Haberdashery in the UK have virtually become extinct

I am amazed at the state of the Haberdashery industry in this country. We encourage young discerning talented students to hone their new skills in the art of fashion design.

By the time they graduate and move on to do their own thing, they struggle to obtain the very materials that they require to show case the talent they have through their designs. It’s hard to buy exactly what you are looking for, and therefore forced to re-adjust and buy what is available?

Zip yellow, not in stock? Diamante buckles large size? Not in stock? Why is this? These are but a few examples i have faced looking for haberdashery, this is an answer I normally get which indicates that the trade is in decline, well worse than that, there is no industry as it was some years ago, not many people are demand haberdashery items so many business carry small stock or none at all.

Why has our industry decided that it knows best not to make it fashionable to hold stock in haberdashery and craft? Too many of our industries have died out because of negative bosses organisations who have setup a trend of not just holding stock but not to hold it at all, to let the demand wither away.

United States is inundated with shops which cater for the profession, hobbyist or beginner. Whenever i watch Fashion Runway and see the places that these contestants go too for an assignment, i just quell with jealousy that we in this country are lagging behind whilst it’s an everyday affair trading with such lush and excessive haberdashery, fabric and equipment.

We are in a depressing recession, but at times like this, trade and industry show their colours for all to see. Shoddy workmanship and traders still expect to get paid for cutting corners? Poor quality customer care from companies that is too big to care about their service to customers.

But at times like this they could enhance their position to increase their customer base. I have found it so very difficult to find a haberdashery store, it’s almost as though they have been pushed into obscurity, directions like “behind the building next to McDonalds at the rear”, as far out of sight as possible, why?

Only the large stores such as John Lewis or MacCulloch & Wallis have the advantage to market within their branding. But the likes of smaller companies have been crowded out as being not fashionable, questions such as, who sews these days?

That is the archaic thinking of people that have set the Fashion Industry many years into the past, the very reason why other countries such as France don’t take the British Fashion seriously.

Many occasions I searched onto the Internet for sewing items, sewing machine parts, art and décor, thread, and each time without fail I found what I needed exactly to my requirements, only to find that the website was in $ not £’s.

I had to search hard and deep until I found a UK equivalent, but not in the same context theme I was looking for.

We should be flooded with stores selling haberdashery in the UK, we sell Arts & Crafts books, we market the London fashion week, and we educate students in the fashion universities.

But yet in the open free market in the UK, we are sold the excuse that there is no Market for Haberdashery.

Why is it that the United States doesn’t use that excuse of a concept?

MacCulloch & Wallis 25-26
Dering Street London W1S 1AT