Wool Week

Last week was "Wool Week."

Run by The Campaign for Wool since 2010, it's an international salute to the mighty sheep, on behalf of woolgrowers, fashion designers, retailers, artisans and shifty looking Welshmen.

Patronised by The Prince of Wales, it's a PR platform to extol the virtues of a fibre that is sustainable, bio-degradable, non allergenic, with fabulous insulation properties.

Events have been run up and down the country and here I am in front of the warping beams at Glendale Mills in Huddersfield.



Owned by Scabal since 1971, it's been weaving cloth since 1899 and was bought by the group to secure their supply of what is arguably some of the finest quality threads on the planet.

With only thirty percent of the mills production used for its own needs, it's very much a business in its own right. Trading under the name "Bower Roebuck," and also incorporating a sister company "Savile Clifford," they design and weave cloth for the biggest names in fashion. Prada, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, and Dunhill are all loyal customers.

Here I am with the mills Managing Director, Ronald Hall (RHS), and the agent for Scabal, Robert Oakes, having a sneak preview of the Summer 2014 collection before taking a tour of their looms with designers Hayley Cresswell (Bower Roebuck) and Clare Wheeler (Savile Clifford).





It's my experience that people in textiles genuinely love what they do. Get them talking about yarn counts (see Hayley below), the merits of using soft Yorkshire water in the finishing process, or the flexibility of using the older looms and they literally light up.



With quiet pride, the production director explained they'd recently found a way to weave a particularly complex and luxurious wool and silk blend in a hopsack design. "Most mills in Europe wouldn't want the hassle." Coming from a Yorkshireman, that's emotional stuff. I swear his whippet's lip nearly trembled.

Evelina (pictured below), one of the 'menders' who spots and repairs any faults in the cloth, was equally ebullient.



She explained the extensive training required to do the job and personal satisfaction gained by contributing towards the production of the most sought after fabrics in the world.

The Super 200's with Vicuna and Chinchilla cloth she was working on would cost about three and a half thousand pounds for a suit length. Ouch.



Whist Scabal's genius is in strategy, marketing and customer service, these guys simply live to produce something beautiful. It's a craft, an art and their commitment, pride and passion in the work they do is heart warming.

Later that evening, the Victoria Quarter threw a party to kick off Wool Week. A collaboration between the SIL group, Leeds College of Art, Harvey Nichols and myself, various installations were featured throughout the centre. The mayor showed up, rocked his chain, speeches were made then we all got stuck into the good stuff.

Most of my time is spent with customers and tailors, so it gives me a real buzz to talk shop with men of the cloth.

Here I am with Paul Johnson from WT Johnson & Sons who finish most of the top end cloth produced in the UK. A top bloke, his reputation in the trade is only matched by his performance on the golf course.



It was great to catch-up with old friends Matthew "smiling inside" Simpson and David Gallimore (of John Fosters) and be introduced to David Ogilvie (in the Tweed), Managing Director of Reid and Taylor, now part of the SIL Group.



Final beers were supped with Simon Murgatroyd of Brook Taverner (on the RHS below) who introduced me to James Laxton (on the LHS) of Laxtons Ltd .



He's a young, sparky entrepreneur who has bucked the trend of off-shore production and invested millions in state of the art technology in their new production unit in Guiseley, West Yorkshire.

As well as the huge environmental benefits and reduced carbon footprint, UK production has delivered improved service with quicker lead times, better management, and a greater control of raw materials and quality. Simples eh?

It's been a week of getting out and amongst it with the textile massive and I've loved every moment. With five different photos of me in this blog alone, I do apologise if I'm coming across as the Michael Winner of the tailoring trade.

Then again, if you've got it, flaunt it, so "Calm down dear!" - I'm just getting started!

Trading Places

Yesterday, I was visited in my showroom by a man of the cloth. Not in a Dan Brown, cassock and collar kind of way, but as a purveyor of quality textiles to the tailoring trade.

Introducing Simon Murgatroyd, who runs the cloth business for Brook Taverner & Co. Ltd

We've been doing business together for 7 years and I felt it was high time I visited them at their HQ in Keighley. Selling fabrics to tailors is only a relatively small part of their business, and contributes about £1million to a turnover of £20m, largely derived from corporate-wear and a retail division.



Their set-up is different from the Yorkshire mills I deal with, such as William Halstead and Taylor & Lodge, as they don't do any of the weaving themselves. In essence they are merchants, buying in bulk from mills, often importing cloth from overseas, and then dealing it to tailors in cut lengths. I suppose this makes Simon the "Tony Montana" of the textile trade.



I could just see him rocking up to Première Vision (a big textile show) in a white three piece and snarling at the exhibitors, "Eh, wha' da %!*k do you know 'bout Super 130's?!

Being sensible, Simon is an absolute gentlemen of the highest order and once we were settled down in their showroom, was only too happy to give me an insight into their business.

It starts with looking for a gap in the market, often achieved by visiting the two hundred tailors they deal with up and down the country and asking the right questions.

I love friendly, cheerful, vibrant blues, and designs with a bit of umph. English mills are uber-flexible when it comes to working with designers, but when it comes to holding stock (to be sold internationally in 'cut-lengths' to tailors) most of their stuff tends to be 'typically British,' which means elegant and understated.

Not so, in the case of Bower Roebuck of Huddersfield (part of Scabal), who most certainly do produce stuff that's got the scaramoosh factor. They are constantly bringing out new, seasonal collections, but these are made in very small quantities. On the up side, this keeps things very exclusive, but on the downside, means they can (and do) charge like a wounded rhino.

