11 November 2021

Managing Transition in the UK Fashion Sector

Sandy Black, who is Professor of Fashion & Textile Design & Technology in the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London, wrote a blog for the latest research initative on climate change promoted by the Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC).

The PEC is part of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and funded through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which also funds the BFTT Creative Cluster.

PEC is consulting industry about the challenges that the sector faces, from its limited diversity, to skills gaps, barriers to trade, and local growth in the sector, in order to produce high-quality evidence for industry, policymakers and the wider research community.

Sandy’s blog illustrates how the UK fashion industry, like other sectors, is experiencing significant transformation due to the collision of three major issues: climate emergency, Brexit transitions and the economic and social crisis caused by Covid-19.

For a more in-depth overview of the sector, you may refer to our most recent BFTT report on Mapping the UK Fashion, Textiles and Technology Ecosystem, which we released in September 2021.