When the news broke on March 7th that Matches, the luxury fashion retailer, boasting over 600 small and large labels, would be going into administration, social media lit up, as did employee group chats.
“What’s happened at Matches isn’t something that can be seen in isolation. It feels like a bellwether for what’s happening across the industry,” Sarah Mower, chief Vogue fashion critic, told Vogue.
The future of Browns, another beloved luxury shopping store, is uncertain as its owner faces financial difficulties. Harvey Nichols, once London’s most popular department store, has also lost its former glory. The implications for fashion and textile manufacturers, many of whom are women and/or immigrants, are substantial.
“Often when high profile brands get into financial difficulty, an investor will come along to bail them out, but there’s no support for the manufacturers. Yet without the manufacturers, the brands would not exist,” Kate Hills, a local manufacturing expert explained.
Mustafah Fuat, a garment producer for Gosha London, said in a recent Make It British Instagram Live, “We get hit twice: we won’t receive the money owed by the brand, and the upcoming work from designers will disappear.”
One brand owner affected by the Matches scandal told Vogue Business that he is owed £70,000 and has 200 items stuck in the Matches warehouse.
Hills believes the lack of government support is a huge factor in the fall: “Italy, Portugal, and Turkey, our three main competitors in Europe, have millions in funding to their textile industry to help them promote their businesses to the outside world. In comparison, UK manufacturers get very little.”
Fashion is the largest creative industry, contributing £62 billion a year to the UK GDP (a measure of the total economic output of a country). Speeches at the recent Labour Creatives Conference on March 14th addressed change in several art forms, but fashion was notably absent from the conversation. Moreover, the Labour Chancellor announced that he would invest £70 billion in the creative sector, yet fashion was excluded.
Skill shortage is another issue plaguing the British industry. Hills explains, “There’s funding through Innovate UK, but so little of this goes to the textile and garment manufacturers that actually need it, and it doesn’t help with the biggest issue, which is the skills shortage and making the industry attractive for young people to want to come and work in it.”
A point Sarah Brown, designer and retailer, agrees with: “I was talking to a factory owner in Lancashire whose machinists are all in their mid-fifties. He had actively tried to recruit younger staff but schools no longer teach these skills. (…) I don’t think the wider public know or understand this.”
Currently, in the UK, we have a Government apprenticeship scheme, which for many is not fit for purpose due to cost and duration so very few garment and textile manufacturers use it. The education system we have currently churns out thousands of designers every year, many of whom aren’t equipped with the know-how to make something in a factory setting.
We can’t even bring in skilled workers from overseas as they don’t meet the language qualifications that are required according to the Government Guidelines.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also had huge implications for the industry. Tamara Cincik, founder of Fashion Roundtable, says, “There has been a shift in spending habits —people are working from home and not necessarily wearing suits around the house, meaning our spending behaviours have changed and the retail industry therefore too.”
Diana Kakkar, a manufacturer at Maes London, believes the issue is systemic: “Because the fashion system works by having almost three seasons at a time, unless you have a good cost centre for each season, you don’t know if that season was successful or not leading to overproduction.”
With so much to say about Brexit, COVID-19, and this impact on the industry, we are left wondering: what can we do?
Encouraging consumers to support local brands and manufacturers can help sustain small businesses and keep money within the local economy. By valuing shopping locally, understanding the cost centre, and making conscious consumer choices, we can begin to address some of these challenges.
Here are a few of our favourite local brands that are making a difference:
- We Are Kin – The company believes in sustainable and responsible practices achieved by working with end-of-line fabrics, sustainable fabrics and their local factory in London.
- Nicole Zissman – Nicole Zisman is an artist and designer based in London. Her eponymous womenswear label introduces the notion that authenticity is the new modernity through a future-glam lens of the designer’s Venezuelan and Jewish heritage.
- SIRPLUS – The founder, Henry Hales, discovered that London’s shirt-makers often ended up with surplus fabric after making their garments. Frequently, that fabric is thrown away and not considered sellable or useful so, SIRPLUS was born.
- Freya Simonne – Freya Simonne creates beautiful one-off womenswear pieces by upcycling preloved textiles and clothing.
- Blackhorse Lane – Specialising in the meticulous craftsmanship of tailored selvedge denim jeans, they pride in producing exceptional pieces in their dedicated atelier on Blackhorse Lane in Walthamstow, East London.
Additionally, asking for Government support and funding, similar to what is provided in Italy, Portugal, and Turkey, is essential for promoting UK textiles and fashion on a global stage.
Justine Tabak, designer and made-in-UK business owner, told me, “I can honestly say we are nothing without the loyalty and expertise of our British manufacturers who desperately need the support of government, education and the wider public who need to support the campaign to buy British.”