Leeds Fashion Initiative launches

Leeds Fashion Initiative, a project to reinvigorate the city’s fashion, clothing and textile industries, while supporting emerging fashion designers with training and business support, has been launched with a designer catwalk showcase.

Led by Lambert’s Yard and backed by Leeds City Council, the project is linked to the Centre for Fashion Enterprise, part of the London College of Fashion, and is also being backed by local educational institutions including Leeds College of Art, Leeds Beckett University, the University of Huddersfield and the University of Leeds.

Lambert’s Yard retail director Adam Jagger said: “Collaboration is at the heart of the LFI - the core belief that everyone has something to offer that is mutually beneficial. We’re proud to be bringing the old with the new, presenting young new designers in a city with a long history in fashion and textiles.”

The project launched with a catwalk show at Leeds City Museum last week and featured pieces from some of the country’s emerging fashion brands and former Centre for Fashion Enterprise protégés including Agi & Sam, Rejina Pyo and Christopher Raeburn. Other big names that participated included Giles by Giles Deacon, Aquascutum and Terry de Havilland.

The launch event also highlighted local emerging talent including Studio 805, Cabba and Danielle Romeril, all of whom have also been nurtured by the CFE. In addition, most of the garments showcased were made using cloth from A.W. Hainsworth and Sons, who have been creating quality cloth in Yorkshire since 1783 and are a key stakeholder in the Leeds Fashion Initiative.

Lambert’s Yard launches the Leeds Fashion Initiative

It is hoped that the strategic project will build on Leeds’ industrial heritage within the fashion and textile industries to provide opportunities for the future, as well as bring national and international expertise to the city, and help position Leeds as a recognised industry hub, in political and European circles.

The Leeds Fashion Initiative also hopes to open a Fashion Design Incubator and Garment Technology Workshop, which would provide enhanced education and training opportunities, as well as bridge the skills gap between further education and industry. This will in turn help provide a support network for the regions emerging fashion design talent and help retain fashion graduates in the region.

Commenting on the project, Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council added: “The Leeds Fashion Initiative is a great example of a public/private partnership that aims to build on Leeds’ industrial heritage to help create the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and the Council is very pleased to offer its support.”

Images: Lambert’s Yard/Alice Wint