Creative Destruction: Deindustrialisation

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Creative Destruction De-industrialisation or
a Fashion Capital for the Creative Industries
in London Yara Evans and Adrian
Smith Department of Geography Queen Mary,
University of London London E1 4NS
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Synopsis London, Fashion and the Creative
Industries The Clothing Manufacturing Industry
in UK/London Garment producers in London and
Worlds of production De-industrialisation and
community restructuring Creative Destruction
creative industries, marginal communities and
the clothing industry in London
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London, Fashion and the Creative Industries

• Agenda for London development of creative
  industries
• Fashion design a central plank in agenda
• Designer fashion central to creative London
• Public and private agencies London as a
  fashion capital
• Initiatives LFF, Capital Fashion, London Apparel
  Resource Centre
• Issue with new agenda/policies
• emphasise significance of designer fashion in
  clothing industry
• sideline the diversity of clothing manufacturing
  (CMT/Design)
• Need to recognise linkages and interactions
  between
• worlds of production (Storper 1997)

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The Clothing Manufacturing Industry UK and London

• UK major economic sector/ source of jobs but in
  decline
• Employment 800,000 (early 20thc) 59,000 (early
  21thc)
• London important economic activity/source of
  jobs but in decline
• Structure of industry
• functional (vertical) buyer/agent
  manufacturer CMT
• ethnicrecent immigrants as business owners and
  employees
• subsectoral womens outerwear (casual, light,
  heavy) leather
• Industrys specific spatiality
• Production base and ethnic workforce North and
  East London
• Other features of industry
• sweatshop unregulated/ informal practices

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The Clothing Manufacturing Industry UK and London

• De-industrialisation of Garment Manufacturing in
  UK/London
• market forces
• domestic policy
• Market Forces (1970s)
• globalisation of clothing production new,
  low-cost producers in East Asia, North Africa,
  Central/Eastern Europe
• Domestic Industrial/Trade Policy (1980s)
• Sunset Industry no protective measures
  industrys contribution to economy limited by
  informal practices
• Outcomes
• large-scale outsourcing of production in UK to
  new producers
• Marks Spencer Made in UK policy 90
  (1980s) 10 (2003)
• increased importing of ready-made garments into UK

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Worlds of production and Garment Producers in
London

• Analysis of empirical results of research on
  garment producers in London through Storpers
  notion of Worlds of Production (1997)
• market world of production
• uncertainty/competition/downward pressure on
  prices
• interpersonal world of production
• design-intensive activity/close
  interaction/sharing of
  knowledge/ideas
• Framework helps understand the dynamics of change
  in industry
• Results reveal two main trajectories of change
  that mirror
• interconnected worlds of production
• decline (dominant trend)
• growth (smaller trend)

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Moving across Worlds of Productions
Market/Interpersonal

• Survival and growth through use of various
  strategies
• changing position in supply chain
• moving to short-run, high-value, quick response
  production
• subcontracting production to firms abroad
• developing higher-value design-led clothing
  production
• spreading risk across a range of activities

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Change in the Clothing Industry Decline and
Deprivation in London

• Industrial decline and manufacturing job loss
  dominant trend
• Relationship between
• de-industrialisation of clothing production
• socio-economic marginalisation in declining areas

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Change in the Clothing Industry Decline and
Deprivation in London

• Correspondence between
• geography of industrial decline and
  de-industrialisation
• geography of deprivation
• Worst affected areas in both processes
• North and East London
• Policy for sector (e.g. Haringey City Growth
  Strategy)
• bring together designers and manufacturers to
  produce short-run, high-value design garments

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Disjunction industrial decline, impacts and
policy emphasis

• On the one hand
• empirical results
• industry in decline but survival of minority of
  firms
• large-scale industrial decline associated with
  deprivation
• On the other hand
• policy emphasis on small-scale production of
  high-value, design clothing
• Disjunction
• focus/reach of policies for the industry
• extent and socio-economic impacts of local
  de-industrialisation

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Creative destruction or a future for the creative
industries in marginal communities in Londons
clothing industry?

• Argument
• Contribution of small-scale, flexible production
  of creative fashion design in London to
  declining clothing industry limited
• job creation short of whats needed
• designers creative talent but incipient
  business skills
• clothing producers sceptical about working with
  designers
• new businesses no permanence
• Policy emphasis on creative industries/fashion
  design for clothing industry in London ignores
  wider issues of social exclusion and economic
  justice.

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