Brexit’s potential impact on apparel manufacturing and luxury fashion

Abstract

In June 2016, the United Kingdom’s Article 50, commonly known as “Brexit,” passed. Many did not believe it would happen, but it did.1 In a speech at the Business of Fashion VOICES conference,2 Professor Alexander Betts of Oxford University gave his view of why the Article was passed and what it means to the fashion industry at large. He argued that Brexit occurred because of concerns over immigration and the desire for sovereignty. He showed that the voting map revealed those who voted for the withdrawal from the EU had experienced the loss of labor-intensive manufacturing jobs. He identified the demographics of those “Leave” voters as having less education, fewer socio-economic opportunities, and generally older in age. “Remain” voters, he noted, generally were better educated, cosmopolitan, and younger, but they did not turn out in large numbers to vote. He charged the fashion leaders to help the government create industrial policies that benefit the “hollowed out” manual labor sector of the country. He predicted that the EU would not experience a mass exodus of other countries and would eventually stabilize.