Many of you have expressed curiosity at what it was like working as head of design for Barbour and because my time there played such a big part in my life as a designer, I felt it was good to respond to your interest, but also to acknowledge that part of my career.
I joined them in 2000 and stayed for six years before resigning when our paths and goals became very different. Barbour is a very original brand with a very real heritage as you will all probably know. Nothing of their story is manufactured (pardon the pun) and even without any smart branding agency they do a pretty good job of their own with a story like theirs.
I was asked to join them after their fortunes in the late 90s had started to decline and they were aware of my then small brand called William Newbold. Pretty much what I am doing now but 30 years ago. Using the worlds best fabrics to make functional and attractive outer clothing. I think I had a relatively easy job compared to many Fashion/Clothing designers because the brand was already very well known but they had a very limited product offer. That meant within reason that simply developing a larger product line would instantly grow sales. Of course it would be nice to take some credit for the new designs but it really wasn't a hard sell. Their logistics and distribution were equally as important. I was simply a part of a team that was wanting to get the brand back on the map.
It was a great time and I was pretty much left to my own devices in terms of styles, fabrics, even pushing price points was okay. At the time my thinking had been that here was a brand knocking on the door of becoming a luxury brand member and the cost of entry was authentic product made from the worlds best fabrics in great design. Anything that you can buy from Barbour during that period, is, in my opinion a very rare window because all of the products were using the best Italian, Swiss, German fabrics and the product was made either in the UK or Italy (such as some great three button tweed jackets, we were making at the time from Italy) there were some other fabulous factories in a place called Marina Franca in Puglia that were making some to die for stuff too. Of course not forgetting their own excellent wax jacket manufacturing in South Shields,
After the first three or four years I began to realise that I wasn't good at process within a large organisation and as the brand was growing again it needed rigid structure to keep it on its rails and I started to find the environment stifling to say the least. That is not a criticism of them because they needed to become very process driven, it's just that I didn't fit into it very well. The classic case of creatives versus the business types and I've never been the latter.
There was a massive resurgence of interest in Germany and the USA in the brand and it became apparent that many of the larger stores in these places were hungry for the product, but needed better price points for a majority of their customers and in terms of volume, the higher end was and still is always smaller. Whilst understandable, the difference between a brand looking for greater volume and one focused on high-end luxury was always going to create a problem. My heart is and always has been in the latter, but then again I wasn't responsible for 700 jobs. Perhaps a reason why they simply had to expand their markets rapidly, although to this day I would beg to differ on that. I am convinced that for many brands they can grow their turnover but shrink the brand. I will let others be the judge of that but much as I love what the company did for my career, I will always believe that my approach at the time would have led to them becoming a luxury brand. That isn't because I think it should be something that only wealthy people can afford, I have no snobbish aspiration in that sense but simply as a British brand to be offering, the very best for people to buy into.
I will always be grateful to the people that gave me a chance there.