You can work in the fashion industry for many years, and still not know all there is to know...

Hannah Stewart, a Product Account Manager at a London-based fashion company woke up at 5:30am recently, to travel two and a half hours from her London home to Northampton. She was attending the BLC Leather Technology Centre’s ‘Understanding Leather’ course, led by Barry Wood – a technician who has worked in the fashion industry for over 25 years.

Having graduated with a Fashion Textiles degree and now working predominantly developing leather products, Hannah wanted to deepen her understanding of leather as a material and as an industry. Though she had learned a lot over the course of her career, she felt there were gaps in her knowledge, which she was eager to fill.

She wasn’t alone in feeling this way it seems. On this one-day course, she was joined by representatives from retailers like Next (a sofa restoration company), Harvey Nichols, and an agent’s assistant.

We caught up with her t...

It’s important to remember on this Fashion Revolution Day and the two-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster, that unethical treatment of factory workers lives on, and not just in Asian countries.

When the founders of fast fashion brands want speedy service, next-day samples, or low production costs, they head for Leicester factories, according to a Guardian report.

Northern-based UK brands like Missguided and Boohoo are booming and go to factories that can deliver garments quickly and cheaply, in order to satisfy consumers looking for low-cost fast fashion.

Founder and chief executive of Missguided, Nitin Passi, told the Guardian that some Leicester factories can turn samples around in a day. Passi, along with Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani, estimates that over half of the clothes they sell are made in the UK.

Whilst this onshoring at first may appear to be fantastic news for the UK manufacturing industry and therefore the UK economy, a recent report into working conditio...

The changing face of the fashion industry... Years ago, when I had a fashion label and sold to boutiques globally, the seasonal selling formula for a designer was pretty simple and straight forward.

Two collections were delivered per year. The Spring/Summer RTW ("ready-to-wear") garments hit the shop floor in January. Depending on the type of collection produced, the selection would typically include lightweight separates comprising of blouses, skirts, dresses, shorts and a couple of jackets. Autumn/Winter RTW collections were delivered in July. The offering was similar to S/S but with the addition of heavier fabrics, knitwear and coating.

Fashion Industry Challenges

The system, while adequate, had its own set of problems. It was business-driven as opposed to being customer-driven. Customer fatigue would inevitably set in through seeing the same items on the shop floor for 5 long months. In addition to this, it made no sense to be shopping for short sleeved dresses in January when t...

Below are some of the findings we found interesting and valuable and which can be of as much help to you, as they would be to us in the future.

Exploring Indian Factories

Living in a place like London can be wonderful – and limiting too if we let it. We are so used to our ways, where everything is at the tip of our fingers, that we can easily be fooled that anything can be achieved from the comfort of one's desktop.

But every so often an opportunity knocks and tempts us away from safety to the unknown.

This is how it felt recently when Team Fashion Insiders decided to board a plane, swap continents and land in India – for a week packed with exploring a new market, forging new contacts, connections, and absorbing new experiences and lessons.

Had we just sat in the office we would not have had the opportunity to get a better understanding of one of the most vast markets and major suppliers of the fashion industry.

Personal Relationships and Human Connection

Though we hear often...

Making a choice between fast fashion vs the slow fashion movement may seem like an obvious choice, yet it is not an easy choice for many to make. One has moral implications while the other is more practical and economical. So what is it to be?

In this consumer- and trend-driven era of valueless clothes, you’re now able to change your outfit up to three times a day, should you so desire. The trend for cheaply-produced, throwaway fashion can be traced back to the early noughties when Philip Green bought the Arcadia group for a cool £850m. In 2005 his jewel in the crown, Topshop, accounted for £1bn of UK clothing sales by the first six months of that year. With the entire clothing market only worth £7bn, Green was onto a winning streak with his 14% stake in the market!

Green's ability to deliver “Fast Fashion” - cheaply-made clothing based on designer fashion trends that are produced very quickly in small quantities - peaked the interest of his competitors. They were determined to em...

