Can women suceed in fashion?

Last month, 5 influential women in fashion took to the mike at the Rootstein Hopkins Space to discuss (sorry Guys) “Can women succeed in the world of Fashion?”

With all this talk on Alpha-Women and power dressing, some may cry out hell yes! But guest speakers Jane Shepherdson, Danielle Scutt, Zowie Broach, Melanie Rickey, and chairman of the panel Penny Martin, brought new ideas to the table.

With 85% of workers in the industry being women, they considered whether there was any reason to even discuss this topic. However, those 15% male employees are forming the entrepreneurial CEO, hence ‘top-notch’ positions of the industry. Thus the debate began.

They discussed the potential differences of male and female designers, suggesting that whilst women create clothing for a woman to wear, their male counterparts create characters and fantasies for women to buy into.

In the office men can be a tough and confrontational, whereas women are more emotionally sensitive. However, as Jane Sheperdson explained, emotional intelligence is the new sought after trait: “Women will be a lot more collaborative and work in a team.” Something crucial to any business.

There is also greater flexibility in working hours now. Women are being granted the hours they want in exchange for their experience and expertise, a key example being Phoebe Philo’s move to Celine.

The debate consistently went back to the importance of challenging the social stereotypes of women, arguing that films like “Sex and the City” and  “The September Issue,” portrayed “ludicrous representations” of women (bar Grace Coddington of course.)

However, it ended on a very inspirational note. Powered by the words of Jane Sheperdson, they all agreed that there is a way for women to succeed in the high-end world of fashion. Women will undoubtedly come across barriers and struggles against alpha-male “bully” figures in the work place, but that is the only hindrance to the potentially brilliant and successful careers they hope to see from all of us.

The debate was held in celebration of National Women’s Enterprise Day – an initiative which aims to inspire, motivate and support women across the country in running their own businesses.

Sejal Kapadia