Cheltenham Fashion Week Hits The Heart FM Airwaves!

Last week, Sam Bawden and I headed over to meet George Davies for an interview with Duncan Cook of Heart FM. After chatting to Duncan, George also showed us around his designing hub, showing us where & how the magic happens!

We at Cheltenham Fashion Week are thrilled to have George onboard. As a headline sponsor for The Student Shows, he will be offering budding designers his invaluable industry knowledge, as well as joining the esteemed judging panel to select the 

winner.

Incase you are not so familiar with George Davies, here is a little background… “A retail legend and design guru, his career spans over 25 years. As a style visionary he created high street giant, Next in 1982, followed by George at Asda, later moving to design Per Una at Marks & Spencer to name but a few. All brands which account for 12% if the current high street!” George's latest ventures include fashion label, FG4.

After meeting at George’s country estate, he quickly zipped us over to his design studios. A five-minute drive in George’s Maserati and hidden away in the Gloucestershire countryside lies the nerve centre for FG4, George’s fashion label.

FG4 is a women, children and baby clothing chain that sells internationally. George remains heavily involved with each collection, giving input at every level. From fabric to finance every detail of the label is controlled from the hub just outside of Cheltenham. 

George prides himself in paying particular attention to every last detail of the clothing design process, starting with the retail space design, the packaging and presentation of each garment. Next he selects design detail features such as buttons and zips, then finally he designs each the garment. George also names each of his collections after an area of London, most recently Covent Garden and Hyde Park.

From swing tags to samples, George showed us every inch of the hub of his label. We met members from all stages of the retail process, from Sam and Tally in Boys and Girls clothing design, to the team in finance all the way along to Clare at Red Creative who work with the merchandising of collections.

As well as judging The Cheltenham Fashion Week Student Shows, George will also be offering one lucky winner a once in a lifetime week of work experience at his incredible studios. From what I learned in a few hours, I can tell it will definitely be a jam packed week!

The week will give the winner the chance to see the inner workings of a successful fashion label. For any budding designer this chance will definitely be a dream come true, plus it will also give the lucky winner something great to put on their CV!

As George said in our interview with Heart FM, he is always on the lookout for new, fresh talent. So he will definitely have his eyes pealed at The Student Shows scouting the creative talent The Cotswolds has to offer!

Listen live to Heart FM for news bulletins of the interview. Watch this space and follow our Twitter page @CheltFashionWk for the link to listen to the interview in full on the Heart FM website.


Keen to come to Cheltenham Fashion Week and mingle with top names such as Harvey Nichols, Jimmy Choo & Jo Malone? Tickets are selling fast and available to book either from the Cheltenham Fashion Week Box Office on the first floor of the Regent Arcade, via the Cheltenham Fashion Week website at www.cheltenhamfashionweek.co.uk or phone 0844 8808094. Can't wait to see you 
there!

Ellie xx