Jenny Holloway’s enthusiasm for her chosen profession is infectious in particular her passion for developing skills and training in the Fashion & Textiles industry. With over twenty five years experience, Jenny started worked as a buyer for Littlewoods, M&S and Principles for Women before opening her own label Retro which included retail boutiques, party plan, wholesaling to major retailers such as John Lewis, Principles and independents.
In 2000 Jenny commenced a consultancy business and was approached to be an Industry Advisor on Government funded initiatives. In March 2006 Jenny incorporated Fashion Enter Ltd.
Fashion Enter is a not for profit, social enterprise, which strives to be a centre of excellence for sampling, grading, production and for learning and development of skills within the fashion and textiles industry. Fashion Enter Ltd provides highly specialised support for designers today including www.fashioncapital.co.uk, a PR Dispensary service, an agency representing, trade missions, seminars and workshops. One to one surgeries are also available. Fashion Enter also owns the Profile fashion trade event which showcases new and emerging designers and acts as a platform between Graduate Fashion Week and London Fashion Week.
Another major achievement for Fashion Enter is The Stitching Academy, a UK first, from ASOS, the global fashion destination and FashionCapital. The Academy opened at Fashion Capital’s factory in Haringey, north London in September 2013 and is now buzzing with trainees. The Stitching Academy is a wide-reaching extension of the UK’s first ever National Apprenticeship in Fashion and Textiles Apparel scheme, initiated two years. The launch of the Stitching Academy follows reports of 1.09m of 16 – 24-year-olds (15.1%) falling into the NEET category (Not in Education, Employment or Training) over January – March 2013.
“Running a manufacturing business that supplies ASOS, M&S and John Lewis means that time is a premium for me independently but I just had to support the GTA,” said Jenny. “Training in real skills is THE future in manufacturing and as we already run a Stitching Academy with ASOS and the Level 3 and 4 apprenticeship programme for blue chip retail/e-tail companies such as M&S and River Island, the GTA was a natural progression!
Jenny adds, “There are 180,000 people employed within fashion and textiles related manufacturing activities in the UK.” (Source: tbr observatory 2013) “That is worth £6.3bn to the UK economy but where is the future skills training going to come from? We have to keep that all important Made in Britain brand alive and kicking and the only way we can do that is being investing in skills. I am proud to be part of GTA because it is going to make a difference to future generations and ensure that manufacturing is here to stay!”
This year, Fashion Enter Ltd was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 for the Social Enterprise category; the London and South region.
