Onesie Meet the Manufacturer

Just over a week ago we attended the second 'Meet the Manufacturer' event on Tobacco Dock in London along with 3,000 other retailers, manufacturers and designers.

Over 100 companies from across the fashion and textile sectors came together to exhibit at this year’s trade show and the exhibition hall was buzzing for the whole two days.

For the first time, the event also included a fashion show, in collaboration with the Leicestershire Textiles Hub and styled by celebrity stylist Zoe Lem, which saw garments from over 30 Leicestershire manufacturers and brands strut the catwalk to a packed house.

The whole experience of Meet the Manufacturer has made us feel part of an industry that cares, rather than an isolated company doing the best we can, based on our set of values of doing the right thing. It was empowering and touching to listen to  the speakers tell their stories, all of which shared in our values of doing the right thing. We, like others, have always manufactured in the UK, trained our own staff, run an apprenticeship scheme and are very proud of doing so.

Emma Willis

Emma Willis is an English Shirt Maker who works in London. She set up her business, making men's luxury shirts, in 1987 after training at the Slade School of Art. As well as an elegant shop that opened in 199 on Jermyn Street, she also opened her beautiful (18th Century townhouse) factory in 2010, in the centre of Gloucester. Inside her factory, Emma has a highly skilled team of staff and apprentices, that take great pride in their work, making shirts using Swiss and West Indian Sea Island Cottons, boxer shorts, pyjamas, dressing gowns and walking socks that are made using traditional methods of cutting and sewing, and to the highest standards.Collars are hand trimmed before turning to ensure clean cut, sharp points, small handmade gussets at the side seams and finished with real Mother of Pearl buttons (and all of their trimmings and components are sourced in England.) Emma also visits Headley Rehabilitation Centre for  injured soldiers to make the patients a complementary bespoke shirt in their luxury cottons.Christopher Nieper Christopher Nieper joined the family business, David Nieper, in 1986, witnessing a huge migration of British fashion manufacturing to offshore production. Christopher went against this off-shoring trend, staying loyal to the company's commitment to Made in Britain. He has pioneered the company's investment in marketing, new manufacturing infrastructure and skills to deliver continuous and sustainable growth. Today, David Nieper employs 230 people, and enjoys record sales of it's luxury womenswear. Christopher has also established his own fashion manufacturing academy, which provides paid intern-ships, competitions for local schoolchildren and post-graduate qualifications. completed a degree in mechanical engineering, started his own furniture repair business and even sailed across the Atlantic, not to mention being a bee-keeper, school governor, and a former non-executive director of Help the Aged. Becky John Becky John set up Who Made Your Pants? in 2008, buying fabrics that have been sold on by big underwear companies at the end of season, stopping them ending up as waste and turning them into gorgeous new pants that have a great start in life. Becky didn't like wearing clothes made in sweatshop conditions, and was aware that women who are refugees are alone for the majority of the day which leads to personal and social problems. That's why Who Made Your Pants? is a socially focused business creating jobs for women refugees, in a lovely factory in Southampton with a warm, friendly and fun environment. All of the women start off by making the pants. Becky hopes that all jobs within the business can be filled by the women a they gain skills, so if someone is interested in marketing, or finance, she will arrange training. All profits go back into the business to help provide training, support and advice. Who Made Your Pants? is about two things - amazing pants, and amazing women. Orsola De Castro Orsola is an internationally recognised pioneer in sustainable fashion. She began up-cycling in 1997 with her original label, From Somewhere, the first to take luxury pre-consumer textile waste and re-make it into new collections. Orsola is also the co-founder of Fashion Revolution, which helps raise awareness of the true cost of fashion. Fashion Revolution is held in memory of the  the Rana Plaza factory building collapse in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, 2013, where more than 1,130 garment workers were killed, crushed under eight stories of concrete,  and aims to bring everyone together to show that change is possible, and celebrate all those involved in creating a more sustainable future. 'Wear a different set of principles' Orsola  placed a bright turquoise vending machine, offering t-shirts for 2 Euros, at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, to test whether people would still buy it when they are confronted with the conditions in which it was produced. 98% of people refused to buy  a T-shirt after watching the film.  'We need greater transparency in the fashion supply chain because we can't improve conditions or protect the environment without knowing where our clothes are made. We need to challenge brands and retailers to take responsibility for the people and communities on which their business depends.'  On April 24th, the anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, Fashion Revolution asks you to ask the brands whose clothes you love #whomademyclothes - from who spun the threads, to who sewed them together, to who grew the cotton in the first place and help start a Fashion Revolution.' So far, 75 countries are involved, last year alone, over 60 countries around the world,and tens of thousands of people participated in the first Fashion Revolution Day. The Fashion Revolution twitter page got around 10 billion re-tweets, gaining thousands of followers.'Together we will use the power of fashion to inspire change and reconnect the broken links in the supply chain.' Of course there was a wide range of amazing speakers including Patrick Grant, Director, Norton & Sons and E. Tautz, Caroline Rush CBE, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, Nigel Cabourn, Menswear Designer, Tom Kay, Founder Finisterre, and many more.