The future of fashion on a Tuesday evening

Last night I was privileged to attend a fascinating evening at Central Working (an amazing new creative workspace) in Bloomsbury with two of my fashionable girlfriends. The event was based around the globalisation of fashion in a digital age and was entitled: Flash-forward: the future of fashion in a hyper-connected world. The panel was made up of some amazing speakers: Grazia's Fashion Editor at Large Melanie Rickey, Oriole Cullen, Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the V&A Museum, Gabrielle Hase, Director of Soleberry Advisory and Nicola McClafferty, CEO and Co-Founder of Covetique. The evening was truly inspiring and thought provoking (and was the perfect end to an otherwise uneventful Tuesday).

One of the brands that provided much discussion was Burberry. As much as I love Burberry (they push the envelope as a business and are innovative and forward thinking) I agree with one of the points raised by the panel, that the retail transaction side of their website is somewhat lacklustre. Yet I do love all that they do in terms of brand promotion and they are a brand that I aspire to be able to purchase (even though currently the only Burberry items I own are a vintage mac I bought in a charity shop for £13 and the lipstick from this months glossybox). Burberry is one of the brands who are truly creating online worlds that connect with their target market and I think this will be the way brands appeal to their consumers going forward. I particularly love their catwalk shows, LFW in Spring 2012 being a favourite of mine.

One point raised was that the biggest magazine of the future could be a retailer and not a magazine in the traditional format. Retailers and brands will be embracing a multi-channel strategy and using the web to their advantage to truly make a connection with their consumers. Sites like my-wardrobe and the trillions of fashion blogs out there are now where I personally turn to, not only when seeking style inspiration but also when looking for guidance and advice on the best products and services around. Fashion is becoming more and more social and, I feel, consumers are now able to form far greater connections with their favourite brands and retailers than ever before.

I found the evening really interesting and listening to these inspiring and talented women reignited my interest, not only in retail innovations, but for studying in general in the pursuit of a successful and fulfilling career in the fashion industry. As most of you will know I'm currently studying for a qualification in Visual Merchandising (or "dressing dolls" as my brother would call it) and becoming a student, after a degree and a masters when I swore I would never study again, has not come easily to me. As much as I love to learn and discover, the idea of working to a deadline (particularly as the evenings get lighter and summer approaches) is not very appealing. Even more so when I don't have the benefit of the seemingly endless summer holidays to look forward to. That being said, at the moment my days seem to be filled with exciting and new things that truly are getting my creative juices flowing, outside of the working environment, such as this evening. Who couldn't fail to be inspired by such amazing women?

(Sorry guys, pretty wordy blog post this evening but this truly is a topic I could talk about for hours! We also had food: amazing pizza at ICCO, well a girls got to eat).