230 years old but still going strong: The British knitwear company’s SS14 collection, inspired by the Henley Royal Regatta, continues their quest for “contemporary, luxurious and innovative garments”, as David Hellqvist finds out
John Smedley, as a company, is just about as old as the United States of America. Started only eight years after Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence, the knitwear specialists of Matlock, Derbyshire, have developed and matured since. Exactly 230 years later the brand is not a sartorial pensioner lacking in relevance, but still a vibrant and energetic teenager. You’re only as old as you feel, as the saying goes. As a result, John Smedley is today a comfortable and natural part of London Collections: Men, the capital’s world renowned menswear week, where established giants showcase their biannual catwalk collections alongside new and upcoming avant-garde graduates.
Though defined by traditional knitwear, John Smedley – partly through constantly rejuvenating itself by taking on fresh and new design talent – is also at the forefront of high-tech wool technology and dedicated to sustainable materials. By realising that fabric technology is fashion’s last frontier, John Smedley is able to compete with other, perhaps more fashion-focused brands.John Smedley creatives, like head designer Pip Jenkins, a Kingston on Thames university graduate, have skilfully stayed away from anchoring the brand in catwalk hysteria, instead opting for a more product-focused attitude. Perfecting key pieces and slowly developing new signature staples allows Jenkins to let the actual garments do the John Smedley talking. It might sound obvious, but in a hype-crazed 2014, that’s not always the case. Quality is a must and heritage a plus, but product is king. Not many brands have them all. John Smedley is that rare combination of tradition and direction, a brand as comfortable with its past as with the future.
Having worked with storied brands (Brooks Brothers) as well as new and hyped designers (Richard Nicoll), Pip Jenkins (pictured) knows that she has the best of both worlds. As the SS14 season moves into the last leg of pimento red knitted polo shirts, Malachite green merino sweats and tourmaline blue shirts we sat down with Jenkins to discuss John Smedley’s past, present and future…
What was the starting point for SS14 collection?
The SS14 collection is called ‘OUR TIME’ with its strong links to sports and a trip to Henley Royal Regatta where we were inspired by the rowing team jerseys, with hooped stripes, colour blocking and even down to the team boats having strong contrast and colour. We also pick a key story each season that highlights our craftsmanship and ability, this season we chose to tell the story about John Smedley trading in Japan for 100 years, where we dyed our classic product in natural indigo dye using age old traditional techniques.
What are the key pieces, what garments sum it up?
I would say the Hadley style, which is a short sleeve T-shirt that encapsulates the inspiration with its thick hoop stripes, bold colours and traditional Henley style neck line. Also another key style is the polo shirt Race with its team like chest stripes and the John Smedley logo badge.
“Our main objective is always to create contemporary, luxurious and innovative garments,
we’re lucky to have such a rich heritage”
Where does that logo badge come from, what does it mean?
The badge was drawn from the modernist jay bird logo which was first introduced as a mark of quality in 1934 on a range of our men’s polo shirts.
Is an Autumn collection normally easier than the Summer ones?
Yes, in someways specially being a knitwear brand as people see us as a winter product but I feel we are quite lucky having such amazing fine gauge product in some great staple fibres specially in the SS14 season with our John Smedley’s Sea Island Cotton which really adds luxury to a product and makes it more versatile. We can dye our John Smedley’s Sea Island Cotton to get great depth of colour which adds some brightand existing colours to the collection. Also we’ve added some chunky cotton piece to the ss collection to add a wider range of products in to the collection to broaden the offering.
What is the main objective for a knitwear-focused brand in a Summer collection?
Our main objective is always to create contemporary, luxurious and innovative garments, we’re lucky to have such a rich heritage as well as really modern technical abilities and we’re able to continue to showcase them in both our Spring Summer and Autumn Winter collections. Particularly for the Summer, we focus on delivering wearable and interesting luxury pieces and experiment with the gauges of our materials so that each piece, although knitwear, is still wearable and breathable whatever the weather!
What’s the most technically advanced garment in this collection?
I would say the small collection we did for the signature styles, celebrating 100 years of trading in Japan. There we used our classic product but had to research into dying the piece in natural indigo dye. So we had to strip back the production process we had in place and rethink how we could bring this age old process into a production environment. As the process was so time consuming, the collection became limited edition as each piece had to be hand dipped in the natural indigo, which looked more like a yellow-green, though once the garment was pulled from the dye vat it would slowly turn to indigo as it oxidised in the air.
Which one is your favourite?
This season, the 1012MSIG V neck cardigan style in the signature collection which was celebrating 100 years of trading in Japan is my favourite piece. It’s got a great story to tell down to the process of how it’s been produced by hand, to the reason why we decided to design and produce it for the collection.
What made you focus on knitwear as a student?
As I studied a BA in fashion design they were quite flexible about if you wanted to do knitwear or not, but I was finding it quite frustrating never finding the right fabric for my designs. So I would spend hours developing my own fabric on the knitting machines. I found it so much more rewarding and exciting that I could design and produce every aspect of the garment myself and really create the vision I wanted to achieve. The possibilities are endless on a knitting machine…
Was John Smedley always on your hit list of potential employers?
After working for Brooks Brothers in New York, I knew I wanted to work for a company with rich heritage, but one still looking to be contemporary with their knowledge. So when I got to do a project with John Smedley at university and visit the factory, I relished the fact I’d stepped into a knitting world where you could see every process of the garment being made. From then on I knew the brand was for me.
What, would you say, is John Smedley’s DNA… what makes it stand out as a brand?
Colour, quality, ‘Made in Britain’, craftsmanship, design and community.
How much of a collection is based on heritage and archive?
For this collection we took the story of us trading with Japan for 100 years from the archive, other than that we stay true to the brand but contemporary at the same time by pushing the boundaries of our technical ability.
Is technology and forward-thinking fabrics important for you? How can a knitwear brand progress that?
Technology and forward-thinking is important to the brand, and my designs, as we need to look forwards to the future but still keep an essence of our past. Every season I try to develop a new technique on our machines or look into a different dying process. We don’t really use technical yarns as most of the ones on the market are man-made and synthetic, which isn’t what we are about, but our extra fine merino has some amazing features and benefits that I think people forget about and take for granted, like its breathability, temperature regulation, odour resistance, softness and elasticity…
