Scrub-Hubs and PPE Production Lines: How the 21st century version of Utility Clothing heralds positive change for the future of fashio
By Fiona McKenzie Johnston
Many journalists have likened the situation in which we find ourselves to World War 2. In truth, there are far more differences than similarities – but certainly there are parallels to be seen in fashion. For WW2 altered fashion’s shape, just as COVID-19 is forcing large scale change on the industry now.
80 years ago, despite the more pressing concerns of air raids, lack of resources and raw materials, and the introduction of purchase tax and clothes rationing, the High Street was effectively born via the introduction in 1942 of the ‘Utility Clothing Scheme.’ Dreamed up by the government who were convinced that fashion could help win the war (as a result of a boost in morale on the home front), eight designers - including Norman Hartnell (dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) Hardy Amies, Edward Molyneux and Victor Stiebel - produced affordable collections using approved ‘utility’ fabrics and patterns that adhered to strict rules which encompassed hem length and the number of buttons. Utility clothing became a huge hit (and is collected, and still worn, including by Fashion Roundtable’s Founder, Tamara Cincik, who explains “I admire the combination of excellent design, paired with the ideals of the democracy.”) And while rationing continued until 1949, so did the accessibility of quality clothes on the high street – until now, when several familiar brands are facing closure. Luxury, too “has been very hard hit, and with no shows, many of us are looking at a whole year without income,” describes the milliner Noel Stewart, who creates hats for British designers such as Erdem, Roksanda and Stella McCartney, international houses including Hermès, Givenchy and Valentino – and his own label.
But there are more important issues, one of which is a serious shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). This has led the British Fashion Industry to adapt both its intent, and its production lines, joining and creating communities connected by Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram in the 2020 equivalent of that other wartime movement “Knitting for Victory” – or, as it’s now known, joining a “Scrub-hub.” Kitchen tables across the country are piled with medical-grade fabric, 16-gauge wire and elastic, as families, groups of flatmates, solo isolators and teenagers who no longer have exams are using NHS guidelines to stitch PPE for staff at their local hospitals. (My family has joined the W9W2 Maida Vale Society in sewing for St. Mary’s, Paddington. Slowly.)
Skilled professionals, of course, can work faster than even the most enthusiastic volunteers: Stewart has committed to making 60 visors a day on behalf of The Visor Army who are supplying hospitals in the London area. “I want to help. Every little counts, but I can higher volumes, with less need for quality control.” Joining the effort are fellow milliners Philip Treacy, Victoria Grant, Awon Golding, Jess Collette, Bridget Bailey and Rachel Trevor-Morgan (who is by appointment to HM Queen Elizabeth II) while Stephen Jones OBE is mobilising the British Hat Guild, of which he is Chairman. Meanwhile, a group of young designers – Phoebe English, Holly Fulton and Bethany Williams – have formed The Emergency Designer Network (EDN) and under the guidance of Fashion Roundtable, have finalised a PPE scrubs kit for, in the first instance, the Royal Free Hospital, London. Working with Cozette McCreery, former designer at Sibling, they are coordinating with other UK makers who have volunteered to help and comply with the strict health and safety guidelines.
Additionally, Barbour - who during WW2 made, among other items, sleeping bags for use in the trenches - has delivered disposable gowns to the hospitals in Newcastle and Gateshead. Burberry, who invented their iconic trench coat for troops in WW1, has temporarily repurposed their trench coat factory in Castleford to make non-surgical gowns and masks. And there’s crossover with companies who might not previously have thought of themselves as being in the clothing industry: North Yorkshire’s Labman, which produces custom laboratory automation, has donated 2000 square metres of space and the necessary equipment for a volunteer visor production line. Run by the factory’s Products Manager, Rob Hodgson, the unpaid workers are churning out 6000 Labmasks a day which are being delivered to hospitals in the North East, with the message “This visor is not for profit, it’s for people.”
The sentiment is shared by all those who are giving their time. The cost of materials, for the most part, is being covered by GoFundMe pages, and deals are being sought: “We got cheap elastic because Asda cancelled a clothing order,” reports Hodgson. (One imagines that the manufacturers were equally delighted to be able to shift their stock.) But it is not a workable long-term strategy: “I’ll do it for free – obviously I’ll do it for free,” says Noel Stewart. “But I am not being given a rent holiday or a rent reduction for my studio, and it would be especially great if I could pay my assistants.” It is in this area, too, that Fashion Roundtable are working, having committed to ensuring that the maximum number of British garment workers are able to keep their jobs, by lobbying back and forth with the UK government, supplying guidance for high volume PPE manufacturers, and supporting Kate Hills from Make It British and the British Textile Consortium in joining up smaller manufacturers for large-scale UK-made PPE solutions.
What is certain is that morale is on the rise among those the PPE are intended for: Hodgson speaks of a wall of inspiration within the factory, featuring photographs sent in by doctors and nurses wearing their Labmask visors. On social media, nurses have shared images of themselves in their Barbour gowns, proudly holding the packaging featuring its royal warrant. And who wouldn’t get a thrill in discovering that they’re wearing PPE by someone whose designs frequent the pages of Vogue? Especially if, as in the case of Richard Quinn’s scrubs, they’re in one of his signature prints. (Although let’s not forget why this started: much thrill will also be relief that they’re wearing PPE at all.)
But what is also emerging is burgeoning creativity. “Firstly, non-makers are making,” points out Stewart. “Possibly for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, and that creativity is great for mental health, and in many cases will continue and develop, while children who are watching or helping their parents are learning new skills. The second thing is that, within the fashion industry, we have the potential to foster new ways of being, and new ways of working.”
We know now that fast fashion seldom works for the environment, or for the South Asian garment workers - and nor does the whirly-gig of shows put on in increasingly exotic locations by luxury brands, however mind-blowingly beautiful they are. A recent report by Zero to Market and Ordre Official reckoned the last year of shows in New York, London, Paris and Milan emitted 241,000 tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of lighting up Times Square for 58 years. Now, grounded in lockdown, while our NHS heroes literally fight for lives, there is an opportunity to re-think, to work together to find our 21st century version of Utility Clothing, substituting reducing carbon emissions for rationing. “The overbuy, undersell model is doomed. It is my hope that once the COVID-19 crisis is over, we can build on this more sensitive and collaborative network for a better and more transparent system,” says Cincik.
Yesterday, on Monday 20 April, Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council announced that the next London Fashion Week will be held entirely digitally, merging menswear and womenswear. “By creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and enacting something to build on as a global showcase for the future. The other side of this crisis, we hope, will be about sustainability, creativity and product that you value, respect and cherish.”
Let’s start with valuing, respecting and cherishing those designers – and their designs - who are supporting the NHS, and thus us. Have you, for instance, considered a hat to cover those growing-out roots while hairdressers are still shut? Because while yes, it’s imperative that those of us who can contribute to the GoFundMe pages for materials, it’s also vital to remember that morale always matters, whether winning a war or surviving a pandemic.
Donate to the EDN here
Donate to the Visor Army here
Fill in The British Textile Consortium’s form to be a manufacturer here