Nathan Jenden & Michael Herz 
Thursday I attended my second Fashion Business Club meeting and it was held in Il Bottacci, Belgravia.
Gorgeous 19th century French Renaissance style venue with sweeping staircases and floor to ceiling windows overlooking a glorious sunny day in Hyde Park.
This session saw guest speaker Nathan Jenden, Creative Director of Diane Von Furstenberg and his own label Nathan Jenden being interviewed by Aquascutum’s Head of Womenswear, Michael Herz.
Nathan is really charming and it was refreshing to hear such a high profile figure talking frankly and honestly about the business.
Some of the points from the session included how he goes about designing for a collection. "I have a vision of the mood I want to create for the show and the clothes work around that. It's about an attitude, clothes should be fun!"
Nathan also spoke about how the cliches of fashion week no longer stand. "London isn't always avant-garde in the same way that New York isn't dull."
He commented on UK designers decisions to show out of London and said this has to be done to open up markets. "The UK is dominated by the high street, designers choose to leave London to open up international markets, but at the same time if a collection is truly outstanding buyers will still travel to see it."
All followed up by some good old fashioned networking with real people- at least until 4.30pm when we disappeared back into the world of emails, blogging and twittering....
Follow the Fashion Business Club on www.fashionbusinessclub.net/blog and if you're interested in the venue www.bottacchio.co.uk
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