Christopher Bailey joins MPs to help support Parliamentary launch of Yorkshire Fashion Week

25/06/08

Halifax born Christopher Bailey, Creative Director of Burberry, at the parliamentary launch of Yorkshire Fashion Week
 
MP’s from across Yorkshire last week met with figures from the world of fashion to celebrate the Parliamentary launch of Yorkshire Fashion Week.

Also on hand was local designer, milliner and owner of the Rockwife label to showcase some of her new collection.  

The Textile Centre of Excellence based in Huddersfield hopes to secure top-level, cross-party backing from the regions MPs to help launch Yorkshire Fashion Week as an annual event from next June.

A celebration of the regions world-class design and manufacturing talent, it's also hoped Yorkshire Fashion Week will encourage a new wave of Yorkshire fashionistas to train, develop and hone their skills in the regions fashion colleges.  

Yorkshire already has strong design links to the international fashion industry. Due to attend the launch and currently Design Director at resurgent English fashion-house Burberry with responsibility for producing eight collections a year as well as providing creative direction for store design, advertising and accessories, is Halifax-born Christopher Bailey.  

In manufacturing, Yorkshire-based textile producers create leading edge fabrics for some of the world’s premier fashion houses including Chanel, Prada and D&G, employing around 40,000 people.

Yorkshire Fashion Week aims to:
  •  Raise awareness of, promote and showcase regional design and manufacturing talent
  •  Attract greater numbers of ambitious students to regional universities and colleges who want to learn fashion design or launch their own collections
  • Develop links between design and manufacturing bases to maximise commercial exploitation of exciting, emerging regional design talent  

Bill Macbeth, MD of the Textile Centre of Excellence, commented:
‘We’re delighted to have already attracted so much positive attention and support for the idea of Yorkshire Fashion Week but today is really just the start of what will be an exciting year long series of events culminating next year in the first Yorkshire Fashion Week.  
Many people know Yorkshire already has an enviable history of textile production but we believe it also has an enviable future in fashion design and production.
 
It’s clear we have an immense pool of talent in the region that we need to encourage but we also want to make sure the local economy enjoys the benefits in terms of jobs by developing links between designers, textile producers and creative hubs such as our own Textile Centre of Excellence. ‘
 

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