LONDON — After an action-packed 15 years, Caroline Rush plans to step down in June as chief government officer of the British Style Council, and the seek for her successor is on.

The London-based Egon Zehnder is main the search, supported by BFC chair David Pemsel, who has prolonged his tenure to 2025 to make sure a clean transition. An announcement is anticipated Thursday.

Rush joined the BFC in April 2009, and her job developed quickly from supervisor and marketer to fundraiser, lobbyist and disaster controller. Her tenure has spanned seven prime ministers, 5 U.Ok. common elections, and a slew of challenges triggered by Brexit and the pandemic.

She’ll go away behind a sturdy group, and one which’s now not depending on fortunes of quick trend tycoons or excessive road sponsors. The BFC of as we speak depends on a wider group of members who pay dues, particular person donors, private- and public-sector companions.

In the latest fiscal yr the BFC, a not-for-profit entity which is marking its fortieth anniversary this yr, had turnover of greater than 12 million kilos. 

It is usually worthwhile, thanks partly to the efforts of trade buyers Narmina Marandi and Tania Fares, cochairs of the BFC Basis Fundraising Committee, and occasions such because the Style Awards, the chief fundraiser for the BFC Basis. 

For Rush, there may be extra work forward.

Throughout London Style Week, Rush accompanied Britain’s new First Woman Victoria Starmer to Edeline Lee’s spring 2025 present. A number of hours later she was at No. 10 Downing Avenue advocating for the trade throughout a reception hosted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Rush mentioned she’ll proceed lobbying for change over the subsequent 9 months. Like different trade figures, she desires to see the return of tax-free procuring in Britain, and for the brand new U.Ok. authorities to strike worldwide commerce offers that can profit designers and types.

“We’re hopeful the brand new authorities will have the ability to create higher buying and selling relationships with the EU specifically, as a result of it has been actually difficult for our designer companies, publish [Brexit]. We’ve a brand new authorities that actually appears to grasp creativity, and there’s a actual alternative to work in partnership with them,” Rush mentioned throughout an interview at 180 Strand.

She mentioned if she might ask the federal government one factor earlier than she steps down, it will be to revive tax-free procuring. 

“We’ve bought the proof, we all know the advantages it will carry to the U.Ok., to companies and to the Treasury. It’s not about costing the nation cash, however about supporting the trade, creating alternatives and delivering revenues. I’ll proceed to champion that,” Rush added.

The latest Conservative authorities axed the tax-free program in 2021, preferring to gather the VAT relatively than give vacationers a break on their high-end purchases.

She and Pemsel have additionally been strategizing on behalf of the trade. On Oct. 30, the BFC plans to launch a report that appears at find out how to commercialize creativity and discover alternatives for development in an trade that instantly contributes 28.9 billion kilos to Britain’s GDP, and employs greater than 800,000 individuals.

Selling London as a inventive and business capital, and wielding the smooth energy of trend is essential — though it’s by no means been simple. 

Not like Milan, Paris and New York, London isn’t underpinned by large luxurious teams, public firms or buyers. There may be little or no manufacturing within the U.Ok., and exports are costly because of the robust pound.

Lots of the labels that ultimately acquire traction have a tendency to indicate or promote in Paris, whereas armies of British-educated designers usually go away the nation to work overseas.    

Those that stay want cash to develop, and so London has turn out to be a inventive incubator. The BFC spends a lot of its time mentoring and elevating cash for training, rising expertise and younger companies.

Rush has embraced these challenges, and argues that London is “one of many higher locations to begin and develop a designer enterprise due to the assist constructions, and the unimaginable group that will get behind designers.”

She enjoys working with younger designers, “serving to them determine the type of enterprise that they wish to be, or whether or not they wish to be in a design room for one of many greater manufacturers or the retailers. It’s an actual privilege to be hand-holding these younger, growing, inventive companies within the very early phases,” she mentioned.

Rush additionally admires the resilience of Britain’s inventive companies. “Over the past 4 or 5 years, we’ve had Brexit, the pandemic and the challenges in wholesale, however they [spawned] new enterprise fashions and methods of considering, which have continued to encourage us and assist us take into consideration the assist methods that should be in place,” she mentioned. 

That’s why fundraising and growing partnerships is such a giant a part of the job. 

In her speech at Downing Avenue on Monday, Rush addressed the tax-free problem with the prime minister and requested the federal government for assist in delivering “accessible, low-cost finance for trend companies” that would ultimately appeal to personal capital.

The BFC already works carefully with the British authorities. Final yr, the federal government division for tradition, media and sport pledged 2 million kilos over two years to assist the BFC’s NewGen scheme for younger designers. The most recent recipients embrace Di Petsa, Aaron Esh, Chet Lo and Paolo Carzana. 

Throughout her lengthy tenure, Rush has additionally been working different financing angles.

