“With the
arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the
world
with Beauty. If I have succeeded in some small way, if only in one small corner of the world, amongst the men and women I love, then I shall count myself blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and the work goes on.”
William Morris
The Well at the World's End: Volume I
Helen Brocklebank CEO, Walpole
Does luxury matter? As Walpole’s CEO, I’m incredibly proud to have the job of championing British luxury. These creative, entrepreneurial, high-growth businesses make a vast and vital contribution to the UK economy. What’s more, each and every one of the UK’s luxury brands is a global ambassador for British quality, creativity, design and craftsmanship. I’d argue that this sector is one of our greatest national treasures yet, paradoxically, also one of the greatest unsung heroes of our economy. My worry is that policy makers may not realise how much luxury really matters. Let me share with you some of the reasons why I think that needs to change.
It’s not only that our legendary luxury automotive marques – Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Aston Martin, Bentley Motors, Range Rover – have experienced phenomenal turnover growth in the past five years. Or that high-end food and drink has gone from strength to strength – think of the iconic whiskies like The Dalmore, Glenfiddich and The Glenturret as well as the fast-emerging English sparkling wine industry giving champagne a run for its money. Likewise, our luxury fashion and accessories industry has boomed with fresh new brands and heritage businesses thriving side by side in stores around the world.
Perhaps we take for granted that the excellence Britain can offer is in huge demand around the world. Whether a small artisanal manufacturer or a FTSE 100 brand, our sector’s international appeal and emphasis on overseas trade has driven the value of British luxury exports to a record-breaking £56bn a year, not only in traditional markets such as the US and Europe but also in high-potential countries in Southeast Asia and the Gulf. For customers around the world, hungry for British craftsmanship and excellence, luxury matters.
It’s this international success, as well as huge domestic growth, that now makes British luxury worth £81bn a year, up 69 per cent over the past five years. Against a backdrop of unprecedented challenges for business, it’s proof positive of the strong fundamentals and hard-wired resilience on which the sector is built. More than that, luxury is now 3.7 per cent of UK GDP and sends the taxman more than £25bn. The success of the UK economy, not
only today but for future growth, depends on the success of British luxury. We’re not complacent about that as a sector. We cannot be complacent about that as a country.
But if the economic arguments are not enough, let me give you nearly half a million further reasons why luxury in the UK really matters and should be seen by our policy makers as an economic essential.
The bottom line is, nationwide, 454,000 people’s livelihoods depend on British luxury: exceptional people in highly skilled, sustainable, valued jobs. Many of these roles are in significant regional centres of manufacturing excellence – Savile Row bespoke tailoring, Northamptonshire shoemaking; Staffordshire potteries; luxury car making in the Midlands; textile manufacturing in Scotland and Yorkshire; Scottish whisky; English sparkling wine. These are all communities supported by the creation of high-quality products unique to the British Isles, a vital part of our cultural heritage, prized the world over and which we must fight hard to protect.
Think of the Savile Row bespoke tailors in London and the hand-weavers behind Harris Tweed in the Outer Hebrides. Of chefs in Michelin-starred restaurants in some of our world-famous hotels and the local farmers and fishermen who supply them with the finest produce. Or of generations of skilled craftspeople making Mulberry handbags in Somerset sold by talented retail staff in our cities. Today 1.5 per cent of the working population of the UK work in British luxury – one in every 68 people across the length and breadth of the UK.
So, does luxury matter?
It matters to our exports, like our exceptional single malt whiskies – made in the UK, and sold to the world.
It matters to our communities, like the Stoke potteries – with hundreds of years of heritage that we must preserve.
It matters to our economy, generating wealth and prosperity for the whole UK.
And most of all it matters to our employees – the Olympic athletes of UK luxury – whose skills and creativity power our success. It matters to those 454,000 people whose jobs support their families.
For them luxury isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
The Luxury Landscape is Walpole’s annual collection of essays that reflect the key trends and talking points shaping our sector. Here, Commissioning Editor Nick Carvell introduces the roster of writers and artists who have brought the Book of British Luxury 2024/2025 to life
Nick Carvell Head of Content & Editor-at-Large, Walpole
What image does the word ‘craft’ conjure up in your mind? I would hazard a guess that your first thoughts are towards the artisanal – skilled people working with their hands to create beautiful objects using knowledge honed and passed down across the generations. In fact, you will have the chance to get to know a selection of them in our Meet the Makers portfolio (p.125), with interviews penned by Mark Hooper and images shot by Sam Walton.