So, Simon and his chums recently did a smash and grab at the mill Barberis of Italy. When it comes to dress, Italians are the peacocks of the world, and this is reflected in the colour and design of their fabrics.

As a fully vertical mill, they offer a wonderful selection of stock supported ranges and seasonal collections to designers and merchants, but expect relatively big orders in return. A deal was done, and a new Brook Taverner bunch was born.

It might not be as exclusive as Scabal's, but it does mean I can offer something a bit different to my customers at a very good price, and it will be available for at least three years. Molto bene.

They've also recently brought out a new 'tweed' jacketing bunch. Tweed is incredibly popular at the moment, particularly for short, fitted jackets to be worn with jeans. I've got one in my wardrobe that makes me feel like a rutting stag.

Nevertheless, not everyone likes a bit of rough, so they went on the hunt to produce something in a softer blend of wool, cotton and cashmere, which has the tweed vibe, but not the handle.

The project started with a trip to Arthur Harrison's in Huddersfield, a mill owned by the Bulmer & Lumb Group. They had a chat about what they wanted to produce, sample yarns were sourced, and six to eight weeks later a sample 'blanket' was woven. This brings to life the proposed designs across a number of different colourways as shown below.



A selection is made, and fifteen weeks later the cloth is produced and then finished at Holmfirth Dyers. Each design is woven in a minimum quantity of sixty metres, and within a bunch (a selection of cloths), you'll have around fifty designs so things start getting expensive.

Add to this the costs of producing the three hundred bunches (made by the Pattern Book Company in Halifax), that are sent out to tailors to show to their customers, and you are looking at an initial investment of around a hundred grand.

Here's Colin below, in Brook Taverner's pattern room, with the bunches behind him. If you're a customer of mine who has asked for a small swatch of the material you've chosen as a record, he's the chap that sent it to you on my behalf :-)



It's then time for Tony Montana to cross his fingers and hope he's got it right. If he has, then he avoids the helicopter and noose and Keith is kept busy cutting out lengths to send to people like me.



Brook Taverner is a very successful business. It employs over a hundred people, is recognised as the leading corporate wear supplier in Europe and on the cloth side, is going from strength to strength.

Whilst my heart will always leap for joy at the sight of something being made in this country, it's still great to see a local business doing so well.

After all, as Eddie Temple said, in the film 'Layer Cake,' - "The art of good business is being a good middleman."

I'll drink to that.

Hairy Times

The beard is back. Even my brother is growing one. A face full of fur smacks of swashbuckling "derring-do." It's testosterone on a chin. The hirsute marque of heroic daring.

Beloved by World War two fighter pilots and pipe-smoking chaps who raced along country lanes in their Morgans, a bristling moustache embodied the spirit of British invincibility, but like many things, it's often hair today, gone tomorrow.

Facial fuzz is no longer a foible of the few. The birthright of a geography teacher has been embraced by the many, with varying degrees of success. What starts off in the mind's eye as a dead ringer for Tom Ford, can quickly transmogrify to Jeremy Beadle in the mirror.

The meterosexual male has given way to something altogether more manly and this trend for all things hairy has been reflected in the world of cloth.

If a relaxing wet shave with hot towels is cashmere, then heavy stubble, or a set of mutton chops is Harris Tweed.

To qualify as genuine Harris Tweed, the cloth must be hand-woven (or warped) by islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Weavers are self-employed and can work for any of the three mills who spin and dye the woollen yarn from which the fabric is made.

The fabric is then finished (cleaned and made stable) and stamped with the official Orb Mark trademark as a seal of its authenticity.



Designers such as Paul Smith, House of Holland and Vivienne Westwood are huge fans. To give you an idea of its popularity, production has soared from four hundred and fifty thousand metres in 2009 to over one million metres in 2012.

The picture below is of Lee Price in his Michelsberg wedding suit. He's worked for Vivienne Westwood for twenty years and they supplied the Harris Tweed cloth (woven exclusively for Westwood) and we did the rest.



Vivienne has got to be one of my favourite designers, and like herself I enjoy working with tartans. I'm currently making a three piece suit for a customer in 'Buchanan OC' that will knock the balls off a mighty elephant.

'Black Watch' in particular is all the rage at the moment. Here's Sam, from Church's shoes in Leeds with a pair of Michelsberg 'och-aye-the-noos,' and below that is a shot from Valentino's latest Autumn / Winter collection.





Whilst caber-country is the obvious place to go in search of tweed and tartan, ten minutes walk from my home in Otley, West Yorkshire, is Marton Mills. Introducing Duncan Watts, their Chairman, and Hannah Slater, their designer.



Established in 1931, it's a family business, employs forty eight people and turns over six million pounds a year.

The yarn comes from M.B. Appleton in Bradford and the cloth is finished at Roberts Dyers in Keighley which they part own with the SIL group.

They also offer a personal bespoke design service and will produce as little as thirteen metres of cloth which is just about enough for six blazers.

So, if there's a gang of chaps out there who want to cut a dash in Michelsberg blazers made-up in their own bespoke tartan / striped fabric, these guys could be just the ticket.

In my mind the vibe would be 'Reservoir Dogs' meets 'Three-men-in-a-boat.' A martini soaked fusion of Ralph Lauren and Jack Wills, minus the Tarquin.

Perfect for terrorising Henley, owning it at the races, or, simply being the best dressed stag-do on the planet.