After the London Olympics are finished, the official Olympic Media Centre could be turned into the UK Fashion Hub, a one million square foot site dedicating to uniting the key areas of education, events, commerce, technology and manufacturing for the fashion industry in the UK.
Nurturing core skills is at the heart of the project and will help the reestablishment of a UK manufacturing sector based on constant technological innovation. It will create up to 4,000 new jobs in the emerging creative quarter of East London.
The UK Fashion Hub will be led by a team of experts from the fashion, business and technology sectors and will bring together a core of partners to create a space where future fashion industry employees can be educated, where business meetings can be held between manufacturers, designers and potential stockists, where fashion can be produced and where fashion can be exhibited in shows.
These partners include a leading fashion college and university, hair and make-up professionals, Brandboxx, Fashion Capital, The London Youth Support Trust, the Museum of London and more to be announced in the coming weeks.
The UK Fashion Hub will be organised around 4 key sectors and activities: Learn, Do, Show, Sell
LEARN will be a place where students are exposed to both traditional techniques and skills, as well as embracing new technologies and innovations. They have partnered with several education institutions and Universities and will have over 1,000 learners and educators on site at any one time. In partnership with the Museum of London, the LEARN facility will have an unrivalled fashion archive that can be accessed by students and professionals alike.
DO is a 4,100 square metre facility that encapsulates a state of the art mass-production facility for national designers and retailers and will also contain a variety of workshops, factories and areas of distribution and storage. It will house designers and makers, both established and emerging. A series of incubator units and mentoring programmes offer support and nurturing, to develop future brands and manufacturers. Manufacturing will be enhanced by technology and innovation, assuring the UK’s position as a world leader.
SHOW boasts an 8,000 square metre world-class events space that includes a five storey auditorium and flexible style seating. In partnership with Vinyl Factory, this space will to hold a variety of events including fashion, trade and public shows. The Show zone will have a Media Centre, for embracing new technology, a Broadcast Centre exhibiting state of the art TV and web equipment and a Photography Studio used for commercial and educational purposes.
SELL centres around a large business-to-business area, making it a destination of choice for the world’s buying market. It also includes broadcasting facilities, a media centre, and business-to-consumer electronic retailing of which 9,000 square metres will be dedicated to a fashion e-tailing centre. This will give brands and retailers the opportunity to integrate both an online and offline presence.
