Seven key steps to making a fashion business successful with today's Market.

©ourtesy of theGuardian 

Stella McCartney is the perfect role model for young fashion entrepreneurs, says a report by the British Fashion Council

 

 A model with a Stella McCartney creation at last year's Paris fashion week. Photograph: WireImage

 Young British designers should emulate Silicon Valley and Stella McCartney and view the launch of a fashion brand as an entrepreneurial venture – not solely a creative endeavour – according to a report published today by The British Fashion Council. Titled Commercialising Creativity – Creating a Model for Success for British Fashion Designers, the paper claims that there is a dearth of guidance available to fashion designers starting their own businesses, an anomaly in an industry that employs almost 800,000 people and makes £26bn annually.

"Our ambition is that future generations of designers will understand how to create a business plan and source investment in the same way the tech industry does," said BFC CEO Caroline Rush. Rush added that the findings would help young designers "evaluate the kind of business they want to be and the questions they should be addressing from the start."

Dresses With Cutouts for this Summer

• ©ourtesy of Amy Larocca and Rebecca Ramsey 

Keeping with the already-established midriff trend, this season’s little white dresses are all about the bits they’re missing. From Topshop Unique‘s sheer panels to Stella McCartney‘s sharp angles and lacy eyelets, these are summer frocks by way of paper snowflakes. Click through the gallery to see those, plus nine more, and three members of the cutout club spotted on the streets of New York.

*This article originally appeared in the May 27, 2013 issue of New York Magazine. (Slideshow)

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Stella McCartney shows Fall 2012 in New York City

At an intimate presentation, cocktail party followed by her new store opening, Stella McCartney began 2012 as she means to go on.

Stella McCartney’s in between seasons presentations are always something to look forward to. Her autumn 2012 collection was held in New York, at One If By Land, Two If By Sea, a restaurant often voted the most romantic in the city. Models wandered around the candlelit cocktail party drinking champagne and playing pool and backgammon. The roaring fires, huge bouquets of flowers, photography books and a jazz band playing in the corner, meant McCartney’s presentation felt more like a convivial house party, not a stress inducing rushed runway show. There were vegan hors d’oeuvres. McCartney’s autumn accessories collection – also vegan – were on display in a room overlooking a winter garden. – - read more

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Bottega Veneta Goes Green

Bottega Veneta may not rank highly in the minds of animal lovers, seeing that their spring 2012 collection alone featured glazed crocodile, grommet-covered ostrich, and lizard skin accessories.  But their standing with tree-huggers just went up. The luxury brand’s Milan headquarters was recently awarded a “Carbon Neutral 2010” certification. It’s apparently just the beginning for Bottega though. The brand is planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during their fashion week and sales campaigns—times of the year when pollution spikes, according to the brand.  No surprise, considering the amount of power, energy, and air travel that goes into producing a single show. Luckily they’re already moving in the right direction by using carbon credits to offset additional impact. Bottega isn’t the first luxury label to go green, though.  Stand-out predecessors include Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood who takes part in the International Trade Centre’s ethical fashion program.  Maria Cornejo‘s also on board—she used fabric made of recycled cassette tapes in her pre-fall collection. All in all, this is certainly a spring trend that we can get behind. – – follow more on Bottega

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First Look A/W ’12 Schedule

Let the countdown begin… The British Fashion Council has released a provisional schedule for London Fashion Week in February 2012, with a few noteworthy changes to the mix. Brands joining the line-up for the autumn-winter ’12 shows include Stella McCartney, Dion Lee and Sophie Hulme. Lee, a young Australian designer admired for his artfully draped dresses, will make his London debut with a presentation on Tuesday 21 February. Also presenting for the first time is Sophie Hulme. The BFC/ELLE Launch Pad winner previously showed her work in a small-scale group exhibition. On 20 Feb, she’ll present her designs solo in between the Peter Pilotto and Michael Van Der Ham shows. One of the highest-profile additions to the schedule is Stella McCartney. The designer will show a special capsule collection on 18 Feb ahead of her full A/W ’12 show in Paris. Antoni & Alison and Twenty8Twelve, both of whom took breaks from the main schedule last season, also return with shows. See you at the tents in just 10 weeks… By Emily Cronin

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Stellar times ahead with ‘Stella’

Stella McCartney designs from the 2012 spring-summer ready-to-wear collection. 

That hourglass dress, red-carpet dominance, a London Fashion Week show, a new flagship store – and the Olympics. Stella McCartney has her name all over 2012, writes Jess Cartner-Morley.
The party Stella McCartney throws every December at her Bruton Street store in central London to celebrate the switching on of her kitsch-chic Christmas windows has become a fashion insider’s highlight of the party season. It is fabulous but fun too – there are pints of Guinness as well as flutes of champagne; chocolate Santas alongside smoked salmon canapes. – - Read more:

Classy 2012 Resort Wear by STELLA McCARTNEY

In a garden in Manhattan’s West Village — a location perfectly suited to the classic vacation concepts of leisure and fun — Stella McCartney presented a playful Resort 2012 collection. Models milled about in a vibrant mix of color and prints: multi-colored stripes, oversized Hawaiian florals, black-and-white herringbone, and shades of orange and lemon. “All this color and print is about exciting and reenergizing people,” McCartney explained, “and it’s nice for everyone to see that you can actually enjoy and live in these clothes.”  photos courtesy of  Stella McCartney 
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Stella McCartney’s mind was elsewhere this season: Hawaii. “It’s such a rich, visual place to start,” she said. From there, she grew a collection full of hibiscus and surfer prints, deck-chair stripes, seersucker and neon-tipped accessories, giving off a joyful, relaxed vibe. McCartney keeps it from going too much over the top, though, with consistent clean shapes. The sportier silhouettes, including a culotte-style jumpsuit, long garden-party skirts and shorts paired with rounded capes, suited the croquet-playing models in the Greenwich Village garden where the presentation was held. The dressier outfits, including a black tuxedo with an almost tails-length jacket and skinny-at-the-ankle pants, and a white dress embroidered with bows, complemented the flutes of champagne offered at the party-like preview. McCartney also gave a nod to the mod looks of London in the 1960s, offering a series of houndstooth looks — sometimes mixing those with menswear-inspired pieces, such as a sunshine-yellow blazer with wide lapel and crisp shirt. “Tailoring is updated with a new silhouette,” she explained in her notes, referring to a jacket with notched lapel. She also showed what she described as a “cropped cigarette French cuff trouser and blouses with three-dimensional bow embroidery in a palette of black with chalk or Tokyo blue with tobacco.”
COURTESY: fashionologie.com and  SAMANTHA CRITCHELL AP