"Creative industries in the UK are going like gangbusters and are growing twice as fast as the economy."

These were the words of PM Rishi Sunak this summer in his conversation with Demis Hassabis at London Tech Week. Since the event coincided with London Fashion Week (LFW), we found it intriguing to explore how this alignment manifests in the fashion, which is also the central focus of our latest project. As a part of our primary market research, we are examining approximately 200 high-end brands that are part of the LFW designer community run by the British Fashion Council.

In our short preliminary analysis, the first thing we noticed is somehow obvious – as far as communication channels are concerned – in addition to their websites where they engage in commercial activities, brands predominantly use Instagram for their expression. However, it is also possible to connect with them on LinkedIn in a more business-oriented context.

Moreover, there were a few brands that caught our attention for their rich creative talent, which supports the PM's statement above with the underlying reasons and also illustrates why the UK fashion industry is considered a part of the CreativeIndustries:

• Bespoke street wear tailoring. Rav Matharu's clothsurgeon.
• Knitting: Hope Macaulay.
• Shoemaking: Manolo Blahnik run by Kristina Blahnik.
• Handcrafting: GeeGee Collective.
• Avant-garde: HARRI, where the business is run by talented Harikrishnan and Abhinov, is helping SamSmith in breaking the internet.
• Multidimensional: Fengchen wang.

In addition to creativity, we also observed a few other recurring themes:

• Circularity: Helen integrates sustainability into her approach at HELEN KIRKUM to create stylish trainers out of the clients' old pairs.
• Technical design: Saul Nash.
• EDI: Matty Bovan.
• Metaverse: Jon Ryson.

We noticed that a few high-end brands were particularly focused on the metaverse, but it is evident that the large majority of them are without a strategy regarding Web3. With Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 being readily available on the market, fashion institutes such as the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion are facilitating innovation in the industry. However, the potential for Web3, in conjunction with AI and other technologies, to transform the sector is enormous.

A thank-out to Eloise Brooking, Sai Kota, Souad Eloifi, Linh Nguyen and Manisha Budhathoki, for contributing to the research in collaboration between Y Entertainment and Liverpool Business School.