LONDON. Clothing exports are expected to earn Britain £27om (about $NZ526.5m) this year, and in London this week the fashion industry is going all out to consolidate its position. The occasion is the London fashion week and organisers say at least 6000 buyers, 3500 of them from i overseas, will be inspecting Britain’s ready-to-wear range for the spring of 1976. Department stores and boutiques throughout the West End are vying for first places in window display ; competitions, and more than j 150 showrooms all over London are featuring the latest trends in fashions and tex|tiles. The basis of the week will l

be the Clothing Export Council’s London Fashion Fair International on two floors of the former Biba store in Kensington. The products of 229 companies, brand names and design names will be exhibited and it is expected that! about sl2m worth of export] orders will be placed at the' four-day fair. The council’s director, Mr Peter Randle, said the fair! was a positive step towards! : setting up a permanent Lon- j don fashion centre to boost! foreign trade. “The fashion industry hasi shown that it is prepared to I help itself but assistance is | needed from both the pri-i vate sector and from the j Government, in the establishment of a permanent | venue for this important in-1 dustry’s market place,” he! said.

An editorial in the “Daily Express” this week repeated the call for a major fashion centre in London and said it would cost only £300,000 (about $NZ585,000) a year. “We prop up enough failures in Britain, shouldn’t we

be reinforcing this success?” it asked.