Manchester Fashion Week readies to return with four-day programme

Manchester Fashion Week is gearing to return from 9-12 September with a four-day programme across the city's St John's neighbourhood, “uniting designers, brands, manufacturers, educators and innovators”.

Having returned after a 10-year hiatus in September 2025, Manchester Fashion Week will once again have sustainability at its core.

Rather than a schedule of trend forecasting and brand showcases, there will be a focus on the economics of where clothes are made, who makes them and under what conditions, and what the industry's rush towards AI actually costs, as well as how to counteract “synthetic fibre dependency”.

‘Changing Narratives’ opens the week on 9 September at the point of production, with 'Near, Far and Number 10 North' examining the balance between nearshoring, offshore manufacturing and supply chain resilience.

The day will cover regenerative materials and next-generation animal-free innovation, before “confronting the realities of fashion's global workforce” and how environmental progress can be made without displacing the livelihoods that depend on it.

Day two will put the emphasis on ‘Changing Behaviour’, with ‘The Polyester Paradigm’ exploring fashion's dependence on synthetic fibres and the innovations attempting to break it. The day will run through repair, resale and take-back models, the independent businesses holding on to space in city centres, and the accessibility gap in adaptive design.

Then, on Friday 11 September, a ‘Changing Industry’ narrative will look at the systems beneath the product, from data and traceability in ‘The Data Thread’ to values-driven leadership in 'Leading with Purpose', and a series of sessions on how AI, 3D technology and automation are reshaping the way fashion is designed, produced and sold.

Up-and-coming designers will also benefit from ‘The Cost of Creativity’ session, which will address the financial reality of building a career as a creative.

Finally, on Saturday 12 September, ‘Wear the Change’ will aim to put circularity into practice with ‘The Big Swap’, one of the UK’s largest clothing swap events, and the ‘Susty Club’ sustainable fashion pop-up.

Across the four days, the catwalk programme will bring new and international voices to Manchester, with presentations from Malon Fashion, Kit Giroux, Gbadebo, Victoria Jenkins, ESÁI, MGNL, BEPO, Make It Wet, Mancunia Ugly, Pretty You London, Elite Preloved and J.O.Studio, and Drew Kent, alongside IGC Fashion, which brings the creativity of Uganda's growing fashion industry to an international stage.

Leading future fashion platform Eco Age will also host some of the industry's most influential voices, including designer and activist Katharine Hamnett, Lynne Franks, one of the founding figures behind London Fashion Week, and Tamsin Blanchard.

The programme is “underpinned by a commitment to practice as well as debate”. In partnership with Collective Fashion Justice, Manchester Fashion Week has introduced a minimum materials standard that all participating collections must meet, banning fur, wild animal skins and wild bird feathers, and permitting leather only where it is already in circulation.

Gemma Gratton, Executive Producer of Manchester Fashion Week, said: “Manchester Fashion Week is not simply about putting clothes on a runway; it is about asking what fashion needs to become next.

“Our collaboration with Collective Fashion Justice reflects that ambition, to challenge how we think about the impact behind what we wear, while giving designers practical tools to make better choices.

“The future of fashion will not be built by one discipline or one organisation; it will be built by bringing the right people together and giving the next generation the opportunity to shape it.”

Manchester Fashion Week is supported by a year-round education programme delivered by the Northern Fashion Collective. More than 270 pupils across nine Manchester and Salford schools have reworked T-shirts, now being assembled into an installation by University of Manchester students, in a project funded by Accenture.