However, while there is no doubt that this physical expression of craft is a huge part of what makes British luxury world-leading, the idea of ‘craft’ in our industry is becoming ever broader as we move into the future. Today, it also encompasses the craft of more incorporeal experiences with signature British ingenuity, expertise and capability: hospitality, digital innovation, community building.
Walpole’s focus for the year ahead is on the jobs and skills that make the UK luxury sector the envy of the world. That’s why in the Book of British Luxury 2024/2025, we are taking the opportunity to spotlight the most engaging people, innovative high-end brands and makers you need to know, all redefining homegrown craft for a new generation. What are the progressive ideas and time-honoured expertise that will shape luxury and culture far into the future? Over the following pages, we’ve enlisted a roster of exceptional journalistic talent to explore just that.
Coincidentally, the publication of this issue is also the 190th anniversary of the birth of British designer and entrepreneur William Morris, founder of the globally influential Arts and Crafts movement and a man whose radical ideas about how we could live shaped interior design in the increasingly urban Victorian era. We asked Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A and President of the William Morris Society, why Morris’s design philosophy resonates louder than ever nearly two centuries later (p.34) – something that, we hope you agree, is marvellously demonstrated by the reinterpretation of one of his beautifully arcadian archival designs – Sunflower – originally created by William Morris and sold by Morris & Co. in 1875, and reimagined for our cover by Sanderson Design Group.
Speaking of interiors, this year also marks the tenth anniversary of London Craft Week, the capital’s annual celebration of outstanding creativity, showcasing makers and marques from across the globe. To mark this momentous occasion, renowned design journalist and presenter Michelle Ogundehin muses on the resurgent skills in interior design – and who’s doing them right (p.46). In a similar vein, food writer Mina Holland removes the proverbial cloche on the traditional methods of making that are seeing a revival in high-end gastronomy here in the UK (p.64), and travel journalist Melinda
Stevens checks in with what is making the UHNW customer tick when it comes to hospitality right now – and why Britain is doing it better than anywhere else in the world (p.72).
When it comes to British commodities, there are a notable selection that have captured the globe’s imagination over the past couple of years. The interest in bespoke luxury cars infused with heritage and skilled creation has made the UK a go-to for discerning international customers wanting an automobile that truly reflects their aesthetic. Writer Charlie Thomas explores how the custom car is the new Savile Row suit for a generation of motor-lovers (p.52). And while we’re talking about Savile Row, renowned menswear writer Aleks Cvetkovic introduces us to the new names bringing variety, inclusivity and high-tech to the world-famous street (p.90).
It's this interest in the personal element of craft that has also led to a womenswear scene where pieces that show visible signs of the maker (or, indeed, mender) are currently trending. We asked fashion journalist Eni Subair to explore this trend and the British designers who are getting noticed globally for the physical storytelling woven into their garments (p.102). This demand for technique is also seen in the renaissance British haute joaillerie is enjoying, too. Writer Ming Liu explores the shining example homegrown jewellery houses are setting for British heritage businesses on the world stage (p.82).
On the subject of all things international, Vogue journalist Scarlett Conlon helps us celebrate Walpole assuming the presidency of the European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance (ECCIA) from our Italian luxury cousins Altagamma, by taking us to her adoptive home of Italy. On this brief trip away from all things British, she speaks to Altagamma CEO Stefania Lazzaroni about why the Made in Italy moniker holds such currency for business both in Italy and abroad (p.80).
After that little continental vacation, it’s time to get back to work, which is why we hired comedian and life coach Viv Groskop to break down her top ten tips for crafting the career you deserve over the coming year (p.62).
Finally, we asked two of our country’s standout culture-shapers – Katy Wickremesinghe (p.113) and Ben Pentreath (p.122) – to give us their thoughts on art and architecture in Britain today: the forces shaping it, the makers defining it and what its evolution says about where Britain is headed.
Thank you to all our writers and our incomparable illustrators – Jovilee Burton, Anna Higgie and Luke Edward Hall – for being a part of the Book of British Luxury 2024/2025. We hope the issue leaves you feeling inspired about the breadth of exciting craft that is making Britain – and our luxury sector – truly great.
