The Interview: Manchester Fashion Week returns with a bold focus on sustainability, innovation and community
After a decade-long hiatus, Manchester Fashion Week makes a bold return today, ushering in a new era for the UK’s fashion calendar. With a renewed focus on sustainability, technology, and community, the event aims to reshape the future of British fashion.
Running from 9-11 September 2025, the reimagined Manchester Fashion Week is designed to future-proof the industry by championing innovation and fostering meaningful collaboration between emerging designers and established heritage brands.
In this exclusive interview with TheIndustry.fashion, Executive Producer Gemma Gratton discusses the significance of Manchester Fashion Week's revival. She shares her vision for establishing Manchester as a leading fashion hub beyond London’s shadow, and reveals how the event is structured to elevate emerging talent and provide them with the exposure and support they need to thrive.
Manchester Fashion Week is returning after ten years. Why is now the right time to bring it back?
The fashion industry is facing a reckoning – environmental pressures, the need for new technology, and consumers demanding more from the brands they buy. Manchester, as the birthplace of the modern textiles industry, is uniquely positioned to respond. After ten years away, the city has continued to grow as the UK’s fast fashion capital and a growing hub for fashion-tech startups. We saw the opportunity to reimagine what a fashion week can be: bold, education-led, and focused on culture, innovation, and future-proofing. This city has always been about creating, building, and challenging the norm – and the fashion industry needs that energy right now.
What do you hope to achieve?
Manchester is home to a diverse pool of talent – from designers and stylists to technologists and educators. Our vision is to provide a hub to nurture and showcase talent and innovation from Manchester and beyond, to ultimately cement the city’s role in the global fashion landscape. The goal is to connect the people who can drive real change and give them a platform to test new ideas and new ways forward. We also want to shine a spotlight on education, innovation, and transformation. If we can help even a few brands rethink how they work or inspire young designers to build with integrity from the start, that’s real progress.
MFW aims to "lay the groundwork for a new era of sustainable, tech-driven design" and to future-proof the British fashion industry by focusing on sustainability, innovation, and community collaboration. How?
We’ve structured the programme to go deeper than just catwalk shows. We’re running panels on supply chain transparency, workshops on greenwashing with UN experts, showcasing innovators developing next-gen materials, as well as heritage brands sharing the practices that have kept them relevant. It’s about bringing heritage makers together with start-ups and researchers, so that the old wisdom meets the new tools. That’s how you build something lasting.
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What can attendees expect from the event?
The inaugural edition takes place at Campfield in St John’s, a striking industrial space built in the late 1800s and recently refurbished. It feels fitting to host Manchester Fashion Week in a historic building, marking a new chapter for the city. The three days all have a different focus. We open with Heritage & Future-Proof — looking at Manchester’s textile history but asking what a circular model looks like today. On the second day, Eco-Systems & Outerwear dives into British textile traditions and celebrates local founders. Then Tech & Innovation puts the spotlight on companies working with advanced materials and digital manufacturing.
MFW will showcase a mix of emerging designers and heritage brands, providing a platform for what the organisers call “radical collaboration and honest dialogue.” Why is this important?
The industry cannot progress without open exchange. Heritage brands carry knowledge that has allowed them to endure, while emerging designers bring fresh perspectives and approaches essential for the future. By putting them in the same space, you get progress. Our platform is inclusive - letting different voices share, challenge, and learn from each other without judgment.
How do you plan to support emerging talent and help them gain exposure during the event?
We’re giving emerging designers real visibility alongside established names – through runways, panels, and networking opportunities. Having a B2B focus allows us to connect the next generation of forward-thinking talent with industry buyers, manufacturers, and decision-makers. Exposure comes from those industry connections just as much as from the runway itself.
With key industry changemakers involved, how do you feel about their participation, and why is their involvement significant?
It’s hugely encouraging. People like Carry Somers and Safia Minney have spent years holding the industry to account, and Wayne Hemingway has been driving creative industries from the North for decades. Having these industry changemakers involved in Manchester Fashion Week adds weight and credibility, but it is also an opportunity to bring these pertinent voices and ideas together to be able to develop and think about the future of the industry in person, with the people who’ve been pushing for change long before it was fashionable.
Why is it important to position Manchester as a major fashion hub, especially since London usually dominates the scene?
Manchester has a £12 billion fashion economy of its own. We’ve got the big retailers, but also some brilliant start-ups in tech and sustainable manufacturing. London will always have its place, but it doesn’t represent the whole picture. Manchester has its own voice in music, sport, and art – fashion is no different. This is about giving the North visibility and a seat at the table. We want to show that young people do not need to gravitate towards London to be part of a thriving fashion scene. Manchester Fashion Week is helping put the city’s craftsmanship and innovation on a global stage.
How important is community involvement in MFW, and what opportunities are there for local people and businesses to participate?
Our approach is “Think Local, Act Global”, by tapping into the creative powers of Greater Manchester’s universities, creative networks, founders, and manufacturers. Even though this first year focuses on B2B, local brands and Northern designers are an intrinsic part of the programme.
We’re also running several events open to the public, such as the Future Fashion Fare. Highlights will also include panels on The Fabric of Britain, workshops with UN sustainability experts, and a finale runway with The Club PreLoved, spotlighting Manchester’s strength in high-quality, conscious brands.
How do you envision the impact of MFW on the broader British fashion industry? What are your ambitions?
My ambition is for Manchester to be recognised not just as a fashion capital, but as a city driving solutions to the industry’s biggest environmental and social challenges. I’d like Manchester Fashion Week to prove that fashion weeks can be about more than spectacle. They can push the industry forward, influence business practice, and educate consumers. By uniting Manchester’s rich textile heritage with innovation, and education with action, we aim to show that Manchester can shift fashion culture forward. If, five years from now, Manchester is seen as the place where tough conversations were had and new ideas were tested, then we’ll have done our job. Fashion can and must do better, and Manchester is ready to lead the way.
