Dugdale Bros & Co

Farewell sweet Summer - you've been a joy. This year we've been spoilt rotten, but gin and tonics must now give way to a warming brandy, as the cold, hard barrels of Autumn and Winter swing in our direction.

Now is the time for log fires, pastry and mash and breaking out the winter wardrobe.

Respect to Chris, one of my customers, who had the foresight to order this little beauty in August.



It's a 'covert coat' which gets it's name from the hardwearing 'covert' cloth from which it is made - a process which involves the twisting together of two threads of a similar colour (usually in faun or green) which results in a durable fabric with a slightly mottled finish.

This one is sixteen ounces in weight and was sourced from the cloth merchant Dugdale Brothers of Huddersfield. I can still remember the first time I pushed the bell on their highly polished door.



Based here since 1906 (in what used to be the main Post Office) history and heritage drip off every wood panelled wall. It's imposing, yet warm, and everything feels utterly solid. There's brass fittings, stone floors, solid oak tables and an iron lift that resembles a cage for Hannibal Lecter.

Introducing Keith 'Robert' Charnock, whom I've had the pleasure of doing business with since Michelsberg tailoring was born.



To me, he is the Fantastic Mr Fox of the cloth trade. Elegant, with a penchant for cashmere overcoats, he is charm personified.

A textiles man through and through, he's a born salesman. A true hunter, with eye's that twinkle with shrewdness, his energy levels are incredible.

He'll jump up my stairs two at a time, and has more stories than an Italian grandmother. When it comes to tailoring companies, he's seen and done business with them all.

He began in the trade as an apprentice with John Foster's of Queensbury, before joining his father at the mill Kaye & Stewart in Huddersfield. These guys made cloth for all the top merchants including Dormeuil, H Lesser & sons (now owned by LBD) and Wain Shiell (now owned by Scabal).

It was here that he learnt, and fell in love with, manufacturing but was tempted away by the iconic tweed merchant, John G Hardy, who wanted to get into flogging wool worsteds and needed a man who knew the game.

After that, he joined Dugdale's, and eighteen years later, did a Victor Kiam and bought the company from the last remaining family member, Betty.

Dugdales is a true 'manufacturer without looms' and in my opinion, is one of the best value for money merchants I deal with. Yorkshire is still the epicentre of UK textiles and the knowledge and relationships that have been built up by this firm, is second to none.

They made their name selling barathea's, a fine textured weave with a pebbled effect, often used for blazers, military uniforms and dinner suits. Now, their range of fabrics is far more comprehensive, from the more durable Super 80's and 100's worsteds to finer luxury blends.

I've mentioned their over-coatings, but they've also got a cracking mohair bunch, cashmere jacketings, linens and cottons as well as a stunning selection of top quality cupro bemberg linings.

Since the year 2000, the reigns of power have been handed over to his son Robert, pictured below.



A bouncing bundle of bonhomie he has certainly inherited his father's ability to spin a yarn, in more ways than one! Over a cup of perfectly brewed Yorkshire tea he painted a positive picture for the future.

Bespoke tailoring continues to grow in popularity and whilst thirty percent of the company's business is export, this is set to increase. At the moment, most of this is within Europe (Italy, Germany and Switzerland) but the Middle and Far East present real opportunities.

One of the threats is UK production capacity, as most of the remaining mills, commission weavers and finishers are pretty much flat out. A good thing, but certainly something that needs addressing.

At the moment they employ sixteen people and ship at least two hundred cut-lengths a day. Here's Paul and Dean who cut, pack and send out the cloth.



I shouldn't forget the new blood. Here's apprentice Jake, only seventeen years old, with guns to rival my very own.



And finally there's the office posse that ensure the business runs like a well oiled machine. Introducing June (UK trade & accounts), Carole (export), Amy (UK & Export), Clare (Customer Service), Josh (stock control), Brian (accounts), Lynn (accounts & invoicing) and Robert (Top Cat / Mr Big).



Visiting suppliers, in fact anyone in the trade, gives me a real buzz. It's great to put a face to a name, some of the characters are fabulous and I even pick up a bit of knowledge here and there.

Team Dugdale were an absolute pleasure to be around and their bunches will continue to be a vital part of my tailoring armoury for many years to come.

I'll end this "Strictly" style, do a Brucey shuffle in my Jeffery West's and implore the boys and girls at number five Northumberland Street to "Keep Merchanting!"

