In this latest blog, I thought it
might be worth pointing out the high degree of versatility, flexibility
that exists if buying one of our coats. When you look on our website, it
will at first appear like any other clothing brand website. You see the
product and if you like it you order your size and colour and that’s what
you get, but hang around a little longer and read our product descriptions
and you will notice that you can virtually invent your own coat. If you
like the colour of one style but the sleeve of another you can do it. We
only make something when we receive an order and we cut everything
individually and if necessary, add new pattern pieces to be able to do all
this in-house.
One of the unique things that we also offer is the incredibly wide array of lining construction to any jacket. Any of our coats can be made so that the lining is detachable and you can choose between cotton or wool, you can also add insulation, either Goosedown or Merino wool and most styles you will see these listed as an option. Be careful though as the cost mounts up the more that you add various things!
The same goes for sizing. If you happen to be a 2 m 10 basketball player and always have a problem with arm length. just tell us what you want. We can make anything exactly to your size and we don’t charge more for it. You’re given measurements as well as our standard sizing which, if you wondered is incredibly close to a classic Barbour jacket fit. A brand I know pretty well having been their designer for five years.
We are able to do this as a result of the way the business is set up. When your order comes in it is individually cut. The person cutting it (often myself, but there are 5 of us that can do this) is also a pattern maker and so we understand your request. Once your order is ready to be sewn we hand it to one of our highly experienced outworkers. They are always people that have highly level training in making coats and all of them have at one time worked for well known coat brands in a factory environment. As manufacturing has declined in the UK, it means that there are many very skilled machinists that were starting to slip out of the industry. In this way they are able to work in their own time and their own environment.
Once your order is made, it comes back to us and we add your choice of button, or snap fastener, even your choice of belt buckle and then it is carefully examined and sent you to you.
It’s not something a factory environment will easily be able to offer due to the constant need to keep production lines busy. Our machinists can also make many other things and variety, working from home, in your own hours, no supervisor giving you a hard time, no clocking in, suddenly, making stuff is not so much of a drudgery for them anymore. It seems to work for us!!