Knitwear Apprenticeship

In november a collection of scottish knitwear companies came together to decide to create a apprenticeship scheme to help save their industry. The companies included are: Hawick Knitwear, Johnstons of Elgin and Barrie. The scheme will have 50 places and the apprentices will be trained in handcraft and machine production techniques as well as milling, finishing and processing.

£1m to Save our Skills

The government has given £1m to 'SkillSet'. The money will fund apprenticeship schemes to help raise our falling number of skilled workers within the fashion and textile industry. The apprenticeship will include textile and digital printing, technical textile technician, senior pattern technician and senior tailor.  The scheme will run for three years and the first places are due to be offered in spring next year. The scheme will be over seen by advisory groups from each sector of the creative industries.

picture source 

'Made in Britain' 51 in Drapers Power list

YEY! 

The 'made in Britain' label has made in to 51st place (out of 100) in Drapers power list of 2011. This shows that the public are proud of of our manufacturing and the quality we produce and the growing international luxury market cant get enough of. This only reenforces the fact that we need to train and develop british people in our trades before we lose these skills forever. 

With retails now taking note with a lot of stores launching British labels e.g. Marks & Spencer's & John Lewis hopefully it wont take long to notice a raise in training courses and a update to the current higher education courses teaching not just design but the ability to produce also. 

Picture source www.sustainable-fashion.com

New British Brand launched

Matilda & Quinn

Sally Hartfield originally from a law background has launched this brand after her passion for being creative overtoke. In an interview from the make it british website, she has said that she saw the gap in the market for quality britsh made clothing. She also describes the brads products as softly tailord, quirky, stylish and with that essential britishness style. One of the main aims of the company is to try and source as much as possible the materials in the fabrics from british manufactures from fastenings to arm pads. 

Take a look at some of the collection: 

Source: Make it British 

Tweed not just for fashion - Homewear too!

Tweed not only does it keep you warm in winter but it looks great in your home too.  With the wide range of colours and patterns invaliable in tweed you can incourparate in within any home and room. Here are a few of my faveourite examples.

 

Photos from: http://www.breanishtweed.co.uk/ & House & Home 

A logo for Made in Britain

A generic label for 'Made in Britain' has been developed by PR agency Umpf the aim is for the logo to be commonly recognised by the public to show this is now a factor we should developed into our shopping habits.  It can be used by all companies from kitchen wear to fashion are getting behind their country the first company to use this logo is a British kitchen manufacture

Holland Copper British at its best

Holland cooper set up by Jade Holland copper are an establish British brand who sell quality fashionable mens and women's fashion pieces, their clothing has been seen in Vogue, Britain's next top model and the Times to mention a few.

Jade Holland Copper saw the potential in british uniqueness and produced wonderful collections, here are some pictures of their current stock.

Check out their website: http://www.hollandcooper.com/

Support British, Bring back tweed

Throughout my blog i have been posting about how important it is that retails need to start looking at manufacturing in the UK. I am in my final year of university and for my project i am looking at setting up a business that will sell home and fashion pieces using hand woven luxury tweeds on the Isle of Lewis and
bringing it to Birmingham and turning tweed from its old country feel to smart elegant pieces.

Please help me by doing my quick 11 question survey.

http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=ONDMOH_cbddb4a3

'To Die for' The british clothing market 10 shocking satistics

After reading a review on the book 'To Die for' by lucy Siegle which highlights Britain's attitude to
fashion and how the UK has become accustomed to buying mass produced cheap clothing. Fast Fashion is worthless and consumers need to take more time to consider where their clothing was made, who by and who long it took and realistically how long is it going to stay in their wardrobe?

The book highlights these statistics.

• 80 billion – Number of garments produced annually across the globe

• £23 billion – Amount spent on clothes and shoes in Britain in 1990

• £32.5 billion – Amount spent annually on clothes and shoes in Britain today

• 1.72 million – Amount in tonnes of brand new fashion consumed in the UK every year

• 1.5 million – Amount  in tonnes of  clothing that we throw away in Britain every year

• 4.1 – Average number of  items of clothing a shopper buys in the UK each month

• 10% – Drop in retail prices between 2003 and 2007

• 3 weeks - Time it takes a fast fashion retailer to get a design from concept to store

• 40% – Percentage of British clothes bought at value retailers

• 1 million – Items of clothing sold by Primark Oxford St in its first 10 days of trading.

In these hard times should the consumer think that it is up to the brand and manufactures to produce more quality british clothing without putting a high price tag on or should BritaIn change its attitude and buy less and save to buy quality over quantity. 


Source : the-british-clothing-market-10-shocking-statistics

Celebrities Backing Tweed

Celebrities backing british in their tweed clothing.

Selena Gomez

Wearing traditional tweed with a playful cut.

Demi Lovato  

keeping Warm 

Emma Roberts 

The new boyfriend blazer 

Rihanna 

Bringing tweed to Business 

Katy Perry 

Who said tweed was dull and checked

Megan Fox 

Proving the classics can be worn by the young 

Pictures from: http://www.teen.com

House of Fraser & Arcadia in talks to join apprenticeship scheme for British Manufacturing

The scheme between the two companies would be with not-for-profit organisation Fashion Enter. From each of the Companies HoF & Arcadia 10 employees would join onto the scheme spending one day with Fashion Enter and four says at their place of work. The scheme titled 'Fashion and Textiles Apparel' Apprenticeship lasts for 18-months and cover skills from pattern cutting and stitching , production control and machinery.

