The June edition of London Fashion Week has long been less of a draw compared to the main seasonal events during the big international fashion months and the latest move from the British Fashion Council has underlined that — it’s been cancelled.

There’s been no official announcement so far, but a quick look at the LFW website shows no dates for June listed.

The BFC will reportedly instead focus on the London Show Rooms Paris event it runs for UK-based brands from 26 June to 1 July, and menswear will be the key category here.

Caroline Rush, the soon-to-be-ex-CEO of the fashion council told Vogue Business that the showroom event will “generate sales and develop [brands’] relationships with international media outside of a show environment, reinforcing our commitment to providing vital commercial opportunities for British designers”.

The Paris showroom event had itself been on hold since the middle of 2023 but was relaunched last September.

The June edition of LFW has long struggled to gain the traction that the main seasonal events enjoy as a matter of course. Originally launched 13 years ago as London Collections: Men before it rebranded as London Fashion Week Men’s, it rode the crest of the wave of interest in men’s-specific runway shows and attracted the big names of British fashion.

But while it became a co-ed event in 2020, the wider move towards co-ed shows meant labels often chose February or September (or even another city) to show their menswear. The pandemic had an impact too, although the June event remained strong up to and including the 2022 edition before declining in 2023.

The switch to a focus on London Show Rooms Paris means those brands seeking a menswear-friendly format at a time when other menswear labels are being shown internationally have a hopefully-welcoming home in the heart of fashion’s premier city.

Premium fashion retailer Jigsaw has received a £5 million funding injection from investor David Ross, who built his fortune as the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse. It means he’s become the majority shareholder of the business.

That’s according to Sky News, which reported the deal saying that an investment vehicle controlled by him is committing the money to the chain seven years after he first invested in the firm.

Before the latest cash injection, Jigsaw founder John Robinson was the controlling shareholder.

The retailer is soon to be without a CEO after short-term CEO Hash Ladha (the former chief executive of Oasis and Warehouse) recently said that he’d be leaving in the summer. The report also said that a new boss is in the process of being recruited.

Jigsaw has been a long-standing name on UK high streets having been founded in 1970. But the company is currently loss-making and has struggled in recent periods, seeking rent reductions from its landlords and closing loss making stores during the pandemic.

Its last set of results were filed last autumn (covering the year to January 2024). They showed revenue up to £57.495 million from £56.779 million and gross profit edging up to £36.7 million from £36.3 million. But it made an operating loss of £934,000 compared to a profit of £1.9 million in the previous year. The pre-tax loss was £3.567 million compared to a profit of £816,000 a year earlier and the final loss for the period was similar at £3.566 million compared to £802,000 in profit last time.

Sky quoted a “source close to Jigsaw” saying the new funding would establish a more resilient long-term financial foundation for the company.

As well as reducing debt, part of the cash will be used to improve fulfilment capability and build a new online proposition for the brand. 

The company hasn’t officially commented on the report.

M&S is powering ahead with the expansion of its third-party business and has announced two new high-profile names that have joined its line-up.

Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are available via Brands at M&S online as of this month with underwear, lingerie, loungewear, and swimwear included in the deal.

That’s important because in the £295 million UK market, a third of women by their knickers from the retailer and a fifth of UK men do the same. The company wants to drive its market share of the underwear sector even further and is seeking to do this through its third-party brand offer.

Just 13.5% of core menswear customers shop Brands at M&S and the company said the new brands are set to boost the number of male customers shopping on the platform, while also supporting the brand partners’ drive to gain access to womenswear customers.

Despite the low percentages at present, sales of third-party underwear at M&S have grown by 21% in the last 12 months, with nearly two million brands customers also shopping the core underwear offer.

With the two labels having joined the platform, Brands at M&S is now home to over 100 third-party label partners.

The new products being added cover both women’s and men’s, including Calvin Klein’s bestselling Icon Stretch range and elevated essentials from the Tommy Hilfiger spring 2025 collection. Tommy Hilfiger apparel styles are also set to launch later in the year.