Bath businesses have been urged to support Bath in Fashion 2014 and help keep the city firmly in the vanguard of British style.
The UK fashion industry has been one of the country’s international business success stories of recent years, helping create jobs and boost exports. 
And over the past four years Bath in Fashion has played its part by putting the city at the centre of the fashion industry, attracting world-renown designers such as Manolo Blahnik and Amanda Wakeley to the week-long festival of talks, seminars, workshops and exhibitions as well as catwalk shows.
Plans for Bath in Fashion 2014 were unveiled yesterday with a plea by organisers Bath BID Company, which stages the festival in conjunction with Bath Tourism Plus, to the city’s businesses to get involved and make it bigger and better.
Next year’s festival – between May 3 and 10 – will celebrate the extraordinary creative energy in the British fashion industry while also taking a nostalgic look at BIBA to mark the label’s 50th anniversary next year.
Bath in Fashion chair Sarah Mansfield, who is also director of Milsom Place shopping arcade, said the objective was to position Bath as a stylish city.
Last year’s event generated PR for the city worth an estimated £1.8m and attracted media interest from the BBC and ITV to Harpers Brazil and Vogue Italia. Fashion bloggers were much in evidence, dubbing the city ‘cool Bath’.
Sarah told yesterday business launch breakfast for Bath in Fashion at Hall & Woodhouse: “The festival portrays fashionable Bath with businesses in the city bringing together top contemporary designers, commentators, photographers and illustrators to our World Heritage City.
“Always stimulating, innovative and diverse, Bath in Fashion is inspiring and fun.”
Two businesses involved in previous years’ festivals as sponsors – Specsavers and jewellery shop Fabulous in Southgate and spelt out why they supported it.
Jo Stroud, managing director of jewellery shop Fabulous in Southgate said it had raised the store’s profile immensely but also, importantly, helped prevent the ‘leakage’ of Bath shoppers to Bristol.
M4 corridor law firm Thrings, which has an office in Bath, is also a major supporter of Bath in Fashion and Bath-based Heffers Design has created a new brand for the festival featuring black-and-white photography which captures Bath's street style.
Among the highlights of Bath in Fashion 2014 will be:
Meadham Kirchhoff, credited as the most creative duo at London Fashion Week, will be discussing their work with Bath girl Sarah Mower, contributing editor of American Vogue and the British Fashion Council’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent.
Fashion is fast-paced and constantly seeking new directions but is often inspired by what went before. In 1964 Barbara Hulanicki created BIBA, sending the industry on a new trajectory. She will be in conversation with Hilary Alexander, former Fashion Director of The Telegraph.
Fashion as a business is on the agenda with a headline talk by Mary Homer, MD of Topshop; and the creative inspiration behind Clarks, Paolo Gabrielli, will be in the spotlight with Creative Bath. The extraordinary courage and particular style of Camila Batmanghelidh will be highlighted, as she comes to give a talk in support of her charity, Kids Company, the designated charity for Bath in Fashion.
Centre stage will be the Bath in Fashion Pavilion, with a programme created in partnership with Selvedge Magazine showcasing the imagination and skills of craftsmen and women drawn from the region and beyond.
A master class by interior designer Nina Campbell explores the use of texture, colour, lighting, art and flowers in interior design. Fashion authors include Linda Watson to discuss her book 'Vogue On Vivienne Westwood', which charts Westwood’s 40 years of revolutionary designs and fearless nonconformism. Marnie Fogg will present an informative history of fashion’s significant moments, 'Fashion the Whole Story'.
