Design and Ethnicity: The Failure of West Midlands Clothing Enterprises to Enter the Design Market

Abstract

This article examines why large numbers of Asian clothing entrepreneurs in the West Midlands fail to upgrade business practices or to expand through using new product innovation and design techniques. The West Midlands is used as a case study for several reasons. The region has the highest number of Asians outside London, with over 20 per cent of all post-war immigrants from the Indian subcontinent settling in the area (Ahmed, 1990). Moreover, the setting up of small clothing manufacturing enterprises was as a result of specific circumstances. The recession of the 1970s and 1980s led to the decline of traditional industries, particularly metal and engineering. As a result of diminishing employment opportunities, small easily funded clothing enterprises were begun by large numbers of Asian entrepreneurs. Unlike other areas of Asian settlement in the Midlands and North-East, this resulted in a whole new industry for the region (Lewis, 1996). The issue presented here is especially concerned with the failure of Asian-owned clothing enterprises to exploit their own culture, either through incorporating Eastern designs into new Western styles or in meeting the needs of the Asian community for traditional dress.