From the Margins to the Centre by Justin O'Connor Derek Wynne

Author:Justin O'Connor, Derek Wynne [Justin O'Connor, Derek Wynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138416130
Google: V3MutAEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-27T04:33:07+00:00

Cooperation between individual firms in terms of design, marketing and sales

Similarly on the retail side there was emerging a close network of co-operation between very small micro businesses just starting out and the more established firms. Although still micro themselves they did have some confidence in their ability, and they would become the most crucial part in the promotion of the small Manchester pop fashion scene. They invested their success in others by allowing designers space in their units to display their stock. Two such people are Ursula Dorrigan from Wear It Out and Fred Royal from Big Banana:

That was always a passion of mine to sort of give people who are starting out a chance to perform in a commercial market ... you know, people who might take their clothes to a bigger shop and they’d say, ‘no, you’ve got threads here or whatever’ ... or ... ‘I don’t know your name ... so we don’t want your designs’. I always wanted to give people that chance because it doesn’t take much to make a space in your unit and all the garments are on a take back arrangement, if they don’t sell we return the garments ... everybody is happy really. A lot of the designers who started through me have got their own units now ... they are doing really well, people like Heyday, Consalvo Pellachia, all very well established Manchester and national designers. Don’t get me wrong I don’t just do this for their benefit I get a lot out of it also, it keeps me on my toes to see all the talent (interview with Ursula Dorrigan).

The designers themselves who traded then, and still trade from there today, realize the benefits that Wear It Out offered to them at the very beginning. As Sally acknowledged:

I knew about Wear It Out ... and that used to be the initial place to sell in Manchester ... It was held in quite high esteem and it was a huge step up the ladder if you could sell through them because there were a lot of designers at that time ... Even today Wear It Out has a good reputation because a lot of buyers go directly to them and it is through the shop that they get in contact with the designers.

From an industry with a strong historical link to underhand, secretive working relationships with others in the field, this novel example of cooperation is quite unique and works very well. Of course there are problems in some cases where people are protective over their designs and try to keep the new fabrics a secret, this is ‘par for the course’, in such a dynamic and high profile industry as fashion.

This friendly and cooperative way of working is not just something which is common in new businesses, although this is a feature of young firms, as many of the designers have been associated with this way of working after they had established themselves and moved onto to bigger things.

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