Mohair Magic

Ahhhh, the sun. It's food for the soul. A big Greg Wallace cuddle of warmth and positive energy.

No matter what the weather I always try and remain optimistic and my attitude to business has always been along the lines of Del Boy's, "He who dares, wins."

I love to do something different, and my chance to push the tailoring envelope further came when a customer set his heart on wearing a purple mohair suit for his wedding.

I had a cloth that was close, but ultimately, no cigar. So, in the hunt for something of Cohiba proportions, I opened my little black book and went to the beginning of the supply chain. The mills.

One of the luckiest things for my business is having the UK textile trade here on my doorstep in Yorkshire.

Whilst Rick Stein is plucking crabs from his own backyard, I can take a fifteen minute drive from HQ and come face to face with some of the finest cloth producers in the world.

Names like Bower Roebuck, Taylor & Lodge and John Fosters bring tears to the eyes of cloth connoisseurs throughout the world, and when it comes to Mohair, the Brits are without doubt the best.

My mill of choice for this mission was William Halstead & Co in Bradford. Founded in 1875, it's owned by SIL Holdings ltd and employs seventy staff at its Stanley Mills site.

After a quick chat on the blower with Philip Seal (Sales Manager) and Karen Whittaker (Designer) I jumped into the motor, put the roof down (Flash Git) and headed on over.



I love manufacturing businesses. There's something I find incredibly exciting about the smell and clatter of machinery. That sense of industry, people working together to produce something tangible.

I then sat down with Iain Milligan (pictured below), their Sales & marketing Director, who gave me an overview of the company.



Here is a man who is the master of understatement. His passion for textiles oozes out of every pore. In a lilting Scottish brogue he quietly showed me the work they are doing with Prada, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Dunhill, some of the younger tailors on Savile Row like Spencer Hart and Simon Spurr in the US.

How cool is that? Certainly cooler than a call centre. Seventy lads and lasses from Bradford providing the top of the global fashion industry with the finest threads on the planet. At the risk of sounding like David Cameron, that truly makes me feel proud and the fact that it's putting bread on the table for lots of Yorkshire families is even better.

Anyway, Mohair in the shade we wanted didn't exist, so we hatched a plan...

1) It started with piece of cloth, hot off the loom in its 'Greige state' (pictured below). This means it's unwashed and totally unfinished.



2) The loom had been set up with a black warp (black threads running North to South) and a white weft (white threads running West to East). This means that when the cloth was sent to Roberts the Dyers (also owned by the SIL group), only the white threads would pick up the purple coloured dye, producing a fabulous two-tone effect.

3) Once it had been dyed, it was returned to the 'menders' at William Halstead who after working their magic, put it on the 'perch' where it was inspected a final time for faults.

4) The final stage was for the cloth to be sent to the most exciting, progressive, tailoring company in the Northern Hemisphere (moi), and two fittings later the results can be seen below.



Here's Steven in his Michelsberg bespoke three piece suit. I particularly like the mother-of-pearl buttons we've used which add a touch of bling and compliment the characteristics of the cloth.

Mohair is a stiff fibre from a goat originating in Ankara and tailors very sharply. It's got a wonderful natural sheen or 'lustre,' is cool to wear and is very 'elastic' so it sheds creases quickly.

William Halstead sells 'Summer Kid' Mohair. This means the fibres are from the first and second shearing of the baby goat which goes on to produce the softest and finest yarn. It comes from the Camdeboo region of South Africa which is arguably the best in the world.

As a cloth, it was hugely popular in the 1960's. Here's a suit in Dormeuil tonik mohair as worn by Michael Caine in the film 'Get Carter.'



There's no doubt it's a firm Michelsberg favourite. I love its texture, the way it behaves under different lights and of course, the clean lines it produces when tailored properly.

I recently delivered my first 'Uber-level' fully hand sewn bespoke suit (from £2000) to Barry (pictured below) and the cloth of choice was a midnight blue Summer Kid Mohair cloth from Taylor & Lodge in Huddersfield.



My experience with Halsteads was utterly fantastic. I learnt a great deal about different designs, weaves, cloth in general and it's truly inspired me to keep pushing the boundaries.

I'm sure chefs get a buzz when they're making fabulous food using local ingredients and it's much the same for me. As far as I'm concerned, the larder of Leeds is looking good and that first Michelin star can't be very far away. Ca marche!

