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Brand Watch: Silken Favours

17th May 2013 | General, Pic of the Day, Press, Style | Leave a comment

Our Spring / Summer 2013 campaign was shot in the heart of Mayfair, London. The team worked with 7 models to create individual looks for the different collections within the range.

Our rich heritage and roots in the Derbyshire countryside is always at the centre of everything we do and the focus in this shoot was to make sure that the accessories we used, were an extension of this. Cue, Silken Favours. Although this brand may not have been around for 229 years, the products are playful, made from beautiful silk and most importantly made in the UK. Creator, Vicki Murdock  is a print designer who uses pen and ink techniques to create the designs. The range features an assortment of scarves,  cushions and soon, shirts*excited face* in a selection of quirky prints.

Danielle wearing John Smedley and Silken Favours

The Silken Favours scarf is styled here with our 70% cashmere / 30% silk sweater, Rochelle. Danielle wears the scarf twisted around her neck, for a modest injection of colour against the silver sweater.

Ok, so I’m slightly obssessed with the Silken Favours cushions, meet Stanley…don’t even get me started on Bob.

Silken Favours 'Stanley' cushion

Silken Favours 'Bob' cushion

Check out the website here.

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Sneak Peek

10th May 2013 | Fun, General, Pic of the Day | Leave a comment

Here are a couple of pictures from behind the scenes at the John Smedley Spring / Summer 2014 photo shoot. It seems slightly crazy that we are still in Spring / Summer 2013 and the team are working this far in advance, soon enough they will be working on the AW14 collection, mind boggling!

The shoot was based in London and John Smedley worked with some truly fantastic people on this campaign, we are very excited to show you the results later in the year. Here is a little treat for our devoted blog readers to keep you in the loop!

Spring / Summer 2014 Menswear Shoot

Spring / Summer 2014 Womenswear Shoot

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The Breakfast Club

25th April 2013 | Fun, General, Pic of the Day | Leave a comment

Yesterday Freya and I visited London to plan John Smedley showcasing at London Collection: Men this June. In between meetings and finding the perfect venue, we stopped off for a bite to eat in Soho. We ate at The Breakfast Club and treated ourselves to the Half Monty. The photo’s don’t do it justice at all (I was too excited to tuck in!) but I would happily eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. The sausage was a personal highlight, perfect in texture and deliciously spicy. My friends call me the condiment queen so I couldn’t have been happier with the array of sauces on our table. The freshly squeezed apple juice served ice cold was unbelievably thirst quenching. Freya has now vowed to get her juicer out and give this a go at home.

Do you have any favourite restaurants / cafes you love to visit in London?

The Breakfast Club

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The Royal Warrant of Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen John Smedley Ltd. Manufacturer of Fine Knitwear

03rd January 2013 | General, History, Press | Leave a comment

It is with great pleasure and excitement I can announce today that John Smedley has received the first Royal Warrant in our 229 year history.

Her Majesty The Queen, through her household, has been purchasing fine knitwear directly from us for several years.  The Royal Warrant of Appointment is granted by Her Majesty and as such is a very public acknowledgement of the excellence of our garments.

John Smedley has a proud history of manufacturing the finest Merino wool and Sea Island cotton garments, both underwear and outerwear, in Great Britain.  Interestingly, the Royal Warrant document states specifically that we have been “appointed into the place and quality of Manufacturer of Fine Knitwear”.  I emphasise the word quality as I know that every one of our 390 employees has quality as a topmost priority and takes pride in every garment that passes through their hands. Indeed, quality is one of our core brand values because John Smedley, our founder, made it the distinguishing feature of the yarns and garments he produced.

Many of my colleagues have contributed to the application for The Royal Warrant and I must thank them all. At the same time, we recognise that a condition of application is the need for our company to address the many and complex issues of sustainability – not just the sustainability of the resources we use in production, but the sustainability of our very organisation. We will address these issues as we go forward.

Mr Ian Maclean

Managing Director

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Good Vibrations

25th October 2012 | Design, Film, Fun, General, Press | Leave a comment

On Friday I had the privilege of being invited to the film premiere of ‘Good Vibrations’ in Leicester Square, London. The film is about the Godfather of the Belfast Punk Scene Terri Hooley, who ran the Good Vibrations Record label in the punk era. The label released The Undertones ‘Teenage Kicks‘ single in the 1970’s. The film’s soundtrack was put together by Legendary Belfast Producer David Holmes, who wrote the Soundtracks for the films Ocean’s 11,12 & 13.

In attendance on Friday was Lead Singer from Primal Scream Bobby Gillespie, Liam Gallagher and BBC Radio DJ Lauren Laverne. I made sure I represented John Smedley by wearing the black ‘Dorset’shirt.

