Manchester Fashion Week City Takeover.
Manchester is set to rival the big four.
With an established history in the textile industry, Manchester has long pioneered fashion innovation and driven change. Manchester Fashion Week returned triumphantly for the second year running. This September, Manchester Fashion Week ran over four days, with an ambitious programme across multiple locations. Manchester Fashion Week's main hub was Versa Studios, a leading UK studio and production company. A home to many beloved BBC, Netflix, and Sky television shows. The vast space created an immense runway full of suspense, interest, and intrigue. This year's designers and production alone rivalled London, showing the North is, and always will be, a hot spot for talent and northern creatives. We spoke to Hayley Shaw, one of Manchester Fashion Week’s incredible organisers, about the event and how they aim to pioneer much-needed change in the fashion industry.
Malon Fashion at Manchester Fashion Week - Photography by Gift Isimoya @giftlenscreative
Manchester Fashion Week returned last year after a 10-year hiatus. What made you
decide to bring it back when you did?
“Fashion has never left this city. From music and football terraces to nightlife and subcultures, Manchester has always had its own look, identity and wardrobe. After ten years without a fashion week, it felt like the right moment to pick that thread back up - not to replicate what was happening elsewhere, but to build something with purpose that was distinctly Manchester. The North already has incredible capability across design, manufacturing, education, technology and innovation, but much of it remains fragmented. MFW is about bringing those worlds together”.
Set on a dark runway, dimly lit by studio lights, models walked through a room full of creatives and industry professionals. Amongst the designers was Drew Kent. Inspired by Queer Maximalism and known for crochet and sustainable practices in his avant-garde collections, and Godfrey Katende, founder of IGC Fashion, who uses deconstructed fabrics to create pieces inspired by African heritage. Each designer told a unique story built closely around their heritage, past experiences, sustainability and identity.
Drew Kent at Manchester Fashion Week. Photography by Ella Howard @ellefaye.photo
Another much-anticipated designer was Malon. After Mariuz closed MFW last year with a genderless avant-garde collection featuring torn fabrics, houndstooth, and repurposed vintage brooches to create a rags-to-riches feel. This year’s collection offered a profound take on repurposing. This year, mussels turned into a floor-length, backless gown and he created a mechanical bird dress with moving parts. Victoria Jenkins’s brand, Unhidden, turned heads on the runway and showed what the future of fashion runways could be: an adaptive collection for all. Victoria designs style-led pieces for those with disabilities who can’t always wear pieces in their own wardrobes. Fashion should be for everyone, not purely functional. Her collection features unique design attributes that help people with disabilities feel confident and comfortable.
MFW wasn’t just runways. It also included branded activations. A0, the electrical kitchen appliance retailer, collaborated with an art piece and activations that transformed the pre-show party into an eclectic showroom of music and colour. It showed that fashion extends far beyond our wardrobe; it’s part of our identity and how we live.
This year, the team carefully planned the spaces, from drink sponsors and cutting-edge designers to a networking after-party with Manchester-based Fashion Magazine Outset and well-established guest speakers. Manchester didn’t just showcase collections; it also opened discussions on pressing industry issues, from inclusivity and fair opportunities for the underrepresented to sustainable practices. The team ensures that those invited, from panel speakers and designers to guests, reflect and support true representation.
Inclusivity is central to the panel programme and runway. How are you ensuring that representation translates into genuine access, opportunity and influence for creatives who have traditionally been overlooked?
“Representation on a runway is a start, but it isn't enough if nothing changes once the lights go down. Manchester Fashion Week is a platform to celebrate designers, creatives and industry voices who have historically been underrepresented or overlooked. For fashion for “everybody” to gain greater equality across the industry, it has to be genuinely representative for us. The Northern Fashion Collective takes that further by creating pathways through education, industry and technology partnerships, and opening up careers across technical roles, manufacturing, sustainability and business - not just design. We also think carefully about who is in the room and who is shaping the conversation. If we want the industry to become more representative, the voices influencing its future need to reflect the people it has too often overlooked”.