Men of the Cloth

A business is only as good as the suppliers and people behind it and as far as my business goes, having a good relationship with the right cloth merchants is vital.

When I was first starting out in the trade, some companies were reluctant to provide me with their bunches (swatches of cloth bound in a holder) as they are expensive to produce and I was an unknown entity.

So, I have a soft spot for Carole Hannaford (see below), Sales Director of Lear Brown and Dunsford, who was the first to decide to take the plunge and send me a box of all their clobber. My first order included a length of "Millionaire's Cashmere" and a length of "Havana" Super 120's with Cashmere for a suit for myself, so it was worth her while. She's a charming girl and an absolute pleasure to deal with.



Then, through family contacts, I met with Jonathan Spencer, Sales Director of Edwin Woodhouse, one of the oldest mills in England and based five minutes from my home. Until recently, it was run by John and William Gaunt and produced cloth using it's own looms but last year they sold the business to John Fosters.

Fosters is known in the trade as a "manufacturer without looms" and many years ago, decided to shut down their own weaving facilities and outsource the manufacture of their cloth to what are known as 'commission weavers.' Two of the biggest in Yorkshire are Pennine Weavers and C & J Antich, with whom I met with last week. Chris Antich, their Managing Director, is pictured below and he very kindly gave me a tour of their state-of-the-art facility which has over 40 looms.



His enthusiasm for manufacturing is infectious. He's very entrepreneurial, bursting with energy, educated me on the benefits of using two ply yarn on both the warp and weft and gave me a nice overview of why some cloths are more expensive to weave than others.

Lot's of other companies such as Cavendish, Charles Clayton and Clissolds , have followed this business model, and in a way, I suppose it makes economic sense. They focus on the design of the cloth, finance the raw materials (yarn) and leave the production (and fixed costs of running a factory) to the experts, who can then achieve economies of scale.

Mills weave cloth in 'pieces' which have a length of sixty running metres (with a width of one and half metres) and usually only deal with people who are prepared to buy in bulk. Tailors, however, only require about three meters of cloth to make a suit, often called a 'length,' which is why they deal with merchants who are set up to hold stock and provide a 'cut length service.'

Fewer companies in the UK are actually weaving cloth today and those that do include the likes of Bower Roebuck, Minova, Abraham Moons, Hainsworth, Reid & Taylor, Johnstons of Elgin, Bulmer & Lumb (Taylor & Lodge)

The industry is consolidating with a few firms having a near vertical operation whereby they own yarn companies, mills, merchanting businesses and even their own garment factories and retail outlets.

A good example is Scabal who owns the mill Bower Roebuck in Huddersfield and sells cloth and made-to-measure suits from shops all over Europe with it's flagship store on Savile Row. The gang on Savile Row are pictured below - the lady is Hazel, a veritable rose between the two thorns that are Terry and John (now retired) and Ricky is the youngster. Have you noticed all their top buttons are pulling a little? I'd recommend less pie and eels, or, letting the side seams out half an inch on the double. :-)



Dormeuil is another good example. They have a large shareholding in the mill Minova in Wakefield, have a shop on Sackville Street, just around the corner from Savile Row, and below is Chris Juett who is my contact on the cloth side of things. He's a lovely guy and a true gentleman.



When it comes to cloth made in the UK, Dormeuil and Scabal produce some of the finest, rarest and most expensive cloth in the world. Wonderful designs, beautiful colours, noble fibres and marketing savy is their strongpoint. If a customer has deep pockets and wants something different, these two firms will deliver.

If the customer is looking for slightly more traditional cloths with more subtle designs then I will use my network of local merchants such as Robert Charnock of Dugdale Brothers of Huddersfield pictured below . Their cloth is often woven by the same mills, is incredibly good quality but is often cheaper as their overheads are smaller.



Other great local suppliers are Bateman Ogden, Brook Taverner, Hunt & Winterbottom and Premier Worsteds. Then there are other merchants such as Holland & Sherry, Lessers, HE Box, W. Bill, the list goes on.

Over the years, I have built up excellent relationships with many of the above and have learnt much in the process. I think it is wonderful that Yorkshire remains the heart of Textile Manufacturing in the UK and our weavers continue to provide Savile Row and brands like Ralph Lauren, Kiton and Lanvin with their threads. Long may it continue.