Cottonopolis To Catwalk. A self guided tour of Manchester.

By Clare Sweeny • 1h 30m

£6.95

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Manchester’s fashion story begins with movement, moisture and a willingness to think big. This walk’s about cloth and catwalks, yes. It’s also about seeing Manchester as a city that’s brilliant at shaping things that become fashionable. Culture, music and style is woven into how we operate here. And our heritage is all around us, it’s not completely hidden. The rhythm of the city, it’s beating heart can be heard and seen. Welcome to Manchester’s Fashion walk. Historically, cotton made Manchester Cottonopolis. Raw materials, rough weather and cloth required canals, warehouses, railways, merchants, banks and workers to manufacture fabric and sell it. Fashion and infrastructure created wealth, architecture, jobs and, inevitably, a way of dressing. Clothes people wear, were shaped by the work they did. We still use uniforms to show belonging, our leisure, work and streetwear signal who we are and where we fit. And our modern style is connected to our industrial past. Manchester has a habit of taking something practical and turning it into fashion. And it continues to reinvent itself. It’s a place where things evolve. Always has been. Old warehouses repurposed as hotels, homes, restaurants, and workspaces. Workwear becoming fashion. Industrial neighbourhoods now creative districts. This walk celebrates Manchester’s style and directs your attention to echoes of the past that have been left behind for us to discover. So, there’s probably no better place to begin than at a building that was designed to house bales of cotton and now serves coffee and cocktails.