A social enterprise in London and Leicester that runs ethical garment manufacturing, fashion training academies and industry support programmes.
Fashion-Enter Ltd describes itself as a leading social enterprise committed to ethical garment manufacturing, fashion education and industry support. It brings these together under several connected names: FashionCapital, the Fashion Technology Academy, the FC Designer Workspace and Leicester Made. In practice that means making clothes in factories in the UK, training people to make them, giving young designers affordable studio space, and working with retailers and brands on how to produce clothing fairly. It also runs a garment repair centre in London with the outdoor clothing company Patagonia, set up in 2023.
Its own mission wording is about creating real opportunities and driving systemic change, and empowering people from all backgrounds to build careers in a more sustainable and transparent fashion industry. The Fashion Technology Academy launched in London in 2015 and was described as the UK's first government-supported apparel manufacturing training academy, offering accredited qualifications from Level 1 to Level 5 and apprenticeships. Since 2018 the organisation has also contributed to a government and industry protocol aimed at ending labour exploitation in UK garment production. Its chief executive is Jenny Holloway. We did not find the year it was founded.
Fashion-Enter works in several places. Its London sites are in Haringey and Tottenham (the Fashion Technology Academy, a Tailoring Academy opened in 2019 and a Creative Callings programme) and in Finsbury Park (the designer workspace). In Leicester it runs a training academy, a fashion hub and the Leicester Made trade show, which the company says aims to restore the city as a centre of ethical garment manufacturing. In Newtown, Wales, it opened a factory in 2022, and a knitwear training and production centre called Maeknit followed in 2023.
On people and culture, the organisation's programmes show who it wants to reach. It has run free courses for under-represented communities, a creative programme for young people at risk, a workshop with Arsenal and Adidas for young people and a project in which prisoners at HMP Leicester made teddy bears from textile waste. It names partners including Tesco and ASOS for apprenticeships, Yoox Net-A-Porter and the King's Foundation for a technical residency, TikTok and the Graduate Fashion Foundation. All of this is the organisation's own account.
People at a social enterprise like this do many different jobs: machinists, pattern cutters and knitwear technicians in the factories, tutors and assessors in the academies, programme managers and community workers who run projects with young people, and event, communications and finance staff. Making clothes in the UK, and training others to do it, is skilled work that is often overlooked, and this is a place where students interested in making, teaching or social impact can see how fashion works behind the scenes. Its websites list current vacancies.
Website: www.fashioncapital.co.uk
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