Fashion is Disconnected: exploring the potential of design-integrated, locally-based manufacturing units to reconnect designer and maker, and ultimately reconnect the consumer with the garment creation process for a new system of Fashion 2.0

This research considers the feasibility of Localism. It examines UK garment manufacturing, identifying two alternative approaches, the so-called slow fashion and integrating technology into a lean manufacturing model. Through a review of current literature and insights from industry, potential opportunities and barriers have been identified, primarily an ageing workforce and a skills gap in subsequent generations. By exploring the role of education, the disconnect between academia and industry, and the impact of the current system on social, environmental and economic factors, it delivers new important analysis by taking a unique inside perspective of the needs of UK manufacturing. This analysis is crucial to our knowledge and understanding of the sector's future potential, addressing the graduate skills gap identified by employers and movement towards a direct to consumer (DTC), low-waste model. Thus, the Localism model has the potential to reform education from primary to university level, increase the appeal of careers within manufacturing, encourage closer collaboration between fashion academia and industry and ultimately, transform the UK fashion sector into what could be described as Fashion 2.0