From the Classroom to the Gallery

In May this year, The NFC, sponsored by Accenture and working with creative social enterprise Stitched Up, took fashion education into 9 Co-op Academy schools across Manchester and Salford. Over 270 young people at primary and secondary level explored the realities of fast fashion before reworking preloved t-shirts with their own messages for the world.

Those t-shirts are not sitting in a box. They are currently being curated by a local artist and stitched together by University of Manchester fashion students into a large-scale installation called The Universal Tee of Life, which will be exhibited at Castlefield Art Gallery from 9 September as part of Manchester Fashion Week. The students will be invited to see their own work on the gallery walls. It is, in a very literal sense, fashion week belonging to Everyone.