24/03/2024
Get ready to dive into the dynamic world of UK manufacturing as we jet back to the UK for a lively chat with Kate Hills. Kate takes us on a whirlwind journey through her fascinating career path, from pioneering circular fashion fresh out of college to designing quirky kids’ clothing. We’ll follow her adventures to Italy, where she crafted designs…
19/05/2023
It’s been a long time coming, but this week finally sees iconic British designer Nigel Cabourn guest Garmology for a wide-ranging and openhearted chat about why he really got into fashion design, his inspirations and heroes, the ups and downs of life and business, his love of travelling, meeting people and collecting vintage garments, the collection that never happened, and…
08/07/2022
The magic school bus of Garmology stops today in rainy Manchester to take onboard Joe Schindler for a salty chat about denim, small-scale production, making in the UK, how to stumble and keep going in business, how being your own boss means working all hours and the value in making only stuff you really like yourself. You can find Joe…
01/07/2022
This week Genevieve Sweeney stops by to chat about the easy path of starting her knitwear brand. Or rather, how wanting to start making knitwear led her on a tour of discovery of discarded and obsolete machinery, meeting contacts in run-down pubs, locating expert knitters that had been put out to pasture, her husband becoming a trojan horse to get…
17/06/2022
This week’s guest is David Courtney of Courtney & Co, arguably the last of the traditional button makers in the UK. I was keen to invite David for a chat about how he happened into what is a rather unusual business, requiring as it does both a plethora of machinery and some rather special source materials. Not to mention the…
03/06/2022
Today’s guest is Chris Hewitt. Chris started out in 2008 wanting to make a pair of sustainable jeans. He’d been dealing in vintage for a while and had a mate that had briefly worked in the fashion industry, so how hard could it be? Harder than he’d imagined, as it turned out. Tune in for the twisty tale of trying…
25/02/2022
My guests this week are Marie and Will from Old Town, micro makers of contemporary clothing with references to the past. We talk about the Blitz scene of the ’80s and the twisty way Old Town started off, why they’re not about nostalgia, where the inspiration comes from, how their customer base has evolved over time and the celebrity gardener…
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…
01/04/2021
In this episode of “Garmology: Fun with outerwear!” I take a look at the Mallory jacket. First introduced as part of Nigel Cabourns “The ascent of Cabourn” in 2003, an inspired collection that arguably did ensure a big rise in Cabourns popularity, the Mallory has proven an enduring design, returning season after season in a variety of fabrics. I talk…
10/03/2021
David Evans, otherwise known as Grey Fox, has been blogging about menswear for 10 years. Championing menswear for the older man, be it classic suits, vintage denim or outdoors tweed, David has built a wide following. We talk about the madness of social media, the problem of both liking new clothes and being pro sustainability, how old cars fit in…