Why the UK Fashion Industry Should Be Written in to the New Industrial Strategy

A repositioning: Why the UK fashion industry should be included in the new industrial strategy. In 2020 I published Investigating Creative Processes and Pedagogy in the UK: Fashion Thinking proposing a new generation of designers was needed within the UK fashion industry with a combined skill set of designer-led innovation, a critical approach to new technology and an understanding of new engineering, digital and scientific paradigms. As a repositioning of that paper combined with recent geopolitical events, I propose fashion should have been a major part of and specifically named in the new industrial strategy document and the Creative Industries Sector Plan recently published by the Labour Government. Briefly I explore why the fashion sector should be fully recognized as the income generator it can be when linked to a reshoring and local manufacturing agenda through the industrial strategy and with reference to several Future Fashion Factory funded projects as case studies. My focus in this paper is micro and SME high-value, low-volume designer/manufacturer businesses drawing on the large number of small businesses that emerge from design schools in the UK. The UK could lead the way in developing a new paradigm for high-value fashion manufacture, engaging with a broad ecosystem of influences from sports to space.