Helen Brocklebank CEO
Nick Carvell Head of Content & Editor-at-Large
Jessica Day Head of Membership
Harriet Gilbert Savage Content & Membership Assistant
Charlotte Keesing Director of Corporate Affairs & International
Olivia Lowdell Head of Events
Jon Marlow Head of Policy & Public Affairs
Rebecca Mars Senior Membership Manager
Anna Maude Executive Assistant to CEO & Programme Manager
Rowena Ratnam Consulting Marketing Director
Madeline Somers Eve Head of Strategic Partnerships
Bethanie Summerfield Events & Marketing Manager
Carly von Speyr Head of Communications
Julia Woolley Head of Business Development
Sadaf Quyoum Acting Head of Membership
With thanks to Copy Editor
Karen Yates
Jovilee Burton
Jovilee, a digital artist from Central London, draws inspiration from the women who shaped her upbringing, fuelling her dedication to female empowerment. Her passion is vividly reflected in her illustrations, capturing the essence of body, mind, and soul. Through her art, Jovilee ignites profound conversations and deep emotions, amplifying the voices of women.
Aleks Cvetkovic
Aleks is a freelance journalist and the strategy director at Londonbased creative agency, Birch, which specialises in creative direction, strategy and production for luxury brands. Alongside his agency role, Aleks writes on men’s style for leading publications including The Telegraph, Robb Report, Monocle, FT Weekend and Financial Times HTSI
Scarlett Conlon
Scarlett is a freelance fashion and design journalist based in Italy. Before relocating from London, she held roles as Deputy Fashion Editor at The Guardian and Observer, and News Editor at British Vogue. She is currently a regular contributor to Wallpaper*, Vogue.com, The Guardian and Observer Magazine, among other prominent international titles.
Viv Groskop
Viv is a comedian, playwright and best-selling author. She is the host of the hit podcast How to Own the Room featuring guests like Hillary Clinton and Margaret Atwood talking about power, presence and public speaking. Her books include How to Own the Room (on speaking), Lift As You Climb (on ambition) and Happy High Status (on confidence).
Luke Edward Hall
Luke is an English artist, designer, columnist and author. He is also Creative Director of Chateau Orlando, a fashion and homewares brand he co-founded in 2022. Luke’s philosophy is shaped by his love of storytelling and fantasy, and his colourful work is often inspired by history, filtered through a lens of irreverent romanticism.
Anna Higgie
Australian-born Anna is an illustrator now living and working in Bristol. She works in a combination of traditional and digital techniques to create her illustrations. Her work has appeared in many publications including Vanity Fair Paris, The Guardian, The Financial Times and Penguin Books. She is a regular contributor to British Vogue
Mina Holland
Mina is a writer, editor and storyteller. She is an Editor on The Guardian Feast, and writes variously about food and drink, health and lifestyle. She is the author of two books about food, and her parenting memoir, Lifeblood, will be published by Daunt in 2025. She lives in London with her family.
Mark Hooper
Mark is an award-winning editor, writer and editorial consultant. He was the founding Editor of Hole & Corner, dedicated to ‘celebrating craft, beauty, passion and skill’, has worked at i-D, Arena and Esquire and contributed to The Guardian, Wired and Wallpaper*. He is the author of The Story of Tools and The Great British Tree Biography
Tristram Hunt
Tristram is Director of the V&A –a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. Since 2017, he has championed design education in UK schools, encouraged debate around the history of the museum’s global collections and overseen the V&A’s transition to a multi-site museum. He was appointed President of the William Morris Society in 2023.
Ming Liu
Ming is a London-based writer covering the watches and jewellery sector. She contributes regularly to the Financial Times, Financial Times HTSI, The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair and Tatler She is also an author and most recently co-wrote the book Winged Beauty: the Butterfly Jewellery Art of Wallace Chan
Michelle Ogundehin
Dubbed 'the interiors guru' by The Sunday Times, Michelle is internationally renowned as a thought-leader, award-winning journalist and trusted voice on home, wellbeing, trends and style. A long-time judge on the BBC’s Interior Design Masters, her new book, Simple Inside: 4 Steps to a Home that Heals, is set to be published soon.
Ben Pentreath
Richard H. Driehaus Prize-winning architect Ben founded his eponymous practice in London in 2004, having previously worked for the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. In addition, he writes and lectures on the subject of architecture and design, and will be publishing An English Vision, a major monograph on his studio’s work with Rizzoli, in autumn 2024.
