Faron Heaphy, a second year student on the BA Fashion Design course at Manchester Metropolitan University, undertook a paid internship at Toogood, a contemporary British brand creating clothing, furniture and objects, with support from the UKFT MADE IT scheme.

She said: “Within my internship, one element which I was keen to learn about was the secret world of production, which is mostly kept at a distance from university students whilst our creative practices are being nurtured and the intricacies of economics and marketing are kept at bay.

“In the first couple of weeks at Toogood, I was taken along to one of their local family-run factories that makes up a small amount of the brand’s outerwear. Here, I was shown how to carry out their quality control checks, comparing prototypes and initial twill measurements to commercial samples, making sure there was consistency within the styles, then seeing how this translated into tech packs for larger scale production.

“I was surprised and interested to see the intricacy taken when QC checking garments, showing me the importance of consistency when products are distributed to larger scale retailers, each with their own high standards reflective of their customer bases. Jess explained to me the different scales of production within Toogood and how they use this smaller factory to produce their more core heritage styles, highlighting the importance of this relationship as they’d been working with them since they’d first launched. The benefit of having this local factory is that the time frame of production, twilling and re twilling of samples is significantly reduced. Any snags in production can be handled easily and more efficiently by a factory that understands the brands aims and identity. This tight knit relationship appeared vital to the brand’s growth from smaller to larger scale production, from its experimental fabric manipulations at the start to its now international retail distribution.”

Other things Faron learnt during her internship

• How the brand articulates its identity and ethos
• How the brand creates consistency across departments
• How collaborations work and benefit the brand
• How staff can combine brand work with freelance work to stay creative
• How the team balances the relationship between the creative and marketing teams for commercial production

“It was fantastic it was to have Faron in the studio over the summer,” said Clemency Jones, studio & HR manager at Toogood. “She was such a help not only to the Production team but across the whole studio – always with a positive attitude and willingness to assist. She was able to see the inner workings of our fashion production process at a crucial point in the collection development and I hope she got a lot out of it.”

About MADE IT

Five university design students have undertaken paid internships at UK fashion and textile businesses including Cookson & Clegg, Nosakhari, London Contour Experts, LLUK and Toogood, as part of UKFT’s MADE IT scheme.

Students have been selected from the four participating universities on this year’s MADE IT programme: the University of Bolton, the University of Westminster, Manchester Metropolitan University and Buckinghamshire New University.

UKFT held a production and sourcing masterclass for fashion and textile design students at each university to promote the importance of production and sourcing within a rounded fashion education and to highlight the breadth of job opportunities across the supply chain. The sessions also highlighted the rich manufacturing expertise and specialisms within the UK.

Following the masterclasses, students took part in a production-focused project and UKFT selected winners to undertake the two-month internship scheme.

Supporting UK manufacturing

UKFT’s MADE IT campaign is generously supported by The Clothworkers’ Company and CapitB. It is part of UKFT’s broader aim of supporting the future of the UK manufacturing sector, which includes running projects to support growth and innovation, promoting and matchmaking businesses and ensuring that the next generation of skilled people entering the sector are being trained to the highest level.

UKFT MADE IT