Fashion hub collaboration is catwalk ready
LEEDS’ creative industries are in the spotlight again as two of the city’s best-recognised brands collaborate on a stylish new addition.
Leeds Beckett University has teamed up with 230 year-old textiles business AW Hainsworth to launch the Creative, Fashion and Textile Hub at Hainsworth’s own historic mill site.
The mill has has been newly-converted to create a “collaborative” environment for Hub members, and is set to launch later this month.
The hub will provide a space for 10 growing businesses in the creative, fashion and textile industries. They will have access to expert mentoring, business training and networking services via Leeds Beckett’s Enterprise and Innovation Hub.
Leeds has been working on its fashion credentials of late, with the launch of shopping centres Trinity Leeds and the much-anticipated Victoria Gate – with John Lewis thrown in for good measure of course.
Lamberts Yard fashionistas and vintage stores such as Blue Rinse have also put Leeds on the map for indie fashion, whilst Burberry also announced it will be moving its iconic coat manufacturing to Leeds’ South Bank.
Hainsworth itself, founded in 1783, is probably best known for making the famous Hainsworth Guard Scarlet cloth which is worn by the Queen’s Guards outside Buckingham Palace.
TheBusinessDesk.com spoke to textile manager and director Adam Hainsworth. He said: “As you can imagine we’re an old mill so we’ve had to get the offices suitable for up and coming startups who are used to university equipment and facilities.
“We’ll be bringing in the latest equipment, exceeding the latest standards within an old textile mill, so it’s a combination of the heritage and modern offices with a nice touch.”
He added: “As the companies change and expand we have room for expansion at the factory so we can then move and convert some of the other redundant spaces into hubs and units so that they can expand if they want to, and hopefully they will as that’s the objective!”
Simon Baldwin, acting head of enterprise at Leeds Beckett University, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with AW Hainsworth at an exciting time for the fashion and textile industry in and around Leeds.
“Our facility here will support the creation and growth of new and innovative businesses which will help translate Leeds’s historic association with textile and fashion to the new digital generation.”
