British Fashion Council


The British Fashion Council is a not-for-profit organisation that harnesses the collective power of the industry to enable sustainable growth and strengthen British fashion in the global fashion economy. Founded in 1983, the BFC organises biannual womenswear and menswear showcases, London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men's promotes the best of British design to an international audience.

Leadership and activities

Based in London, the British Fashion Council is currently chaired by Stephanie Phair and since 2009, Caroline Rush CBE and Simon Ward have been the organisation's joint Chief Executives. Previous Chairs of the BFC have included Natalie Massenet, Edward Rayne, Nicholas Coleridge CBE, Harold Tillman and Sir Stuart Rose.
The BFC organises the twice-yearly London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men's, showcasing the best of British fashion design to an international audience of press and buyers. Alongside this, each season LONDON show ROOMS takes emerging designers to Paris providing the opportunity to promote overseas. The BFC also organises the annual Fashion Awards, designed to celebrate creativity and innovation within the industry, as well as London Fashion Week Festival, an all-inclusive event open to the public.
Another facet of the organisation's activities is to support the next generation of designers by supervising fashion higher education and apprenticeships in the United Kingdom.
In May 2018, BFC appointed former England's football team captain, David Beckham, as its new Ambassadorial President.

Development of the organisation

The British Fashion Council was established in 1983 as a not-for-profit limited company. Prior to the establishment of a single body to promote the interests of the British fashion industry, there were a number of organisations that existed to promote different interests within British fashion. These included: