Fashion Enter, the award winning social enterprise that is focused on training and growth in the fashion production sector, are thrilled to announce that it has been awarded funding to develop a Tailoring Academy. Thanks to ‘The Good Growth Fund’, Mayor Sadiq Khan’s new £70 million regeneration programme to aid growth and community development in London, the London Borough of Haringey Council and Fashion Enter Ltd. will work in collaboration to establish a Tailoring Academy that will train over 600 individuals per year.
The educational division of the company commenced with Stitching Academy, which launched in July 2013 with funding from ASOS.com, Haringey Council and Jobcentre Plus. ASOS.com have long supported Fashion Enter’s initiatives including the development of The Factory, which now produces up to 10,000 garments per week and the highly successful apprenticeship programme, which works with well-known UK brands and retailers.
With a growing skills gap in the UK fashion manufacturing sector Fashion Enter expanded its learning facility in April 2015 to include the Fashion Technology Academy (FTA). Situated alongside the Factory in Haringey, the FTA offers qualifications across the entire garment life cycle incorporating pattern making, fabric inspection, laying and cutting, quality control, machine maintenance and stitching
In 2017 Fashion Enter was classified as the preferred training provider for The Savile Row Bespoke Association and now implements Bespoke Tailoring training from Levels 2 & 3 as well as the ABC Level 5 Diploma. The bid to develop a state of the art Tailoring Academy situated a few doors away from Fashion Enter’s main hub in North London seemed like the next logical step. The Tailoring Academy, Unit 5, Crusader Estate, will comprise of a 11,500 square foot space that will be fully equipped with the latest tailoring machinery to train and develop new skills and standards for the sector.
CEO of Fashion Enter, Jenny Holloway comments:
“Everyone at the Fashion Technology Academy is ecstatic at the news that we have been awarded funding for a Tailoring Academy. I was a tailoring selector at M&S many moons ago and I always loved tailoring and the complexities of fit and construction. Now we are in a position to invest in new machinery to fill a 11,500 sq. foot space and we can build up skills for bespoke tailoring such as handmade buttons holes, canvasing a coat by hand, understanding the construction of floating chest pieces etc. Today marks the start of a new generation of master tailors!”
Fashion Enter, and its associated companies, is committed to supporting British manufacturing by providing skills and job opportunities to the next generation who will take it into the future.
The opening date for the Tailoring Academy will be revealed in due course.