28/04/2023
This week’s guest is Guy Hills, bon vivant and founder of Dashing Tweeds, makers of innovative tweed and dashing outfits thereof. We get into the joy of tailoring, menswear history, why tweed is a top technical fabric, old money fashion, tweed runs, why tailored tweed is the hard drug of garments and more. Oh, and what a true garmsman does…
06/05/2022
This week Janelle of White Weft in London drops by to talk about her life in the denim industry as a designer, how she is now upcycling worn out denim into new products, the joy of repairing broken jeans, how stretchy jeans and elastane are the banes of recycling denim, designing fits, how the industry is a greenwashing nightmare, oh,…
18/02/2022
My guest today represents tradition, resilience and doing what you do well. Hillary Bacon is the marketing director of Cordings of Piccadilly, a clothing establishment that has been basically unchanged since 1839, although the world around has changed fundamentally. We talk about how Cordings started and those important first products, how society has evolved, appreciating that some things don’t have…
05/11/2021
This week Richard Ince is my guest. Richard is the sixth generation Ince making umbrellas in the family firm. James Ince Umbrellas has been making their wares in London since 1805, a whopping 215 years. We talk about how the industry has changed, how umbrellas have evolved, having faith in your product, flamboyancy and sustainability. Find James Ince Umbrellas on…
21/04/2021
The wife and husband team of Sarah and Paul have been running SEH Kelly since 2009. Quietly designing, making and revising a stream of garments that have found appreciative owners. All made in the British isles, from British cloths, and all backed by Sarah’s tailoring and Paul’s prose. From their HQ, which is basically a cold shed in Shoreditch, they…
24/02/2021
Daniel Harris started the London Cloth Co, a micro-mill in London in 2011, with one ancient and broken loom. Since then he has accumulated and restored many more, woven for many illustrious customers, mingled with gangsters and aided the International Space Station. Oh, and put the cloth on the back of Han Solo in the recent Star Wars epic. And…
17/02/2021
Award-winning British fashion innovator Christopher Raeburn joins the podcast to talk about how he got involved in upcycling military surplus, creating high fashion from vintage escape maps and parachutes, how change is happening even in huge companies such as Timberland and how the spread of ideas and inspiration is as valuable as producing a saleable product. We also get into…
26/06/2017
Did you miss day one or two? they’re right here and here. Day three was going to be our day of culture and high sophistication. This made perfect sense, as Easter Sunday is one of the very few days of the year that the commerce in London takes a day off. Usually everything is open all through the year. As it turned…
18/05/2017
Did you miss day one? It’s right here. Day two saw us lace up and set off again. After the miserable dinner at the hotel the evening before, it was easy to skip the £27.50 breakfast they served there. Almost 30 quid for breakfast? This just goes to show that when booking a hotel in London, make sure breakfast is…
09/05/2017
London is a city I love to visit. So much so that I often wonder what it would be like to live there. Amidst the hustle and bustle, the brilliant Underground, the sights, the exhibitions, the happenings and goings on. It all combines to make a place that feels so vital and alive. The daydream is marred just a little…