Screening of Good Vibrations

Written by Christopher Dolan

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Sneak Peek at the Spring / Summer 2013 Collection

17th August 2012 | Colour, Design, General, Style | Leave a comment

Here is a sneak peek of our Spring / Summer 2013 Sales Conference. Without giving too much away, the collection sees a huge injection of colour and new classic styles that you’ll wonder how you ever lived without. Held at the Museum of London, John Smedley presented the new collection to our fantastic agents who had travelled a long way to attend the launch. The day was a huge success and we would like to thank all our agents for attending and their positive feedback.  A lovely BBQ was put on and we all got to enjoy a burger and a chilled beer! The designers are now working on the Autumn / Winter 2013 collection which lets be honest, is way too far in the future to think about right now!

Spring / Summer 2013 Collection

Beautiful range of colours

A toast!

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When in London…

17th February 2011 | Retail | Leave a comment

If you happen to be in the Mayfair area in London this week, be sure to pop into our flagship store at 24 Brook Street, W1k 5DG. Our fresh and exciting Spring ‘11 Collection recently launched there, with colours galore and innovative new styles.

Find out more about our flagship store at http://www.johnsmedley.com/uk/brook-street-store

John Smedley Flagship at 24 Brook Street

John Smedley Flagship at 24 Brook Street

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Brook Street’s Yarnstorming.

14th October 2010 | General, Retail | Leave a comment (1)

As you know from reading our blog on Monday, “Stitch London” and the “Knit the City” teams visited our Brook Street flagship store. I travelled down from our Matlock mill to take part in the wool week event with the rest of the Brook Street team.

The shop doors where closed at 6pm, inside the knitters were eagerly awaiting to get started with their Yarnstorming. A crowd of knitters and passers by were forming outside to watch the window take shape. Shortly after we re-opened the shop and greeted knitters and bloggers with champagne and all things knitted which ranged from little sheep, a brilliant copy of our famous bridge, scooters and lots of mini people wearing our classic styles.

It was a brilliant night to start wool week and well done to our friends at “Stitch London” and “Knit the city” they did a great job Yarnstorming the shop. If you haven’t seen the window yet its well worth a peek, it will be on shown in our Brook Street flagship store window until the 22nd October.

Mini people, wearing mini styles

Mini people, wearing mini styles

The store window in all it's glory

The store window in all it's glory

John Smedley, inventor of the Long John's (and mini Long John's!)

John Smedley, inventor of the Long John's (and mini Long John's!)

The John Smedley mill in all it's woolly glory!

The John Smedley mill in all it's woolly glory!

Yarnstormed!

Yarnstormed!

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Stitch Me Up!

11th October 2010 | General, Retail | Leave a comment (1)

Our friends at “Stitch London” and “Knit the City” will be yarnstorming the John Smedley flagship store tonight (Monday 11th October) at 6.30pm – 8.00pm. Well what is yarnstorming you may ask yourself? Those in the know will tell you that “yarnstorming is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk”.

Stitch London (formerly Stitch and Bitch London) is a free, friendly yet feisty knitting group run by Lauren ‘Deadly Knitshade’ O’Farrell. Experts in their field, they have dedicated their time to prepare for the ultimate of yarnstorms for one night only.

If you can join the team tonight at 24 Brook Street, you can enjoy a special 20% discount on designer knitwear for all Stitch Londoners, a glass of sparkly, the chance to see a live yarnstorm and meet some of the John Smedley team. All we ask is for you to tweet/facebook the event to all your followers, and check back later in the week for pictures and news from the event.

Visit the Stitch London Blog to see sneak previews of tonights wonderful creations!

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A weekend of Fashion

22nd September 2010 | Design, Style | Leave a comment
London Fashion Show Tickets

London Fashion Show Tickets

I got the opportunity to spend last Friday and Saturday, in the buzz of fashion week. Getting tickets for, Maria Grachvogel, Caroline Charles, on the Friday. Osman and John Rocha on the Saturday.

Maria was the second show of the season, starting with nude shades, changing in to bright summer colours, then ending with her amazing digital prints wrapping the body in silk. Caroline had her usual humour trace in the collection starting with a montage of models laughing and having fun at the top of the catwalk. The collection, had a strong influence from the 40’s with hair and makeup, which really suited the clothing.

Osman, started with smart day wear with drape and movement then progressed in to some stiff shapes moulded around the body. John Rocha was my highlight of the shows, all the collection was romantic and interesting with textures and volume flowing seamless in to the mens and womenswear.

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