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Archive for June, 2010

John Maclean – John Smedley President

17th June 2010 | General | Leave a comment

As you may know, John Smedley has remained a family owned business for over 225 years. During recent years John Maclean has played a pivotal role in the company, but felt the time was right to relax his duties as Vice Chairman and take up a new role as President of John Smedley ltd.

As a small token of the company’s appreciation, John was presented with a luxury yacht – something he could maybe take over to the Mediterranean during the British winter – as long as the waves don’t get too choppy!

As ever John being a great sport jumped at the chance to test his new vessle on the dam located at the John Smedley Mill here in Derbyshire. “Safety First” I hear you say, well no need to worry, our Sales Director John Day was on hand ready to dive in should the need have been.

Row, Row, Row Yer' Boat

Row, Row, Row Yer' Boat

World Cup Style

17th June 2010 | Style | Leave a comment

So, you either love or hate the Fifa World Cup. For those football fans out there, the World Cup represents the mother of all events, 30 days of pure joy. For those not so keen, it means nothing on the t.v. for a good month. Here at John Smedley we’re all rooting for England, who after a poor start will be hoping to make an impact against Algeria tomorrow. Although we’re all tuning in to see a good portion of the onfield action, it’s some of the off field events that have us interested.

English football hero (and yes, he is a hero!) Gary Lineker seemed to be sporting classic style Havant during yesterdays Spain v Switzerland match. Teamed beautifully over a crisp shirt – he did the country proud!

Gary Lineker wearing a Smedley? Image Copyright BBC

Gary Lineker wearing a Smedley? Image Copyright BBC

German Blog, thelocal.de ’s article about German coach Jogi Löw also suggests he is also susceptible to wearing the odd Smedley. His mod inspired look (similar to the style of Paul Weller) often features what looks like a v-neck John Smedley piece – most probably style Marshall.

Jogi Löw looking stylish. Image Copyright thelocal.de

Jogi Löw looking stylish. Image Copyright thelocal.de

Vogue Talents

16th June 2010 | Design | Leave a comment

http://www.vogue.it/en/talents/graduated-from/2010/04/philippa-jenkins

Check out this link, it has my Graduate collection  recently featured on Vogue Talents!

Its been a great year after graduating from Kingston University, and then going to Milan at the end of September for Vogue Talents, and now as my year as the placement student is finishing with John Smedley, I will be staying on in a Designer / Developer role, I’m really excited to get stuck in.

Phew!

16th June 2010 | Design | Leave a comment

This weekend we shall mostly be putting our feet up after a hard week of preparation and co-ordination of our Spring 2011 Collection Launch.

Our global agents flocked to Derbyshire for a first look at the new women’s and men’s lines and enjoyed the surroundings of Blackwood House where we treated them to a salon show exhibiting the highlights from the collections.

We now look forward to sharing it with the store buyers, but it will be a little while yet before we can share the looks with you, but I’m sure we can arrange a sneak peek for our most dedicated of fans….

But for now, it’s straight back in to the design work ready for six months time where we will do it all again for Autumn 2011!!

Pip, Gemma and Nick - The John Smedley Designers

Pip, Gemma and Nick - The John Smedley Designers

John Smedley Competition

13th June 2010 | Competitions | Leave a comment

What’s better than a John Smedley?… A FREE John Smedley! If you want to be in with a chance of sampling the finest knitwear for nothing, make sure you don’t miss the competition exclusively at www.facebook.com/johnsmedleyknitwear. Simply write on the wall to let us know your favourite style and why you love it so – and you could win that garment! The competition ends on 30th June 2010 so head on over and submit your entry!

Chloe Webster, Graduate Collection

11th June 2010 | Design | Leave a comment (1)
Chloe Webster's Waterproof Knitwear Collection

Chloe Webster's Waterproof Knitwear Collection

The Design team went for a little excursion the other day to Nottingham Trent’s 2010 Graduate show.

Chloe Webster, who worked with us last year as part of her degree course, showed off her final collection after finishing her 4 years studying knitwear.

Her collection was based on the changing weather, exploring waterproofing knitted garments.  We proudly sponsored her with yarn to make her collection and were all very impressed with what she had achieved and wish her the very best of luck for the future.

Attack of the …. Ducks!

11th June 2010 | General | Leave a comment

As you may know, a feature of the John Smedley Mill here in Derbyshire is the river and damn that run by. The damn is currently home to around 12 ducks, 3 of which being  young ducklings which manage to keep visitors and mill workers entertained throughout the day. Approach with caution however, the smallest wiff of a bread based product and you’ll be surrounded! We’re currently baking up extra bread supplies just to keep them happy.

Drop the bread and run!

Drop the bread and run!

Shirts and Shorts

11th June 2010 | Style | Leave a comment
Multi-coloured delight of Pan Shirt

Multi-coloured delight of Pan Shirt

An exciting week here at John Smedley, our Spring Summer ‘10 Men’s Tailored Collection of Shirts and Trousers launched exclusively Online and at our Brook Street Store.

Shirt styles have been re-designed to sit perfectly underneath our Sea Island Cotton pullovers and cardigans. You’ll find the John Smedley signature rounded “Mayfair” collar, which goes with a V-Neck like strawberries go with cream. My personal favourite has to be style “Pan“, with its multi colour striped pattern. Perfect for the office when teamed with a pair of smart trousers, or roll up the sleeves and mix with denim at the weekend.

Our menswear designer Nick, has gone all out with the Spring ‘10 Trouser options. I’m particularly loving the shorts this season (Matrix and Argon), which i’ve been putting to good use during the bout of warm weather we experienced last week here in the UK. I say, add a pair to your wardrobe now – ready for the suitcase this summer!