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.