Manchester Fashion Week has opened with new minimum material standards for every designer on its four-day schedule – as industry leaders called for brands to place more orders with British manufacturers.
Developed with Collective Fashion Justice, the standards prohibit fur, wild animal skins and wild bird feathers. Leather is permitted only where it is already in circulation.
The opening day, themed Changing Narratives, focused on where clothes are made, the people who make them and the wider cost of the fashion industry’s material choices.
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Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig opened the event before John Higginson, CEO of media partner Eco Age, appeared alongside Manchester Fashion Week’s principal partners: St John’s, CUPRA, Accenture and AO.
A Northern Fashion Collective panel then turned the focus from the organisations backing the event to the regional ecosystem expected to deliver its ambitions.
The day’s headline discussion, Fashion: The Conversation, brought together designer and activist Katharine Hamnett, PR pioneer and London Fashion Week co-founder Lynne Franks OBE, and journalist Sophie Benson for a candid assessment of the industry and the problems it has yet to address.
Another panel, Near, Far and HOME GROWN, examined the commercial case for manufacturing closer to home.
Tamara Cincik of Fashion Roundtable, Upender Mehar of Manchester manufacturer Dolphin Star, Michael Conway of clothes2order and Sophie Lane, founder of The Lane Edit, weighed nearshoring against offshore production.
Greater Manchester retains one of the UK’s largest textile clusters, with more than 500 active textile manufacturing businesses in the region.
Lane said: “The future of fashion lies in how we value the people across the entire supply chain. Extraordinary expertise and skill exist within it, both here and internationally. Manchester Fashion Week creates a rare opportunity to bring those voices into the room and rethink how we work together.”
Behind the Seams closed the industry programme with a discussion about fashion’s global workforce featuring Lavinia Muth, Eleanor Harry of HACE and Dr Amy Benstead of the University of Manchester.
Benstead, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Management within the university’s Department of Materials, Faculty of Science and Engineering, said: “Behind every discussion about modern slavery and labour exploitation are individuals whose experiences are often missing from decision-making. I’ll be discussing how we can create more effective and inclusive approaches to tackling exploitation in fashion supply chains, and why lasting change depends on listening to and learning from those most affected. Manchester Fashion Week is a powerful platform because it brings together the diverse perspectives needed to challenge assumptions and drive meaningful change across the fashion industry.”
On the runway
Malon Fashion opened the runway programme. Manchester-based Polish designer Mariusz Malon, a graduate of Manchester Fashion Institute, has built a reputation for architectural outerwear and tailoring and has dressed artists including Doja Cat and SZA.
IGC Fashion Uganda followed, bringing designer and IGC Fashion co-founder Godfrey Katende to the Manchester runway with a collection based on African heritage, responsible materials and future-facing design.
Katende’s work also features in the Interwoven exhibition through a collaboration with Salford Slow Fashion.
Gbadebo reworked the brand’s 1990s streetwear codes through a more refined and feminine lens, combining oversized silhouettes, considered tailoring and reworked textiles.
ÉSAÍ closed the first day with sculptural silhouettes, experimental draping and expressive textiles designed to challenge conventional readings of contemporary femininity.
Gemma Gratton, executive producer of Manchester Fashion Week, said: “We have set a floor for what can be shown here. No fur, no wild animal skins, no wild bird feathers, and leather only where it is already in circulation. It applies to every collection on the schedule, because a standard designers can opt out of is not a standard.
“This is not about policing creativity. It is about making the better choice, the default one, and giving designers the practical support to work within it.”
Higginson added: “Britain has the factories. What it lacks is the order book. A conversation about nearshoring is only worth having if it ends with brands placing work, and with the government treating domestic production as more than a unit cost comparison.
“Manchester is the right place to make that argument, because the capacity is already on the doorstep.”
Manchester Fashion Week continues today with Changing Behaviour. The programme opens with The Polyester Paradigm, examining fashion’s reliance on synthetic fibres, before moving through repair, resale and take-back models, independent retail and the accessibility gap in adaptive design.
Runway presentations will follow from Unhidden, Kit Giroux and Make It Wet with Mancunia Ugly.
The full programme, tickets and public events are available from the Manchester Fashion Week website. Images by Malon Fashion.
