Wear Abouts

So here it is, our final episode of season two, and some might say that we've saved the best until last. Strutty B*tch sashayed onto our radar as the lead of an amazing collaborative project, in which MFI students work as production assistants on an incredible catwalk show at Homobloc, one of the biggest events on Manchester's cultural calendar.  Strutty has worked on all kinds of events...

We're back this week with a special episode previewing our Manchester Fashion Institute Showcase, taking place on Tuesday, 19th May. It's one of the best days of the year at MFI, and this year, we want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the events.  We've got four great guests in this episode...  Christian Kuhwald, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Design Technology and...

The fashion industry generates a gargantuan amount of waste year-on-year, with billions of garments going straight to landfill.  Manchester-based start-up CircKit wants to help solve that problem and in the process, help brands to make money rather than waste it.  Founder Joe Darwen and Brand and Communications Manager Annabel Lindsay (an MFI grad) join us this week to discuss their plans to &quot...

This week, we welcome two of our recent graduates back on campus so they can catch us up on their game-changing project that's bringing garment production back to Manchester.  Jess O'Riley ( @j.o.studioo ) and James Robinson ( @coldonasunday ) met for the first time on one of their last days on campus at MFI and realised how much they had in common, as well as how differently they were b...

We're buzzing with this week's guest as our first Manchester Fashion Institute alumnus of the season joins us just as his brand goes stratospheric.  Ted Lloyd started the brand that would become MellowClo while studying BA Fashion Buying and Merchandising, but it was his experience working in the buying team at SEVENSTORE that really supercharged his understanding of how the industry wor...

This week, we welcome Laura to the show. She's currently Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Adanola and before that was Marketing Director at Aries. Driving the narrative for two of the biggest contemporary fashion brands of the 2020s is no joke, so we're really excited to learn about Laura's career path and to get some of her insight on the industry.  In this episode, we talk about...

Wear Abouts is back! This season, we're kicking things off with one of our favourite fashion photographers, Morgan Barfield. Her stunning work for brands like Hoka, Keen, Welter Experiment and Sums brilliantly captures outdoor and running culture.  We discuss the state of play of female representation in the fashion industry's creative roles, switching specialisms, founding and running a...

Your favourite show about why fashion matters and how it fits into everyone's lives is back for a new season, with a new team just in time for Spring.  Our hosts, Cat and May, are here to introduce themselves and the new crew to you. Make sure you're subscribed in time for our first episode of the new season, which drops on Monday!  While you're at it, follow our brand new, shiny, d...

As the Global Vice President of Product Innovation and Customer Creation at Nike, Jalaj Hora sat at the cutting edge of digital technologies in fashion design and manufacturing. From that perspective, he worked on and witnessed many positive moves towards sustainable practices, but also identified areas where things weren't joining up.  In this episode, we find out how he's looking to fi...

University is often a journey of ups and downs and plenty of us get in some scrapes along the way. When Ellie Louise Brown fell over the "tiniest step" and badly broke her ankle during her time at Manchester Fashion Institute, she found herself feeling pretty frustrated. The experience of losing her mobility sparked an interest in designing for those whose disability makes finding usable...

Luxury shoes have long been resoleable and considered an investment piece that,  properly cared for, can last a lifetime. Trainers (or sneakers if you prefer) have been the dominant segment in the footwear sector for a while now and look set to hit almost £70 billion in revenue in 2025. Luxury sneakers are established as a go-to fashion item and the re-sale market pushes lots of models into a luxu...

The fashion industry can seem hard to gauge from the outside in terms of diversity. In some respects, it seems one of the most inclusive, open, creative industries, with intersectional representation throughout. On the other hand, it's often considered a closed-off space, with power and influence truly held by a select few. Many regard that routes into a career in fashion are far easier if yo...

Susan Postlethwaite is Professor of Fashion Technologies at Manchester Fashion Institute and the Director of the Robotics Living Lab a £3.9million AHRC-funded project that has brought cutting-edge robotic technology to the campus.  In this episode, we learn about Susan's career in the industry as a designer for the likes of Giorgio Armani, her time in academia and her focus on robotic tech as...

In our first episode, we're joined by Manchester-based menswear influencer Jordan Bunker. His mission is to make his audience think more consciously about their relationship with clothing. Fast fashion and Instagram have gone hand-in-hand for years, but some "creators" are avoiding deals with those brands in a bid to share a more sustainable lifestyle, Jordan is a key proponent of t...

Fashion is an enduring part of our lives. Whether you live for it, or just dress yourself in the morning as a practical necessity, it's woven into our every day. In this new podcast from students at Manchester Fashion Institute, we'll explore how the choices we make as consumers shape the industry that accounts for 2% of global GDP and consequently, shapes the world we live in.  Starting...