LMFF gets down to the business of luxury

MELBOURNE:Aussies and Poms are expected to bury their hatchets in time for the 2008 L'oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF).

Organisers of the annual autumn/winter fashion showcase have released an initial list of speakers for the event's highly anticipated Business Seminar, with most hailing from the nation's mother land.

Festival director Karen Webster said among delegates confirmed for the 2008 instalment - which will include experts across the design, luxury, retail, marketing and fashion categories - is the influential chair of the British Design Council Sir George Cox. Cox authored a government commissioned 'Review of Creativity and Business' in 2005, which later led to widespread changes in the way businesses operated across the UK.

Dana Thomas, British author of Deluxe:How Luxury Lost Its Luster, will also address the shifting dynamics of international retail; focusing on the high-end designer markets in Europe and America. Topics broached by Thomas - who has spent her career dissecting the "real world" behind brands such as Gucci, Prada and Burberry - will include the duplicity of marketing designer products to the middle-class masses and the changing standards of quality in an era of mass production.

Business strategies will again be on the agenda with Wendy Leibmann, founder of US-based consultancy firm WSL Strategic Retail, speaking on how to best maximise marketing, distribution and retail opportunities. Leibmann is the author of the monthly How America Shop consumer studies, which are based on original WSL Strategic Retail research. 

"Wendy's goal is always the same," Webster said. "It is to help clients understand all sides of business opportunity from concept to final sale. Her extensive global experience in strategic marketing, product development and market research...enables clients to achieve market success."

Iconic British designer Zandra Rhodes will then recount her experience as a new wave designer in 1970's London. After her early textile designs were considered too outrageous by traditional British manufacturers in the 1960's, Rhodes went on to establish her own retail outlet in West London.

The 2008 LMFF Business Seminar, which will run during the March 2 to 9 festival, will be chaired by respected international fashion journalist Marion Hume.

By Assia Benmedjdoub