We just came back from the Symposium, a day of talks and moderated panel discussions organised as a part of the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival. Discussions with Georgina Goodman (shoe designer), Bella Freud (designer and film maker), Amanda Harlech (creative consultant for brands including Chanel), David Lindsay (Net a Porter and Farfetch), Paula Goldstein (Digital Editor of Purple.fr) and others were moderated by Jackie McGlone, an interviewer and feature writer for newspapers and magazines, specialising in arts, culture and design.

Georgina Goodman, who was mentored by Manolo Blahnik at the Royal College of Art, mentioned how strange designs will bring a designer a lot of publicity, but they don’t sell. The trick is in balancing the more commercial work with designs that can’t be often worn.

Bella Freud talked about her numerous collaborations, saying that they can be very interesting, stimulating but also problematic at times.

An important point was also made by Paula Goldstein in the final talk today, when she mentioned that fashion world is obsessed with the instant sharing, fashion editors are often fixated with taking a perfect Instagram picture, and they are not able to fully enjoy the magic of a fashion show and fully capture its mood, and all the details of the designs.

The Edinburgh International Fashion Festival continues until the 28th of July.