Asos and Ruby Rocks have already joined the scheme and in response to companies becoming more 'British' Fashion Enter has opened their second manufacturing facility and aims to produce 3,000 garments a week.

Deborah Meadon backs UK manufacturing

Deborah Meadon and Douglas Cordeaux who own the 'Fox Brothers Mill' in Somerset which makes luxury wollen cloth. When they first brought the mill it had an emplye base of 18 since then they have trained staff vital manufacturing skills, the mill since employed 500 staff. 


Deborah saw the gap in the market for luxury goods to match the British produced cloth, the brand 'Merchant Fox' was born. Using only British Manufacturing and its variety of craftsmanship. 


A quote from Deborah and why UK manufacturing is important 
'We have a very good heritage and history of making things in this country. What we do well is something that is traditional, but presented in a very relevant, modern way.'


Deborahs quote matches my opinion of how retailers need to start thinking, that there is many Britain Craftsmanship e.g. Tweed, Wood carving etc that has outstanding quality that needs to be supported and brought back into our shops. 


Source: http://makeitbritish.co.uk

Mary Portas to chamgian UK Manufacturing

Mary Portas with channel 4 have backed the campaign to save UK manufacturing. They have brought the disused Warwick Mill in Middleton Manchester to produce UK made clothing to the high street retailers. As well as backing the UK campaign it also supports the local area by giving people the job opportunities which are desperately needed in the current economic climate. It also gives them a chance to learn clothing manufacturing skills which in my opinion britain is slowly loosing. 

Retailers need to get take note of the these issues and need to invest in their country and heritage and invest in their staff by giving them the chance to learn these vital manufacturing skills before the quality britain is known for is lost forever. 

John Lewis new Menswear label

John Lewis has recently launched a new Menswear label called John Lewis British within the John lewis & co range. The range is aimed at a younger consumer as they say,  ''The younger more stylish and discerning' menswear market.

The range will sit both with the fashion brands within John Lewis such as Barbour and Ted Baker and the existing John Lewis menswear label. The inspiration for the brand was taken from looking back into the history of John Lewis resulting in the labels of the clothing that are hand printed.

Goverments Vince Cable launches Make it in Great Britain campaign

The campaign which was is due to launch in november 2011 is aimed at putting Britains manufacturing at the forefront of onlookers eyes during next years olympic games. The best of the campaigns involved in the campaign will be shown in an exhibition in the science museum titled 'Best of British Manufacturing' during the london olympics in 2012.  Vince cable is currently looking for 30 industry experts to help push this campaign.  The aim of the exhibitions is to show the rule truth around british manufacturing and encourage young people like myself to support and consider a career in the industry.

Source: http://makeitingreatbritain.bis.gov.uk/

The 80:20 Rule

After reading the Drapers article 'Live the 80:20 rule to priorities resources' it surprised me at how low the amount of customers was that keeps a business going, whether this be within in a retail store, supplier or manufacture. The 80:20 rule is that 80% of a companies business only comes from 20% of their customers/client.

Drapers argue that this is because within any job role there is so many tasks and duties that you have to do within your working hours so chasing new clients/ selling to customers takes a back seat for a period of time in the working day, their answer is to prioritise resources and change habits in times of crisis and this then creates opportunities.

I do agree that within any job roles there is many daily tasks that takes a big chunk of the working day that takes you from your daily role which most likely within retail, will be selling to customers on a shop floor or gaining and retaining contracts with suppliers and manufactures.

So do this mean that companies should be prepared to hire more staff. Hiring more staff would mean that more customers can gain that service they require leading to sales, and companies can chase more contracts bringing in more money for business. In turn meaning that companies could expand and employ and train more staff which the economy could benefit from lowering the amount of un-employed and developing retails workforece skills.

Or would this make the market too competitive? and make the expectation of customers and working relationships too high and the admin and day to day jobs that keep a business ruining would be forgot about causing possibly, a costly mistake to a business.

In my opinion it is mix of both drapers answer and my thoughts, yes prioritising job tasks and being organised is vital and is skill that companies look for when employing, but i also believe that employing more staff to help with customers and and client relationships. Bringing in and retaining customers is vital and business should be prepared to invest to achieve.

To read the Drapers article for yourself please visit: http://www.drapersonline.com/The report is written by Paul Alger - Director of International Affairs at the UK Fashion & Textile Association. 30/09/2011

John Lewis invites British firms to buyers' showcase

John Lewis is my favorite retail brand, after doing a placement with them early this year i got a real understanding of the company and how they work. I also got an insight into how much the company supports the local area, they are in and how they really encourage their staff to be the best they can be.

They also support one of my main concerns within the retail business which is, Uk manufacturing and training of the Uk work force in the basics of the Uks unique way of manufacturing.  John Lewis has arranged for British manufactures in both fashion and footwear to come to their head office and showcase their work and 'inspire' their buyers to think more about Uk sourcing.