Jimmy Choo’s Mayfair-based JCA | London Fashion Academy has opened a new campus and maker space centred on artisan design and craftsmanship in Brentford, West London.
Located in Boston Manor House, the new campus houses atelier workshops and design studios with specialist fabrication tools, focused on artisan crafts, design, and accessory making. The campus will also offer co-working areas and event spaces that will be open to the public for arts and crafts markets.
Following its “imagine, create, inspire” strategy, JCA aims to make its Brentford campus a key destination for arts and crafts, committed to building a community of designers “from schools to artisans and internationally acclaimed industry professionals”.
This will be achieved with a subscription model that follows in the footsteps of the JCA I London Fashion Academy’s incubator approach by offering co-working studio spaces to help the next generation of designers create products and market them under the guidance of industry specialists.
JCA opens a centre of creativity in Boston Manor House, Brentford
The campus will support artists, designers, and creative professionals by providing them with space for the essential production of textiles, leather goods, woodwork, resins, metals, and gemstones. There will also be training and mentorship on offer, alongside accredited short courses, all focused on helping emerging innovators to develop the skills needed to turn their passion into a scalable and sustainable business.
The aim is to offer an environment to help "creativity flourish," added JCA, and it will be providing knowledge and expertise of professional networks alongside access to markets, both physical and digital, through its Incubation and Enterprise programme to tackle the initial challenges faced by creatives. In addition, the Academy will host a series of free events to foster and grow a creative community, including TEDx-style talks, masterclasses, online resources, and events in partnership with its key institutes and industry partners.
In a statement, JCA added that it aims to create “a long-term progressive socio-economic impact on the local community of Brentford”. For the initial five years of the project, it plans to support a minimum of 250 individuals by working directly with the Council and local creative groups to scope facilities once the makers reach the stage of enterprise and seek to expand their own business models.
The JCA | London Fashion Academy opened its doors in Mayfair, London, in September 2021 to offer a “fresh and transformative take on fashion higher education”. Utilising its incubator model, the Academy nurtures students into emerging professional designers with a syllabus curated by Jimmy Choo on his experiences building his own luxury brand.
