Fashion designers and brands rarely show their allegiance to a political cause as they know that it may damage their business. That said, we have seen fashion shows that were turned into protests or in which certain issues were subtly tackled via a specific colour or print, or fashion designers who are not afraid to make their views known. Julian Dunkerton from Superdry is among them: the multimillionaire and founder of the popular brand recently donated £1m to the People's Vote, a cross-party group including some MPs, currently demanding a new referendum on Britain's potential exit from the European Union.
Dunkerton, 53, started his career into fashion from a stall in Cheltenham in the 1980s and then launched iconic brand Cult. Around 15 years ago, he developed the idea for the Superdry label after a trip to Japan with designer and co-founder James Holder and the first shop followed in 2004. Eight years ago Superdry was floated on the Stock Exchange and at the moment there are over 500 Superdry outlets scattered in 46 countries (over 130 stores are based in the UK).
Dunkerton's personal fortune amounts to £441m and his decision to donate money to the People's Vote campaign may be easily seen as dictated by financial reasons: Brexit would indeed have a disastrous impact on the free movement of (people and) goods. For what regards the fashion industry, many brands in the UK source their materials and produce their garments in EU countries and their workforce comes from all over the world, so this is just one of the many industries that would be hit by Brexit.
The entrepreneur's decision, though, may not be dictated by merely financial reasons as he sold off a portion of his shares in Superdry and he's not actually new to donations to causes in which he genuinely seems to believe in (he transferred more than £1m in Superdry shares to the Blue Marine Foundation, a charity combating over-fishing and the destruction of biodiversity).
Dunkerton, who defines himself as "non-party political", is a strict Remainer, publicly criticised Boris Johnson while the politician led the Leave campaign and often spoke about the effects of Britain exiting the EU. According to the millionaire, if Brexit had happened 20 years earlier, Superdry would have never happened and it would have never been a success, the current policy on customs and tariffs and the single market allowed indeed the brand to focus on expansion in all sorts of European countries.
Brexiters and Eurosceptics claimed Dunkerton is just another wealthy person trying to overturn the democratic decision and the will of the British people, highlighted how Superdry's garments are not made in Europe, but in Asia and the Middle East (Young Independence, UKIP's youth wing, stated on Twitter: "Superdry pouring money made from slave labour into the PeoplesVote campaign"; not to defend Superdry, but a lot of politicians and political parties receive funds and money donations from private sources, among them businessmen, which means they should also question where the money of their supporters comes from...), and called for a Superdry boycott.
Still you wonder if the outcomes of the Brexit referendum in June 2016 can be called as democratic results when you consider that the Leave campaign thrived on fear of immigration, Cambridge Analytica and the leaders of the Leave.EU group worked together during the Brexit campaign and there is the possibility that Russia influenced the Brexit vote. Many of the voters never considered the real consequences of leaving the EU, such as losing funds for a wide range of projects or deliveries of supplies going from drugs to medicines getting stuck at customs control (without even taking into consideration the personal situation of millions of European people living and working in the UK and of British expats in the EU).
Hard Brexiters' may insist on a no deal, but, even if you didn't want to believe in the dramatic consequences of Brexit, the fact that certain brands and industries are moving their branches overseas to Ireland or Germany to establish a European base, should make you think (they are clearly leaving the ship before it sinks...).
For what regards the People's Vote campaign, time issues are a cause of concern: there may be indeed not enough time to organise another vote before March 2019, when Britain will stop being a EU member, besides Tory and Labour leaders do not like the idea of a new referendum.
The campaign is hoping to get enough MPs to back a referendum on the deal Prime Minister Theresa May strikes with Brussels, due to be put to a vote in Parliament in October (a mass march against Brexit is scheduled to take place in central London on 20th October). Dunkerton's donation, the largest received by the People's Vote, will go towards funding opinion polls and the publication of "gold-standard" surveys of more than 10,000 voters at a time.
Dunkerton is not the only billionaire who has expressed concerns about Brexit: Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, does not support Brexit and recently stated the British people were misled in the 2016 vote. Dunkerton may have done a risky choice by publicly donating his money and revealing his personal opinion (but then again political parties all over the world receive funds and money donations from private sources), but in life you can't always make everybody happy and you're always likely to get some angry backlash from people who do not agree with you on something. Dunkerton's choice was almost brave in an industry in which not many people like to stand up for a cause, fearing of losing consumers' money and support.
Dunkerton seemed to have clear ideas about what to do with his money, but now, if he fears there may be a shortage of inspirations at Superdry, he can maybe turn to the sweater that Margaret Thatcher donned in 1975 in support of the European trade agreement (and she wasn't certainy pro-Europe...). Already relaunched in 2016 by another brand, the sweater featured the flags of the nine countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany, Ireland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom) that made up the common market at the time and still represents a basic, but visually striking and silent yet eloquent message.
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