The Glamour, The Gloss – But Who Made the Clothes? Fashion Weeks Are Failing the Backbone of the Industry

Another season, another fashion week. The front rows fill, the cameras click, and designers’ visions are paraded on the catwalk. The world watches in awe. And yet again, the people who brought those visions to life – the pattern cutters, the machinists, the textile mills, the factories – don’t even make the credit list.

As consumers grow ever more concerned with transparency, sustainability, and ethical production, global Fashion Weeks remain stubbornly obsessed with aesthetics over accountability. For all the fanfare, the industry still treats its skilled makers as invisible.

Take the British Fashion Council’s (BFC) recent announcement under new CEO Laura Weir. At the BFC’s annual summer party at the Serpentine Pavilion, Weir laid out a bold and welcome vision to revitalise British fashion. From waiving designer fees for London Fashion Week to expanding scholarship funding and launching education outreach programmes, her ambitions are wide-reaching and impactful.

But even in this reset moment, one word was conspicuously absent: manufacturing.

(Luke Derrick designs being made at Fashion-Enter Ltd’s Fashion Studio in North London)

Weir rightly noted: “We are losing talent to Paris, Milan, and Berlin – not because of a lack of creativity, but because of a lack of infrastructure to support our designers to make, create, show, and importantly, to scale in this country.”

Yes, – and that infrastructure begins in the factories and workshops of the UK, many of which are fighting to survive post-Brexit, post-Covid, and post-relevance in the eyes of a still-London-centric industry. If we truly want to support designers through to “sustained scale,” we must also invest in the very system that enables scale: British manufacturing.

As beautifully explored in this article by Labwear Studios, garment makers are the uncelebrated co-authors of every collection. They transform 2D sketches into 3D realities. They problem-solve complex constructions, perfect finishing, and ensure wearable quality. Yet they are never named, never credited, and rarely invited into the rooms where the champagne flows and the headlines are written.

This invisibility is no longer acceptable – especially at a time when the fashion consumer is evolving. Transparency is now a demand. People want to know not just what a garment is made from, but who made it, where, and how.

And let’s be clear: this isn’t just about ethics. It’s about creativity and quality. Britain has world-class pattern cutters and machinists – trained, experienced, and hungry to work on high-end, high-concept designs. Yet too often, they are overlooked in favour of offshore production, or worse, written out of the story altogether.

What message does it send when Fashion Week showcases design innovation while the British manufacturing sector is struggling to fill roles, attract young talent, or gain basic visibility?

The BFC’s vision of decentralisation is admirable – but decentralising creativity without reinforcing production is like building a house without a foundation. The design talent outside of London needs nearby, accessible, properly funded manufacturing options if we expect them to stay, grow, and compete.

So, let’s talk about the missing piece. Let’s talk about UK manufacturing. Let’s open up Fashion Week to include the entire supply chain – not just as a back-of-house necessity, but as a front-and-centre pillar of our fashion identity.

Why can’t we imagine Fashion Week programming that includes tours of UK factories? Panel discussions with pattern cutters? Credits in show notes for the makers, not just the muses? Or better yet – direct partnerships between designers and manufacturers celebrated in public?

Fashion is not just about shows and clothes – as Weir herself said – “it’s a preview of society’s next chapter.” And surely that next chapter needs transparency and acknowledgement for those who bring fashion to life.