Last week I attended a debate titled "Business in Fashion" which was held at London college of Fashion.
The panel included:
Adam Atkinson: CEO of Cherchbi
Doug Atkinson: Innovation research fellow- Designer Manufacturer Innovation Support Centre (DISC)
Zahra Ash-Harper: MA Fashion Entrepreneurship Alumni
The debate was based on a recent British Fashion Council (BFC) report, the Future of Fashion. the report estimates that the value of UK fashion manufacturing has fallen by two-thirds since 1995. Overseas sourcing has become the default strategy from high end to High Street, resulting in a massive loss of infrastructure and technical skills across the UK fashion manufacturing sector. BUT the pendulum is swinging back. Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, George at Asda and the legendary Mary Portas have kick started demand for ‘Made in Britain’ fashion.
Just in the past three years really Britain has had a re-surgance of manufacturing again. This is a subject I am very passionate about, hence why I attended the debate. And also this is the sector of the industry I want to go into, if there is no manufacturing left in the UK I have no job. When you think of a typical design studio the average age is probably about 40-50 years old. And no young faces are being drawn to the glamourous job or a machinist, pattern cutter or sample cutter, everyone wants to be there own designer. But what people are not realising is if the pattern cutters and machinist did not exist these hundreds of designers would have no one to make there collections. So I am just going to run through briefly what was all discussed at the debate.
Adam Atkinson started off the panel discussing the leather goods industry. He previously worked at Nike and Puma, where a lot of the leather was manufactured in Asian countries and imported to Britian. However he wanted to try and change that by creating a leather good company - Cherchbi, which is completely MADE IN BRITAIN and is a HERITAGE Brand. Britain and the made in Britain branding is surrounded by the idea of Heritage and the innovation is a key factor.
Adam has created his own British tweed made from the Herdwyck Sheep fleece. It is a brand new Tweed called the Herdwyck No.10 Tweed. The fleeces come from the lake district so they are locally sourced. However the fleece is very very difficult to spin and weave as it is a low value fleece and creates a very rough and ready feel. Adam has took 3 years developing this tweed and it is named the Herdwyck No.10 as it was the 10th try until he finally cracked it.
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| Herdwyck No.10 tweed printed Holdall |
British manufacturing does have a lot of unique elements to it, When you are out there looking for a manufacturer, you have the power to discuss the use of the fabric, it is very important to get what you want across to whomever is making your garment. The biggest value of having a british manufacturer is you can ask for a sample, you can check up on the progress of your order and can order small amounts. Where as abroad you normally have a minimum order of say 10,000 garments, in which you may not notice any mistakes that may have been made until it reached the shops. where as if you have a small order made in Britain you can resolve the problem before hand.
However it is very difficult to try and commercialise a company when using british manufacturing, as straight away if you choose Britain you are placing your company in the high end market because it is just not feasible to create a high street garment for example at an affordable price because the labour/fabric, etc is too high.
Many fabrics are also very difficult to get in Britain as well, in Nottingham you have lace and Scotland you have tweed but generally most fabric would come from over seas. In order for designers to say it is completely Made in Britain. Many have chosen the route of digital print as it can be related to that specific collection, in a sense the digital print is the new heritage age of Britain.
As a new designer as well many people will have the problem of intellectual property (IP) as designs have to have a distinction in 3 separate ways: silhouette, print and shape. As you cant copyright an idea many designer will send the pattern to themselves and don't open it so it is postage dated and proof that they had the idea first.
Is it feasible to revive British clothing
manufacturing and will demand for ‘Made in Britain’ last?
In answer to this question, I hope so. I certainly think it is on the rise, many designers are trying to push for the made in Britain stamp, Mulberry for example is moving 30% of there manufacturing back to the UK and creating an apprenticeship scheme. Mary Portas of course is trying to use that branding stamp on the high street. And you of course have the favourites like the Barbour wax jackets which is still also made the UK in South Shields.
I myself want to enter the world of british manufacturing and when i asked the Questions to the panel:
Do you think there is room for people like me a new graduate trained in pattern-cutting to get a job in the industry, As when a employer is looking to fill a position they will want experience. How can I compete with someone for example who has 30 years experience?
Zahra replied: Yes I do think there is room in the industry for new faces, my business partner for example is a pattern cutter and on an individual bases she has been very successful fo far, with lot of different kinds of pattern cutting jobs but she is very good. She has had some wierd request for dog clothes and weird and wonderful clothing but she manages to do it all the time. And when you are good word spreads and you find you will have many jobs coming your way, sometimes she has too much on your plate. But i do think there is room for new faces in the industry as soon we will need them anyway. As many women in that job will be retiring etc.
I could go on and on about this topic of conversation. However I will end it there for now, I hope this has made you think about the brand "Made in Britain", and where you are going to buy your next item of clothing.
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