August 3, 2015
‘Made in Britain’ Fashion House David Nieper has Skills Sewn Up
The David Nieper fashion house in Derbyshire is addressing the textile industry’s skills deficit by supporting and nurturing local talent, and has set up a sewing school to help pass specialist tailoring and dressmaking skills to a younger generation. According to the British Fashion Council, 60% of workers in fashion and textile manufacturing are over the age of 40. If we are to reverse the offshore production trend that is prevalent in the industry, we need to recruit and train before the skills are lost forever. David Nieper has been loyal to British skills and British manufacture for over 50 years and is one of the very few UK fashion houses that has never gone offshore to source labour from the Far East. The new sewing school will be run by two of David Nieper’s most accomplished dressmakers; Carol Shaw with 14 years’ experience at David Nieper and Sue Cook with 27 years’ experience; responsible for design room sampling and advanced sewing techniques. Starting this month, the school opens with its first four trainees aged from 18, including two school leavers and two more experienced ladies changing career. Sewing for a career is new to all trainees who will learn a multitude of practical skills over the 12 weeks course. Carole Shaw, Senior Supervisor, David Nieper Sewing Room commented: “Our trainees will start by getting to know their machines and develop thread control. They will learn dressmaking essentials including cross-stitch, overlock, lockstich and bar tacking. We start with paper patterns to learn the basic principles then progress to a range of different fabrics including; cottons, silks, elastics and wools and learn how to work with each. Many seamstresses in clothes manufacturing only make one part of a garment e.g. a leg, arm or collar on a production line but our trainees will benefit from learning how to make the whole garment. At the end of the course we are hoping to offer jobs to trainees who have demonstrated a good eye, good coordination and a good aptitude for creating fashion in luxury fabrics.” Read More