MFW followed four themes, one for each day, centred on change: "changing narratives, changing behaviours, changing the industry, and wear the change". Panel subjects included sustainability and inclusivity around race, disability, and opportunities for graduates from working-class backgrounds. Manchester Fashion Week is working to promote changes in industry behaviour and what it means to lead with purpose. They also partnered with Collective Fashion Justice to introduce minimum material standards for every designer, prohibiting wild animal skins, furs and feathers and collaborated with Eco Age as a media partner to ensure conversations about garment construction responsibility and sustainable practices had a platform beyond the physical.
Manchester demonstrates how the industry should be and aims to open doors often left closed to underrepresented people or those at an unfair disadvantage. MCR Fashion Week invites industry insiders with experience in these subject matters to start conversations and work toward genuine change in the fashion industry: “Our industry-facing programme remains at the heart of MFW, bringing fashion professionals together to exchange knowledge, build connections and encourage better business practices”. Manchester remains a hub for inclusivity and representation, ensuring everyone who can help drive change is in the room.
Sustainability plays a major role for Manchester Fashion Week.
Bepo for Manchester Fashion Week. Photography by Ella Howard @ellefaye.photo
When selecting designers and panel speakers, how do you differentiate genuine sustainable practice from greenwashing, and what standards do you expect from participants?
“We look for substance over spectacle. Sustainability isn't a theme for us; it runs through the whole system. From materials and manufacturing to supply chains. Sustainability has become such a washed-out word, and for us it also means being willing to have uncomfortable conversations. Behind the Seams highlighted the people within fashion's supply chains and how the industry can do better, while The Elephant in the Room questioned the environmental impact of data centres and AI, alongside its potential to create more sustainable supply chains through advanced technology. We can't champion innovation without questioning its impact too. If we only talk about the comfortable parts of sustainability, we're not really addressing the system”.
Manchester Fashion Week places sustainability at the heart of its organisation. This year, the majority of the designers were slow-fashion and sustainable brands. Designers such as Bebo, founded by partners Ben and Natali, create fashion-forward outerwear from repurposed parachute nets with the purpose of creating a brand that encourages conversations around the importance of mental health and positivity and Make it Wet, founded by Meg, which, creates contemporary pieces inspired by the coast and fishing. Make it Wet uses dead-stock fabric and repurposed fishing nets.
Make it Wet at Manchester Fashion Week. Photography by Hayley Grace Crawlings @hayleygracecrawlings_
One notable show was Susty Club. Founder Lauren founded Susty Club as a collective of sustainable small businesses to give them exposure and opportunities. Today, Susty Club is a global community of over 150 independent businesses and conscious creators. Ten independent brands joined their Manchester Fashion Week activation. The show featured stalls selling vintage, repurposed and thrifted brands in fashion, art, accessories and homeware, alongside a runway show showcasing vintage fashion. The show itself was electric, full of energy and a real sense of community and change.
This year, the shows were bigger than ever, running over four days and including a public show at the Trafford Centre. Overall, Manchester has shown its forward-thinking and appreciation for northern creatives.
Manchester has a long-established history in the textile industry.
Bepo at Manchester Fashion Week. Photography by Ella Howard @ellefaye.photo
What does Manchester Fashion Week mean to you?
“To us it's about putting the record straight. The North was the manufacturing engine of this industry for a very long time, and that's almost been written out of the glossy, consumer-facing version of fashion's story. So it doesn't feel like claiming something new. It feels like reclaiming an identity that was always here. Manchester Fashion Week is a celebration of the city's style, which comes from subculture, terraces and nightlife rather than editorial pages, and it's a promise that this time we build something that lasts”.
Manchester is known for its music history, love of thrifted fashion, textile industry history, football, and urban culture. It’s true northern grit, innovation and a passion for change. At closing, the Manchester Fashion Week team hinted to the audience that next year the show would expand, with plans to be bigger than ever. However, nothing can be revealed just yet, but I am confident that Manchester Fashion Week is a show to keep on your radar.
Credits:
Written by:
Gena Aspinall-Martin
Photography:
Ella Howard @ellefaye.photo
Hayley Grace Rawlings @hayleygracerawlings_
Gift Isimoya @giftlenscreative
Gbadebo for Manchester Fashion Week. Photography by Gift Isimoya @giftlenscreative