Two years in the past, below former chair Stephanie Phair, the BFC inked a cope with the enterprise capital agency Venrex to assist modern companies and create a brand new funding pipeline for the council’s training and expertise packages. Thus far, 17 clothes, tech- and sustainability-focused companies have obtained funding.

In 2016, the BFC modified the format of the annual Style Awards gala and started staging the occasion at Royal Albert Corridor. Its goal is to lift a complete of 10 million kilos in 10 years with the cash going to the BFC Basis, which helps college students and rising expertise with training, grant-giving and enterprise mentoring. 

When she’s not elevating cash, or mentoring creatives, Rush spends time in injury management. Earlier this yr, the BFC tried to cope with the influence of the collapse of Matches, which Mike Ashley’s Fraser’s Group positioned into administration shortly after buying it at a knockdown worth.

Matches’ sudden demise, the unpaid orders, and the directors’ fireplace sale of stock was — and continues to be — a shocker for the trade. It got here simply as companies started to get well from the pandemic, and towards an more and more tough backdrop for luxurious.

Rush and her workforce tried to melt the blow, and join crisis-hit designers, comparable to Roksanda Ilincic, with potential buyers. Ilincic ultimately discovered a white knight in The Model Group, which bought her trend label in Could. She stays inventive director.

Rush mentioned that following Matches’ demise, “there was a chance for us to leverage the community, to get info to designers, assist them, and shield the ecosystem.” On the time, the BFC was additionally having conversations with the federal government about the way it might assist trend entry emergency finance. 

Even earlier than the Matches disaster, the BFC was connecting designers with buyers.

“We do play matchmaker, however from an funding perspective I at all times give full credit score to the designers. Until the investor likes the founder and the plan, they’re not going to be” placing their cash behind it, Rush added. 

The collapse of Matches was the most recent in a collection of bone-chilling moments for the trade, with Brexit and the pandemic topping the record.

Rush mentioned Britain’s vote to go away the EU in June 2016 not solely precipitated misery throughout the trade, it additionally triggered a funding emergency for the BFC. 

“The British trend trade and the inventive communities felt so near our European counterparts — a lot commerce was finished inside Europe. There was a friendship, and a [professional] community” that spanned the Channel, mentioned Rush.

What most individuals didn’t know, she mentioned, was that following the Brexit vote the EU instantly froze its funding for London Style Week — 4 years earlier than Britain really left the union. 

“The vote was in June, trend week was in September, and all the grants have been placed on pause. If these funds hadn’t come via, it will have been actually difficult to have delivered that trend week,” mentioned Rush. 

She added that because of the BFC’s “affect, community, and relationships in any respect totally different ranges of presidency, we have been in a position to have conversations. I believe ours was the one grant that was launched throughout that summer time interval to allow London Style Week to happen.”

A yr after the EU funding drama, Rush argued British trend’s case earlier than the Home of Commons. She addressed the Tradition, Media and Sport committee concerning the influence that Brexit was having, and would have, on cultural industries, tourism and the digital single market.

Rush testified alongside the designer Ozwald Boateng and the U.Ok. Style and Textile Affiliation, addressing matters starting from manufacturing and exports to patent rights and immigration.

Little did she — or anybody else — know what different crises have been in retailer.

Simply as Britain was saying au revoir to the EU, the pandemic arrived, prompting the BFC and its companions to present emergency assist to designer companies. The hastily-formed BFC Basis Style Fund raised 1.5 million kilos throughout lockdown to assist assist 67 designers and companies.

Donors included Alexander McQueen, Amazon Style, Browns, The Coach Basis, Burberry, Depop, the European Regional Improvement Fund, JD.com, the Mayor of London, Paul Smith, Revlon Skilled, and The Bicester Village Procuring Assortment.

That very same spring, the BFC additionally hurriedly put collectively a digital showcase for designers who have been set to unveil their summer time 2021 assortment throughout London males’s trend week in June.  

These actions, and a number of different, non-emergency initiatives, together with the London Present Rooms worldwide commerce present program and the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design (gained this yr by S.S. Daley), have been by no means finished in isolation.

Rush credit her workforce, and the BFC chairs with whom she’s labored — Harold Tillman, Natalie Massenet, Phair and Pemsel — with crafting a imaginative and prescient for the group and the designers alike.

“I’m extremely pleased with what we’ve achieved during the last 15 years, and I’ll be leaving the British Style Council in a robust place,” mentioned Rush. “We’ve constructed the revenues, the reserves, the working capital, and all the nice enterprise disciplines that you’d think about. And there’s nice governance throughout the BFC,” she mentioned.

Rush isn’t leaving for an additional job, and mentioned it simply “felt like a great time at hand over the baton, and begin an thrilling new chapter” for her and for the BFC, in a metropolis that continues to defy expectations.