Yorkshire has never been short of people who know how to make things - in this post we tell you about some of them.

For generations, this region clothed the world. Wool, worsted, tailoring and textiles weren't simply industries here; they helped shape our towns, built our mills, created our communities and established Yorkshire's reputation for craftsmanship around the world.

Today, the mills may not employ the numbers they once did, but something exciting is happening across the region.

A new generation of designers, makers and independent fashion businesses is emerging. Some are working from studios and workshops. Others are building established brands and employing skilled teams. Some are selling internationally.

The talent is here.

The creativity is here.

And perhaps most importantly, the skills are still here.

The problem is that we don't always see it as an industry.

From Yorkshire to the international catwalk

Look around the region and you begin to discover an extraordinary collection of businesses.

In Silsden, Cunnington & Sanderson have built an avant-garde fashion label combining contemporary design with traditional skills and materials, including Yorkshire wool. Designers Matthew Cunnington and John Sanderson have received international recognition while continuing to create from West Yorkshire.

In York, Matty Bovan has taken his extraordinary approach to colour, texture and construction onto the international fashion stage. His work has appeared at Milan Fashion Week, yet Yorkshire remains an important part of his creative identity and production.

In Elland, The House of Foxy demonstrates something particularly important: fashion doesn't simply have to be designed in Yorkshire. It can be made here too. The company has built a specialist team and produces much of its collection at its own West Yorkshire factory.

Head south and Pollyanna in Barnsley continues a remarkable Yorkshire fashion story associated with Rita Britton, combining decades of independent fashion experience with its own slow-fashion garments.

In Harrogate, Dorothy and Rose represents another generation, building an artistic, size-inclusive slow-fashion label and demonstrating how technology can help independent designers develop products more efficiently.

And these are far from isolated examples.

Look harder and you find them everywhere

There is isabelleRANDALL, creating luxury ready-to-wear, tailoring, bridal and eveningwear designed and made in Yorkshire.

TeeStyleTribe brings African prints and influences together with clothing handmade in Yorkshire.

Up From A Dream creates slow-fashion pieces using deadstock, organic and vintage fabrics.

Ornette produces made-to-order clothing from a Yorkshire workshop.

The Stitch Society champions British fabrics and Yorkshire manufacture.

Galijah creates bespoke tweed clothing handcrafted here in the region.

In Todmorden, Sherlock Knitwear creates specialist made-to-measure bridal and occasion knitwear.

Patricia Dawson has established a distinctive independent fashion business in the Harrogate and Nidderdale area, with garments individually made in its Yorkshire workshop.

Maquien brings together tailoring, British cloth and English manufacture.

Conscious Apparel is building a Yorkshire slow-fashion label.

North Yorkshire-founded Vantage Atelier draws upon British country and heritage influences.

And at the microbusiness end of the industry, creators such as FORME demonstrate how small the starting point can be: an independent designer developing and hand-screen-printing clothing himself.

These businesses are different in almost every conceivable way.

Different customers. Different price points. Different aesthetics. Different ambitions.

But collectively they tell us something important.

Yorkshire has a fashion industry.

We just haven't connected all the pieces yet.

The problem isn't talent. It's fragmentation.

Imagine for a moment that you are a talented young designer in Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield, York, Bradford or Hull.

You've created something brilliant.

What happens next?

You need to find fabric. Then perhaps a pattern cutter. Someone to produce samples. A machinist or manufacturer capable of producing small quantities.

Then you need models.

A photographer.

A makeup artist.

Perhaps a stylist and videographer.

You need somewhere to shoot the collection.

Then comes branding, e-commerce, social media, PR and marketing.

And eventually you need boutiques, buyers and customers.

For a major fashion house, those relationships form part of the infrastructure surrounding the business.

For an independent Northern designer, finding them can become part of the job.

And that is where fragmentation becomes a genuine barrier to growth.

What if we connected it all?

The remarkable thing is that many of the people our hypothetical designer needs may already be here.

The photographer could be ten miles away.

The pattern cutter might live in the next town.

A brilliant model could be looking for exactly this kind of opportunity.

A Yorkshire textile manufacturer might be able to produce the fabric.

An independent boutique might be searching for something different to put in its window.

A videographer may want fashion content for their portfolio.

A manufacturer might have spare capacity.

But none of them necessarily know the others exist.

Social media has made it incredibly easy to show our work to the world.

It hasn't necessarily made it easier to build an industry.

Imagine putting the whole ecosystem under one roof

At Up North Runway, we believe one of the greatest opportunities for Northern fashion isn't importing an industry from somewhere else.

It's connecting the industry we already have.

That means bringing together designers, models, photographers, boutiques, textile businesses, manufacturers, makeup artists, stylists, videographers, venues, marketers, students and the many specialist roles sitting behind successful fashion businesses.

Not followers.

Not another social-media group.

Working relationships.

If a designer needs a photographer, we want them to be able to find one.

If a photographer wants to work with emerging designers, we want those designers to be visible.

If a boutique wants to discover Northern labels, we want to make that easier.

If a manufacturer wants to find emerging brands that could become tomorrow's customers, we want to connect them.

And if a student wants to understand how you actually build a career in this industry, we want them to see the extraordinary range of people already doing it across the North.

Growth rarely happens in isolation

Fashion is sometimes presented as the story of an individual designer.

In reality, every successful fashion business depends upon an ecosystem.

Behind the garment on the catwalk are the people who designed it, patterned it, cut it, stitched it, fitted it, photographed it, modelled it, promoted it, sold it and ultimately helped turn an idea into a commercial product.

That ecosystem is what allows talent to scale.

Yorkshire has an extraordinary advantage because so much of the knowledge required to build it already exists here.

We have textile heritage.

We have manufacturing knowledge.

We have universities and colleges producing creative talent.

We have independent boutiques.

We have photographers, models and creators.

We have remarkable designers.

And above all, we still have a culture that understands the value of making things.

This isn't about recreating the past

Yorkshire's textile heritage should make us proud.

But heritage alone doesn't create jobs.

The opportunity is to take the skills, identity and reputation that Yorkshire has inherited and combine them with the way modern fashion businesses actually operate.

Digital commerce.

Content creation.

Small-batch manufacturing.

Sustainable production.

Technology.

Experiential retail.

Collaboration.

And direct relationships between creators and customers.

That isn't nostalgia for Yorkshire's industrial past.

It's about building the next chapter of it.

Yorkshire is only part of the story

And then there is an even more exciting question.

If we can uncover this much talent simply by looking properly at Yorkshire, how much more is sitting undiscovered — or disconnected — across the North?

Manchester.

Liverpool.

Newcastle.

Lancashire.

Cumbria.

Cheshire.

The North East.

Across our towns, cities and communities there are thousands of creative people and businesses developing products, building brands and learning specialist skills.

Some will remain brilliant microbusinesses.

Some will collaborate.

Some will grow.

And somewhere amongst them could be the next great Northern fashion business.

Our job isn't to decide which one.

It's to make it easier for them to find each other.

Because perhaps the North doesn't need to create a fashion industry.

Perhaps it simply needs to connect the one it already has.