While the UK has long been regarded as a premiere producer of fashion talent -- for proof, scan through recent graduates of Central Saint Martins' heralded design program. But all may not be sartorially certain in England; the region's sartorial skills "are out of fashion," says the Independent. It seems scores of students are graduating from UK-based design programs without proper tailoring and pattern-making training. So who's at fault? Great Britain's fashion community is placing blame on its government, citing a lack of funding for UK's fashion colleges.

In response to what many fashion alum have called a serious crisis, "fashion council" Skillfast UK "has launched a Behind the Seams campaign, designed to draw attention to the craftsmanship behind the UK fashion industry." However, in light of the world's bigger financial issues, some might argue that focusing on the economic hardships of UK fashion colleges is relatively frivolous. Why the hysteria around preserving skills typically reserved for haute couture, when only a small percentage of the world's population can in fact afford said designs? As the Independent reports, most high-fashion garments "take hours of highly skilled labor: the feathers on Burberry's Prorsum dress, for example, are hand painted with gold brush strokes." They're not manufactured by the dozen in a factory in China or India. Ergo, the economic impact isn't really measured in the sale of goods per se, but rather the labor (and salaries) it takes to produce them for show -- all of which could be lost if the UK fashion industry takes a hit. Those Burberry feathers aren't going to paint themselves gold, you know.