British Fashion Industry Manufacturers and Designers are uniting to produce Masks and Personal Protective Clothing (PPE) for Front Line Staff during COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
British Fashion Industry Manufacturers and Designers are uniting to produce Masks and Personal Protective Clothing (PPE) for Front Line Staff during COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
28th March 2020
Unprecedented times call for collaboration. Over the past week we have seen the fashion industry unite and support the sector and our wider communities nationwide and across the NHS.
Production of Masks and Personal Protective Clothing (PPE) for Front Line Staff during COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Fashion Roundtable this week brought together designers, manufacturers, the UK Cabinet, DIT and brands in an unprecedented support network, to create a solution pathway to the lack of PPE clothing for the NHS and wider public. This has a two pronged approach, with:
Kate Hills, from Make It British is uniting UK manufacturers to produce PPE for frontline staff; while designer Phoebe English is leading a team of independent UK designers - including Bethany Williams and Holly Fulton - to produce non-front line protective clothing with the Emergency Designer Network.
Kate Hills, Founder, Make It British: “We are working on finding all of the UK manufacturers that can switch production to provide an end-to-end solution for PPE that is made locally. Whilst the government is currently concentrating on importing these products, this is a short term solution. Once these resources dry up, which they will do as global demand increases, we will need to tap into the manufacturing base that we have in the UK. We have had amazing support from a diverse range of manufacturers and I have every confidence that the UK textile industry is able to adapt and be agile enough to cope with the challenges ahead.”
Phoebe English, British Designer: “PPE is in urgent need, each day that passes more and more requests come in, we are making a network of at home makers who can aim to fulfill short term needs for key workers as a voluntary endeavour called Emergency Designer Network.”
Lobbying for support for self employed and freelancers
Following the Government announcement on 26th March for support for self employed and freelancers, Fashion Roundtable continue to lobby for the fashion sector, as we believe that there is inconsistency in the Chancellor’s response: PAYE workers receiving up to £2500 whatever their incomes, self employed only receiving support up to £2500 if they earn under £50,000 and company directors not receiving any financial support. We are advocating for parity for all three working streams and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Textiles and Fashion and the Co-Chair of The Ethics and Sustainability In Fashion APPG for which Fashion Roundtable are secretariats of both groups, alongside our policy team are committed to communicating this, with a series of reports, recommendations and on-going stakeholder and governmental engagement. To use our letter to MPs on this topic, please click on the link here.
On Friday 27th March we held our weekly webinar where we hosted an online forum with Alasdair Hutchinson from IPSE, Emergency Designer Network’s Holly Fulton and Bethany Williams, Kate Hills from Make It British and Ivana Bartoletti from Deloitte. These webinars are being hosted each Friday at 2pm, to dial in please use the code here.
Tamara Cincik, CEO & Founder, Fashion Roundtable: “Our weekly webinars are an important opportunity for fashion stakeholders to understand the key aspects of our work across policy at a time when we are all in self-isolation. Today’s webinar brought the best of the UK fashion industry’s New Generation, who are inspirational in working alongside, myself, the team at Fashion Roundtable, Make It British and the wider manufacturing community in the UK, to support those on the frontline in the UK’s fight against COVID-19. It was also important to share our work with IPSE and other organisations with whom we have collaborated in advocacy for fashion’s many freelancers, self employed and SMEs. Meanwhile Ivana’s comments about data privacy are relevant for all of us who want to ensure that what we read is correct and not led by vested interest algorithms.”
Data security and the impact of COVID-19 on our privacy with Ivana Bartoletti
Ivana Bartoletti is Co-founder of Women Leading in AI, alongside her role as Technical Director, Privacy at Deloitte. Ivana spoke on Fashion Roundtable’s webinar (27th March) about the need for all of us to ensure that upcoming legislation from the Government does not lead to a future loss of privacy and data sharing with larger tech companies, where our health information and all aspects of our security are made public to these larger corporations.
Ivana Bartoletti: “We need to stay alert in these uncertain times, so that everything about our health is in the hands of these large organisations. There is legislation in place already to mitigate against the coronavirus, we do not need more.”
Notes to Editors
Fashion Roundtable is the only organisation that sits between the fashion industry and policy leaders; Front Row to Front Bench
We are secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles and Fashion with members including Dame Eleanor Laing MP, Sharon Hodgson MP, Lord Tayor of Warwick, and John McNally MP .
Fashion Roundtable are also the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion chaired by Dr Lisa Cameron MP, co-chaired by Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey and Catherine West MP.
Fashion Roundtable’s Founder & CEO Tamara Cincik, has over 20 years’ experience in the industry and since launching Fashion Roundtable, has spoken publicly on Fashion and Politics with a range of high-profile business press including SKY TV, Vogue Business and Business of Fashion.
Fashion Roundtable’s community includes the most influential Fashion names, such as Katherine Hamnett CBE, Nick Knight OBE, designers including Ashish, Richard Malone and Bethany Williams winner of last year’s Queen Elizabeth II Award For Design.
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Director of Communications: Jodi Muter-Hamilton