With Brexit bringing uncertainty to almost every sector in the UK market it may come as a surprise to learn that the fashion industry is experiencing somewhat of a mini renaissance.
Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of The British Fashion Council said ’the value of the fashion industry to the UK’s economy had increased to a record £32bn [last year].’ According to Rush and many other fashion experts, so called ‘fast fashion’ is to thank.
Fast fashion refers to the increasingly fast way in which fashion trends are marketed, produced, and discontinued – thus, styles are engineered to last only a short time before being replaced by something different.
The increasing speed at which new clothes are needing to be churned out has had the unexpected consequence of re-localising the production chain. It makes more sense to have clothes manufactured in Britain (or closer to it) if the product will only be on sale for a short amount of time. This allows for lowered transportation costs, decreased lead times, and increased reactivity from designers to new trends.
Things seem to be looking up for fashion manufacturing in the UK and again, those companies that are embracing the new-found abilities of emerging technologies and business practices are the ones who are benefitting the most.
A slow renaissance in British garment manufacturing has now begun
