Make it British Live! to return with The London Textile Fair in 2027

Make it British Live! will return on 12–13 January 2027 as a dedicated hall within The London Textile Fair, bringing British manufacturers and textile suppliers together at London’s Business Design Centre.

The trade show, founded by Make it British founder Kate Hills (main image), is returning after its planned 2020 edition was cancelled because of the pandemic. The collaboration will give brands, designers and buyers access to materials and UK production services during a single visit.

The Make it British Live! hall will feature British manufacturers covering garments, knitwear, swimwear, lingerie and home textiles. Fabric printers, sample makers, pattern cutters and accessory manufacturers will also exhibit alongside the textile mills already represented at The London Textile Fair.

Organisers said the combined January event will be the only UK trade show bringing fabric suppliers and manufacturers together in this format.

Make it British Live! returns after seven years

Hills launched the show as Meet the Manufacturer in 2014, before renaming it Make it British Live! in 2018. Those five earlier editions drew more than 18,000 visitors, and the latest completed event was held at the Business Design Centre in 2019.

“The London Textile Fair was the obvious choice for a collaboration with Make it British Live!” Hills said. “It is the biggest textile event in the UK and many of the mills that exhibited with us in the past already show there, and a large part of our audience is already walking through its doors to source fabrics, so it makes sense to offer them the option to be able to find local manufacturers in the same place.”

She said renewed political attention on reindustrialisation made it important to bring different parts of the domestic supply chain into one venue.

The London Textile Fair was established by John Kelley in 2007 and runs twice a year at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Around 350 exhibitors attend each edition, while the fair says it attracts approximately 5,000 professional visitors from high-street retailers, designer brands and independent businesses.

John and Fergus Kelley, organisers of The London Textile Fair, said the partnership aligned with the event’s work connecting fashion businesses with suppliers from Britain and overseas.

UK manufacturing returns to the policy agenda

The show’s revival follows calls for more dependable demand for domestic manufacturers. A 2026 Fashion Roundtable report identified longer contracts, clearer demand forecasts, accessible contract sizes and improved payment terms as ways to support investment and skills.

Hills also backed a recent industry call for British-made requirements in public textile contracts, starting with NHS and defence uniforms. The campaign said procurement rules should depend on where products are manufactured, not on where the winning supplier is registered.

British manufacturers can register their interest in exhibiting through Make it British, while brands, designers and buyers can register to attend through The London Textile Fair.