Hackett and the Made in Britain discussion

Hot on the heels of the opening of Hackett's new store on Regent Street, London, The Times today reports that Jeremy Hackett... 

"has raised the hackles of the [British] clothing manufacturers by claiming that the textile industry is incapable of making his 'essential British kit'."

Jeremy Hackett at London Collections Men

To read the full report you need to be a Times subscriber, but you'll find it here. To summarise, it reports that the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has taken exception to Mr Hackett's reported comments that the company once made 95 per cent of its clothes in Britain, but cannot now do so because the clothing manufacturing industry has 'been decimated'. The response of the the UKFT's chief executive is reported to be that resources do exist to manufacture in Britain, but that Hackett should invest to create the capacity the company needs to manufacture here. 

Assuming the reports are accurate, how fair are they? As ever, there's much truth and on both sides and a sprinkling of realism in Mr Hackett's comments, as reported.

I happen to like Hackett's clothes. They're almost perfect for the older man in search of style. The company does like to play heavily on the Britishness of its menswear, but it doesn't make misleading claims about it being manufactured in the UK. It's talking about design inspiration and influences; obvious from the heavy use of very British-looking cloths and cuts.

Readers will know that I've reported here and on my Guardian blog about the resurgence on British-made menswear and I had the chance to discuss this briefly with Jeremy Hackett at an event a few weeks ago. His response was one I've heard from many larger companies that would like to make clothes in the UK - at present the capacity doesn't always exist to supply the quantity or quality required for the high street. Even companies like Marks & Spencer are having to make their Best of British range in smaller quantities.

Mr Hackett is right, the British industry was decimated over the last few decades. Of course, this raises the issue of how it came about, why and who was responsible - but that's a discussion that isn't constructive or relevant to this blog post. Hackett does make some of its clothes here, in particular bespoke, and some of their clothes and fabrics are UK-made. I've no doubt at all that they would like to make more.

The answer to the problem, as the UKFT points out, is to invest and to revive our once massive production. I believe that a resurgence is starting and I've recorded on my blogs how smaller companies are manufacturing in the UK - much to the appreciation of countries like Japan and China, which can't get enough of our British-made fashion products. Hopefully greater investment will allow greater capacity so that larger retailers like Hackett can revive volume British production of menswear.

On a more personal note, I'd like to write about Hackett's products, wherever they're made. They're not an easy company to keep in touch with - I suppose Grey Fox is small beer for them - but I hope to write more about them in due course. In the meantime, visit Hackett's website here.

The UKFT can be found here.
Grey Fox's list of suppliers of UK-made menswear and accessories - click here.
Grey Fox on The Guardian - click here.