British Fashion Council CEO Laura Weir touts resilience as tariffs weigh
Laura Weir, CEO of British Fashion Council.
Dave Benett | Dave Benett Collection | Getty Images
The newest CEO of the British Fashion Council brings its leadership to its role and provides its durability as the best feature to navigate in difficult times between tariffs and economic uncertainties.
Laura Weir, former Creator director of Selfridges, was appointed as the president of the non -profit organization in April 2025 and replaced Caroline Rush, a 16 -year -old industrial senior.
In a speech made with Tania Bryer of CNBC during the London Fashion Week, where Weir was responsible for being organized, the fashion boss was opened on how to meet challenging decisions.
Bir A hot bath, a cup of tea, and re -group myself, Da Weir said to Bry. “Look, there will always be difficulties. You should stay a kind of flexible.
Weir’s CEO coincided with President Donald Trump’s “mutual” tariffs in more than 180 countries on April 2, and hit the areas with key production bases for the fashion industry.
This excluded Vietnam’s production, where brands such as Prada and Zara produce most of Nike’s shoes. Pakistanis the key to producing denim elements. By the way, the EU – More than 70 % The global luxury goods market – also faces tasks.
British Fashion Council President David Pemsel said in April that the tariffs “have created a serious concern for the community and forced many people to choose between price increases and firm margins.” Authorized, the Council of the United Kingdom for the US market for the United States to defend the United States with the United Kingdom of British business and trade, he said.
Weir described tariffs as “very challenging”, but he struck an optimistic tone by emphasizing the importance of relations with American colleagues.
“I hope we can find a way to try and explain the impact of the industry and the real terms by working with our American colleagues.” He said.
He continued: “I mean, for our already challenging designers, trading and commercially successful and finally applicable can really affect their ability. So we are working hard in BFC to help our American colleagues really understand the real impact of their decisions.”
Actually a LAST GLOBAL SURVEY The advisory platform found that more than 1,000 business leaders in various sectors, Consulting.us, believe that more than 60% durability was the most important quality for the bosses of the company while traveling in tariffs and economic uncertainties.
Listen to good leaders
When we were asked to define the leadership style, Weir emphasized the importance of listening to the people around him.
“I think it’s really important that it is a modern leader and a CEO’s speech and dialogue box. So I am thinking of rightly defining the difficulties we face and also optimistic positive.” He said.
“And I am really clear to talk to our bosses, community, designers, politicians, and I want to build these relationships and approach it in a very inclusive way.”
Some of the most famous business leaders – Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi – described listening and conversation with the employees on the ground as key leadership quality.
Jassy, for example, said that the best leaders accept various perspectives that are different from them and may accept that their ideas are wrong.
A boss’s job is usually to get “right people in a room” to give their feedback and ideas, so they can listen to and weigh potential options, “he said
Khosrowshahi, who has been a Uber driver to learn and improve the driver’s experience, said that listening is one of the most important skills he has learned from his mentor.
“There are all kinds of courses on the leadership leadership and I still haven’t seen a course of listening,” he said. “Nevertheless, with very high managers on the common themes and stairs I see in life, the higher you, the less you know what’s going on.”