With Brexit looming over us and the louder and louder voiced opinions and encouragements to keep as much as possible "Made in Britain", Moni Omotoso takes a look at what that means to us really, and how easy is it to make it here or keep it here when the economic landscape as we know it is about to change.

What does the “Made in Britain” label suggest these days?

To me, it conjures up images of a cottage industry of knitwear lovingly made by hand in the Scottish Highlands, bespoke, traditional tailoring on Saville Row or shoes welted by hand in factories in Northampton.

In fact, the shoe making industry was more than a cottage industry in Britain. With 80 factories, producing more than 20 million pairs of shoes a year in the 1950s, I’d say that was big business. According to Eric Musgrave of the UKFTA, 'The UK is one of the best sources of fine clothing in the world. Its inherent quality equates to good value - a fact that is often better appreciated abroad, where the 'Made in Brita...

It wasn't until recently that fashion brands reached their clients via the retail shops, which in turn operated a well-established wholesale business model. But over the last couple of decades, as online shopping has steadily increased at a fast and furious pace, and countless boutiques closed their doors and larger department stores sales suffered - many wonders what is the future of fashion wholesale?

I love the shopping experience. Good retailers, such as Selfridges, provide brand validation and status, so my first port of call is always the Selfridges handbag department. On my way into the store, I’ll spend an hour caressing the Anya Hindmarch, M2Malettier and Sophie Hulme designs. On my way out I repeat the exercise, albeit with a couple of other designers goods.

Customers like to feel the quality of more expensive products and also love the brand experience. Retail allows you to immerse yourself in your favourite designers ‘live moodboard’ and to be a part of their world. Whil...

Fashion manufacturing locally is not a new concept. It has been done by brands large and small for as long as manufacturing has existed. But with advances in technology that helped make the world more reachable, many have tried their fortunes far afield hoping to improve prices, lead times or quality. Fashion Insiders platform member London Contour Experts examines why local manufacturing is still relevant in today's day and age and how it can benefit fashion brands.

With the ‘Made in Britain’ stamp being valued as an assurance of quality, creativity and ethics, more businesses are realizing the opportunity of keeping their operations close to home.

As a luxury product development and sampling business based in London, we specialise in stretch based bodywear; lingerie, swim, activewear and lounge. With a highly experienced in-house technical team we are able to take a product from concept to completion with the timeliness that is seldom possible abroad. Being a design-led fashion bus...

The fashion industry is the second most pollutant industry in the world. Now, more than ever, we should be thinking about sustainability. But what is sustainable fashion? And is fashion sustainable?

Is it ecological, is it ethical or is it green?

There are so many definitive buzz words being used in the press that it’s hard not to be confused.

The reality we now, depressingly, find ourselves in, is a situation predicted by Carlo Petrini (founder of the Slow Food Movement). In 1985 he asked a simple question:

“How did we end up in an era when we have to define and certify things that should be normal?”  

To understand the definition of sustainable fashion, we should define the Fast Fashion model to illustrate the differences between the two.

Fast Fashion raised its ugly head towards the latter part of the previous century. It coincided with the rise of the internet as a gateway to consumer consumption. The ready availability of all manner of products online gave rise to a fierc...

Fast fashion vs sustainable fashion are two consumer and lifestyle choices that have polarised the industry of late and created a blame culture of sorts. Regardless of whether they can co-exist, the need to be more responsible and caring towards the environment is clear. Small steps starting with more responsible material choices at the start of the creative process is certainly a way forward. 

Fashion is socially, economically and environmentally important industry and a form of expression. As per 2014 data, the fashion apparel industry is valued at 3 trillion dollars accounting for 2% of the world’s GDP and employs 57.8 million people. Though the fashion industry contributes significantly to the GDP, it is the second highest polluter after oil industry. About 25% of the world’s chemicals are used for textile production.

The fashion industry needs to transform in terms of changing consumer’s relationship with the garment and taming excessive consumption. Fast fashion has phenomenall...