03/07/2022
I’ll start off right here with a confession, though to the initiated it will be more like stating the obvious: I do like a nice waxed jacket. For those of a similar persuasion, the attraction is obvious. There’s the historical aspect, cotton fabric has been treated to make it waterproof for a long time now. While we may hear tell…
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…
10/06/2022
When you find yourself having a crisis of career and decide that taking on a garment factory from 1853 in the heart of Manchester sounds like a great idea, you’re clearly not faint of heart or work shy. James Eden visits the podcast to talk about how he came to start Private White VC, as a tribute to his heroic…
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…
13/05/2022
Continuing down the path to the doors of small makers, today we find ourselves sharing time with Becca and Ben of Pajotten. Established in 2016 as a midlife change of pace and direction, Pajotten makes workwear inspired garments one at a time, to order and size, building a loyal customer base along the way. We chat about their background and…
29/04/2022
After graduating with a Masters’s Degree in Fashion and Business, Niamh wanted to start her own company, based on her own principles, values and way of doing things. We talk about studying fashion, how the obvious path goes into fast fashion, the difference between making things quick and easy versus taking your time to do it properly, how a career…
22/04/2022
Today’s guests are Barbara and Nick, the due behind the small Hackney-based brand, A State of Nature. Heavily into the small-scale, well-crafted, detail-oriented, natural fabrics and direct sales school of business, building the business from the ground level with a focus on longevity and happy customers. We talk about the joys and frustrations and how coming from luxury fashion means…
15/04/2022
When you start a brand based on your admiration for the last great hero of exploration, you want to make sure you live up to the legend. Martin Brooks of Shackleton guests to talk about his decades-long obsession with Ernest Shackleton and his Antarctic quest, his values and leadership, the understated heroics and achievements. Oh, and how they are going…
08/04/2022
This week I have the pleasure of talking to someone I’ve enjoyed countless hours of seeing on tv, Patrick Grant. Known to many as one of the judges of The Great British Sewing Bee, Patrick has many more things going on, such as owning a traditional Savile Row tailor and a Lancashire garment factory. He’s also working to revitalise manufacturing…
25/03/2022
After getting busy writing during the lockdown, Holly Swinyard returns to talk all things cosplay. We get into the history of cosplay and how while the name is recent, it has much older origins, how humans have maybe always been into dressing up, the potential benefits of taking on a character, the work that goes into costumes, how things changed…