UK firsts – from the factory system to fast fashion and the future
The United Kingdom’s fashion and textile industry is the third largest in the world after China and the United States, with the value of its retail market put by various analysts at between £53-57 billion in 2024.
With around 4.3 billion garments predicted to be sold in the UK in 2024, British consumers are each purchasing an average of 64 items annually – illustrating the level to which fast fashion has established its foothold – with between 30-40% of purchases now made online and only around 6% of all sales falling into the ‘luxury’ category.
At the same time, fashion is the largest of the UK’s creative industries, employing some 1.3 million people and there is currently a surge in the demand for sustainable and ethically produced clothing, so things are changing fast.
Influence
The influence of the UK’s fashion and textile industry is far reaching and pervasive, which is perhaps not surprising, given the country’s major role in ushering in the Industrial Revolution back in the late 18th Century.
The manufacturing of textiles was at the heart of this eventually global transformation, with UK innovations such as the Spinning Jenny, the Water Frame and the Power Loom paving the way for the growth of the first factory systems.
These were initially established largely in the country’s northern counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where today only pockets of textile manufacturing remain. The textile factory system spread to other European countries and the USA in the 19th Century, and in the 20th Century, to Asia.
Historic brands
The legacy of the UK’s initial dominance in textile manufacturing, however, is still evident today in numerous ways, firstly, through the influential position of its historic brands.
These include Burberry, known for its distinctive tartan pattern and trench coats and established in 1856, Marks & Spencer, a pioneer of affordable retail clothing founded in 1884, and Barbour established in 1894 and known globally for its high-quality outerwear – particularly its waxed jackets. Pentland Group, via brands including Berghaus, Ellesse and Speedo, has been highly influential in the rise of advanced sports and activewear.
UK brands have always moved with the times. Back in 1969, for example, Primark was instrumental in creating one of the first blueprints for retail fast-fashion in bricks-and-mortar stores that has been emulated around the world.
More recently, ASOS and Boohoo were two of the first brands to kick-start the online retail fashion model with their e-commerce platforms launched in 2000 and 2006 respectively. Both offer a vast selection of clothing targeting young consumers and were early in leveraging social media and influencer partnerships to enhance market presence.
Plant automation
The UK’s textile legacy has also been crucial in other ways to the development of today’s highly complex, globalised fashion and textiles supply chain.
Coats Group plc, for example, was founded over 250 years ago and now has operations across 50 countries, with a workforce of over 17,000 people. It remains the world’s largest manufacturer of sewing threads and structural components for apparel, footwear and performance materials, ensuring its reach is significant.
Today, Coats is also playing a key role in the automation of textile manufacturing operations worldwide, through its advanced data-driven supply chain sourcing and planning solutions.
Testing and control
Many sophisticated systems for testing and control in textiles and garment manufacturing have also been perfected by members of the British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA), drawing on a wealth of accumulated know-how.
Remarkably James Heal was established in 1872 – seven years before Thomas Edison’s invention of the lightbulb. Today it has a vast portfolio of instruments developed by testing experts for testing experts and trusted by leading brands, retailers, manufacturers and laboratories in over 70 countries.
Non-contact colour measurement and digital imaging is meanwhile the focus of Verivide with the industry-leading DigiEye system, which collects and processes data that can be communicated and shared instantly, enabling brands to significantly speed up quality control.
The latest automation innovation developed in the UK is the Shelton Vision WebSpector automated fabric inspection system which has been receiving major attention. As a result of patent-pending image processing techniques and sophisticated algorithms, this system can now accurately detect faults on fabrics with complex patterns during running production at very high speeds – a world first.
R&D investment
According to a recent report by UKFT and Oxford Economics, the UK fashion and textile industry contributes the equivalent of £1 in every £34 of the UK’s total gross value added (GVA) profits.
Between 2010 and 2020, the industry also invested over £1.4 billion in R&D, which is now resulting in major gains in productivity.
It is estimated that this will result in productivity gains equivalent to a GDP boost of £554 million by 2030, sowing the seeds for further innovation to flourish.