A  new television show will soon be starting which will see the show looking for the next big UK based fashion designer. This is likely to be a majorly popular show which will see many budding fashion designers with a chance to make it big.

The next big announcement about the show is that Rihanna will feature in the tv series. The music star will hold the search in order to find the next big talent in the fashion industry.

As well as starring in the show the star will be executive producer for the show which will feature on Sky Living.

This is the first television project that Rihanna has signed up to and she promises this will be a major success.

Rihanna stated that she has always had a major interest in fashion and she is looking forward to this opportunity incredibly.

Fashion lovers will be thrilled to hear that London is officially getting its own menswear fashion week. Whilst it is being described as a fashion week it is in fact a weekend. The fashion weekend will be held in June and this will occur just in time to have the Spring Summer 2013 season.

The menswear fashion weekend will be held in London from Friday June 15^th to Sunday June 17^th.

The fashion weekend has been organised by GQ Editor Dylan Jones; he is joined by a committee including Tom Ford, Christopher Bailey, David Furnish and Tim Blanks.

The event will include menswear shows and also presentations from numerous fashion experts.

Whilst this is a move forward in the fashion arena for menswear in London, it does actually still lag behind other countries where there are dedicated fashion weeks for menswear. Milan and Paris both have fashion weeks for menswear, it is likely that this will also be the case in the UK in the future.

London fashion week continues to be a major success and a critical feature within the fashion calendar.

It was recently reported that Burberry had appreciated a good winter sales period and now it has been announced that Mulberry has also had a good trading period. The British firm continues to be extremely popular throughout the world and the fashion firm continues to extend its operations.

Mulberry which is well known as being one of the most luxurious British brands has reported a sales increase of 35% over the 2011 Christmas period. The firm revealed that the main increase in sales was a result of increased demand for classic handbag designs.

The Bayswater bag which is priced from £350 to £3,500 continues to be the most popular item within the Mulberry collection. The second top selling bad is the Alex bag which was designed by Alexa Chung.

The newly designed Effie bag has also been popular over the Christmas period, these sales are made up of pre-orders, as the bag is officially released in February.

The luxurious firm is one of few fashion firms that continues to trade wel despite the current economic climate.

It has been recently reported that numerous fashion brands are facing difficulty, as a result of falling sales and increased costs.

Peacocks was once known as being a major fashion chain throughout the UK, but it has recently been announced that the trading activity has struck difficult and the firm has now collapsed.

It has been announced that the British value fashion clothing retailer Peacocks has collapsed with £240 million debt. The firm has now been placed in administration and is seeking a buyer.

This will be one of the biggest retailers to collapse since the demise of Woolworths back in 2008.

The firm has 611 stores across the UK and 49 concessions and the company employs 9600 staff.

An administrator has now been appointed and they have stated that they will keep the fashion retailer trading while it considers the sale of the firm. At present there have not been any stores closed or staff made redundant.

It is thought that the firm has collapsed as a result of falling sales and increased costs.

Many fashion retailers and brands are being threatened with closure throughout the UK as a result of the current economic climate.

Whilst the majority of firms are facing difficult times, major retailer Primark has announced that their sales have continued to rise.

Finally after months of deliberations the major fashion cities are at peace once more, as a decision has finally been made on the London Fashion Week dates this September.

Let’s cast our minds back to the problem in the first place…

First we heard, back during the SS12 shows in September, was when the Americans decided that, for the sake of their Labour Day holiday they could start their fashion week on the second Thursday of September. In 2012 that’s the September 13th to the 19th. But Milan insisted that it run from the 19th to the 25th so Paris can have their slot from the 25 – 3rd October. Which as you can see, would wipe London Fashion Week from the calendar.

President of Milan Fashion Week, Mario Boselli declared, ‘let the best one win,’ while President of Paris Fashion Week Didier Grumbach said, ‘we already decided our dates several months ago and to want to change the system seems unrealistic.’ The British Fashion Council swore to fight for our Brit designers to have a showcase, but with London as the poor relation of the others, there were some doubts as to whether we would be successful.

But thankfully, the CFDA and the BFC put their heads together and resolved the battle to confirm the dates of New York Fashion Week 6^th – 13^th September and London Fashion Week 14^th – 18^th. ‘Both organisations remain committed to finding a long term solution that would see a confirmed Fashion Season where brands and designer businesses in all four fashion capitals (New York, London, Milan and Paris) can plan for the long term and when exceptional circumstances arise there is dialogue and empathy to find a solution that works for all,’ reads the statement from the BFC.

But in the meantime there are the AW12 collections to be concentrate, so hopefully with everyone playing nicely again, we can get on with them!

The high fashion brand Burberry has exceeded all expectations by achieving fantastic sales during the year of 2011. The fashion brand has achieved excellent sales and the fantastic trading is mostly thanks to excellent sales in the Asian markets.

In total the revenue for the brand increased by twenty two percent to £574 million in the three months to December 36.

Burberry has settled in as one of the major fashion brands and it is fully embraced within many different countries. The excellent sales of last year is thanks to the trading in Asia and Europe. Sales increased in Asia by 36 percent and by 20 percent in Europe. Although trading in America has not been as successful, although there has been an increase in sales by 5 percent.

The fashion brand Burberry has announced sales of coats and leather bags were particularly strong during 2011. Other items that sold well during the period included knitwear, mens’ accessories and aftershave.

Burberry announced that it would focus on its flagship stores in order to ensure that the fashion brand performed well during the difficult economic climate. At the end of 2011 Burberry had 189 retail stores and 208 concessions.

The fashion brand has also announced that it will stick to its plans of expanding in the next three years.

Burberry is one of the few fashion brands that continues to achieve strong sales during this difficult period.

It has been announced that the Topshop and Topman brands will continue to diversify into other areas in order to increase profits for the Arcadia group. Whilst the Topshop brand has become a major influence on the UK fashion industry, the Topman brand has not performed as strongly.

The management team of the Arcadia group have stated that Topman continues to perform strongly and much better than its direct competition.

It is believed that Topman will now launch a brand new range of different products, it is thought that these will include a men’s fragrance and also male make up.

The competition in the menswear market continues to grow, online sales of male clothing is on the up as many males feel they do not have time to visit shops.

Arcadia recently announced that would be closing numerous Topshop and Topman stores at the end of their leases.