Pic: Future Fashion Factory
More than £2 million investment has now been secured for innovation in the UK fashion and textile industry over the first three funding calls by the Future Fashion Factory, an industry-led collaborative research programme linking the textile design and manufacturing centres within the Leeds City Region with the creative design and retail centre of London.
The programme involves collaboration with the Universities of Leeds, Huddersfield and the Royal College of Art, as well as the Textile Centre of Excellence in Yorkshire.
Thirteen additional collaborative research and development (R&D) projects have been approved in the programme’s third Innovation funding call, supporting independent designers, heritage Yorkshire mills and fashion technology companies.
Each project addresses a challenge identified by industry partners from Future Fashion Factory’s community of over 270 fashion businesses and professionals, from new augmented reality/virtual reality experiences of high value fashion and textiles to more sustainable materials and designs for outerwear and footwear, said a press release from the programme.
Future Fashion Factory is part of the?Creative Industries Clusters Programme, an £80 million initiative led by the?Arts and Humanities Research Council?(AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
“This year has presented a unique set of challenges for the fashion and textile industry, requiring a raft of new solutions while accelerating changes that were already under way, not least digitalization,” said Stephen Russell, director of Future Fashion Factory.
“We had a fantastic response to this funding call, which shows the appetite for innovation among UK businesses. By supporting these exciting projects, we want to pave the way for continued growth and resilience in the UK’s world-renowned luxury fashion industry,” he added.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
More than £2 million investment has now been secured for innovation in the UK fashion and textile industry over the first three funding calls by the Future Fashion Factory, an industry-led collaborative research programme linking the textile design and manufacturing centres within the Leeds City Region with the creative design and retail centre of London.