Make it British founder talks the fair's return and UK manufacturing challenges

Make it British Live! is set to return to the UK trade fair calendar in January 2027, seven years after its last planned edition was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But for founder Kate Hills, the timing is about more than bringing back an established industry event. It reflects a growing need to reconnect brands with a UK manufacturing industry that has become increasingly fragmented.

The event will return on January 12 and 13, 2027, as part of The London Textile Fair at the Business Design Centre, where it will occupy its own hall. Here, UK garment, knitwear, swimwear, lingerie and home textile manufacturers will sit alongside pattern cutters, sample makers, fabric printers and accessory suppliers.

Hills originally launched Make it British as a blog in 2011 after seeing the UK manufacturing-base decline first-hand during her career as a designer and buyer. She subsequently worked for Burberry, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams as UK production was moved further offshore. “I got so disillusioned with everything going offshore that I wanted to do something to support the UK manufacturers that were left in the UK,” Hills told FashionUnited.

The response to the blog quickly showed that the problem didn’t solely lie in the lack of UK manufacturing, but instead the waning visibility and connection between those manufacturers and the brands looking for them. “Pretty soon after I started doing that, I had lots of designers and brands, and even people in buying that I'd been working with before, contacting me saying, ‘Actually, we want to work with UK factories. Can you help us find UK factories?’”

Hills went on to identify demand across the wider supply chain, from garment manufacturers and accessory makers to trim suppliers and fabric mills. The result was Meet the Manufacturer, launched in 2014 before being rebranded Make it British Live! in 2018.

The show attracted more than 18,000 visitors across five editions, with its planned 2020 event ultimately cancelled as the UK entered lockdown. Hills attempted to move the concept online, but said the physical nature of manufacturing made that difficult. “We tried to take it online. It's just not the same when you can't meet factories and meet them in person and touch and feel the fabrics and look at the garments,” she noted.

Following the show's cancellation, Hills spent several years consulting with brands seeking UK production. Meanwhile, manufacturers continued to ask when the event would return. “Everyone kept saying to me, ‘When are you bringing the show back?’ And no one more so than the manufacturers, because they kept saying, ‘I've got so much business from your show, and it's not been the same since.’”

For Hills, the response pointed to a wider commercial problem for UK manufacturers, many of which are small businesses focused on production rather than marketing and business development, making it difficult to consistently attract new customers. “Manufacturers are great at making amazing stuff, but they’re not very good at advertising and marketing themselves. They’re small teams, so they don’t always have the time to be chasing new customers.”

The new partnership with The London Textile Fair, which was launched in 2007 by John Kelly, is intended to address part of that gap by placing manufacturers alongside the textile suppliers that brands already visit when sourcing materials. Hills said the partnership seemed like the perfect combination of events, seeing as there is a significant overlap between attendees of each. She added: “It means that we can still bring in the garment manufacturers, the fabric printers, the accessory makers, the pattern cutters, and they can still buy from the UK mills there. Also, any of the European mills will then be able to find local manufacturers."

A different manufacturing landscape

The decision to relaunch comes as interest in UK production has increased, but the manufacturing landscape is not the same as it was when Make it British last held a physical show. In order to gain a better understanding of the market, Hills has made it her mission to visit 100 UK manufacturers during 2026, with around 50 visits completed so far.

She has found continued investment and enthusiasm among some businesses, including family-owned manufacturers bringing younger generations into the industry. There is also a big interest in British-made materials, such as wool, with a few British wool-based suppliers due to come to the show.

Yet this enthusiasm sits within a backdrop impacted by rising operating costs, higher insurance bills and increased National Insurance costs. “So it is a much more challenging landscape than it was for them, probably five years ago, before Covid, when I closed the last show,” Hills said.

Regionally, the picture is also uneven. Leicester, once home to hundreds of garment manufacturers supplying major fast fashion businesses, has been particularly affected by reputational damage, reduced domestic orders and the movement of production overseas. Hills noted: “Leicester has been hit particularly hard. I think some of the factories in Leicester that got the bad press kind of deserved it, and the good ones are the ones that are still remaining.”

At the same time, Hills is seeing evidence of a new generation entering manufacturing. One manufacturer she knows helped at Make it British as a fashion student around 10 years ago and now runs his own factory. “Ten years later, he's now got his own factory and he's thinking about exhibiting at the show, so that’s come full circle,” she said.

From interest to orders

The challenge for the UK industry comes down to creating consistent orders needed to sustain factories and skills. Hills points to public procurement as one area where greater demand could have a wider impact, particularly through UK-made uniforms for organisations such as the NHS and Ministry of Defence.

“We're trying to get our government to make at least some of the uniforms for the Ministry of Defence and for the NHS in the UK because currently the amount they do make is tiny,” she said. “That would really help the UK garment industry across the board because if the government has the confidence to place those contracts, it means that the factories can employ more people.”

In turn, the more people that can sew in factories, the more those skills can get passed down, helping younger people to build the confidence needed to go into the manufacturing sector. This is also where Hills sees the role of Make it British Live, extending beyond showcasing manufacturing into the creation of commercial relationships between companies that need production and factories that need orders.

The response to news of the fair’s return has so far suggested that demand for that connection remains strong. “We've got a lot of the previous exhibitors registered and some new ones that are maybe companies that didn't even exist or weren't even manufacturing five years ago,” Hills said. “It's a really nice mix of previous exhibitors and new ones coming in.”

Visitor interest has also exceeded her expectations. “We've had so many more people already register to attend the event than I could have even thought of, really. So many people are really interested and excited about it coming back.”

Hills said there has been discussions surrounding talks and panel events alongside the exhibition, however the format has not yet been finalised. Her priority currently remains on the connections created on the exhibition floor, which is perhaps the clearest indication of why Make it British is returning now.

The renewed conversation around British manufacturing has created interest, but interest alone cannot rebuild a supply chain. Manufacturers need customers, brands need accessible production partners and the industry needs mechanisms that bring the two together. As Hills concludes: “What I do love about UK manufacturers is they refuse to give up. Despite all the adversity, they all still say, ‘I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I just love what I'm doing.’”