Melinda Stevens Previously Editor-in-Chief of Condé Nast Traveller UK and Condé Nast Traveller US, Melinda is an award-winning journalist and the Founder & Creative Director of Salt Lick with clients including LVMH. She has written several books for Assouline, produces magazines for Belmond, and is an advisor on travel app, Step, as well as a supporter of Chefs in Schools.
Eni Subair
London-based writer Eni is Senior Fashion Features Editor at The Face. Before this, she served as Fashion Features Editor at ELLE UK. In addition to tenures at both British Vogue and Vogue Global, she has also written for publications including Refinery29 UK
Charlie Thomas
Charlie covers a wide range of subjects, from travel and culture to all things automotive. His appreciation of design was developed at an early age thanks to his father and uncle. Today his love of storytelling sees him seek out features around the world and his work has appeared in Financial Times HTSI, GQ and The Times
Sam Walton
Sam has worked as an art director on titles including Vogue, Frank, Elle Decoration and World of Interiors, as well as developing campaigns for brands including Bally, COS, Nicole Farhi and Barbour. The founding Creative Director of the Telegraph Media Group’s Luxury magazine, Walton also founded Hole & Corner in 2013 as a thought leader in the neo-craft movement.
Award-winning British-Sri Lankan entrepreneur Katy is Founder of KTW, a consultancy forging links between the corporate and art worlds, and The Wick, a cultural content hub ‘connecting culturally curious audiences’. Katy is also a Trustee of both the Royal Academy of Arts and Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The Luxury Landscape
34 Redesigning Britain by Tristram Hunt
46 Lasting Impressions by Michelle Ogundehin
52 On Your Marques by Charlie Thomas
62 Make an Impression by Viv Groskop
64 An Appetite for Provenance by Mina Holland
72 At Your Service by Melinda Stevens
80 What's in a Name by Scarlett Conlon
82 True Gems by Ming Liu
90 Word on the Street by Aleks Cvetkovic
102 Fashion's New Thread by Eni Subair
113 Best in Show by Katy Wickremesinghe
122 Building on the Past by Ben Pentreath
125 Meet the Makers by Mark Hooper & Sam Walton
About Walpole
183 Walpole by Numbers
185 About Walpole
186 What Walpole Does
188 Walpole British Luxury Awards
190 Walpole British Luxury Summit
194 Luxury in the Making
197 Brands of Tomorrow Class of ‘24
Member Directory
204 Walpole Member Directory
William Morris’s revolutionary work and visionary approach remain of great significance today, especially for the luxury sector
Words Tristram Hunt
emember that a pattern is either right or wrong.” So wrote the influential leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris. “It cannot be forgiven for blundering, as a picture may be which has otherwise great qualities in it. It is with a pattern as with a fortress, it is no stronger than its weakest point.”
Perhaps it was this fierce conviction of character and vocation, this almost instinctive knowledge of design and its theories, that so elevated William Morris above his contemporaries. “No pattern should be without some sort of meaning,” he continued. For Morris, this meaning derived from a value of tradition, an appreciation of workmanship and an ‘honesty’ in labour, so lacking to the designer in his newly industrialised age. At the heart of Morris’s work lay a truth to nature. With his acute powers of observation, he reframed the natural world into exquisite evocations of flowers, fruits, trees and living creatures. But the meandering curves of foliage, the creeping leaves and blossoming flowers, so evidently beautiful throughout Morris’s pattern designs, are not pioneering in themselves. Many of his predecessors, contemporaries and successors followed similar decorative paths.
Still, when the eminent art and architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner wrote his seminal book, Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936), he set William Morris apart for his immense contributions to modern design. When Morris “made up his mind to open… the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co… this event marks the beginning of a new era in Western art,” he wrote. Countless other scholars, historians, designers, businesses – and perhaps more frequently, homeowners in the throes of redecoration – continue to agree.
The authority of William Morris’s legacy burns bright. When many of his best-loved designs have remained in almost continuous production since his death (and his works remain among the most-searched-for in the V&A’s collections), his reign as one of Britain’s most influential designers is secure. In fact, it is difficult to think of another whose work has proved so enduring. To what can we attribute Morris’s phenomenal success, both during his own lifetime and now, 190 years on from his birth?
Morris’s mastery of repeating pattern is most recognisable to us in his designs for wallpaper. This particular legacy is preserved faithfully at Sanderson Design Group. But it was also one of the first disciplines his firm put into serial production. Trellis, Daisy and Pomegranate (also known as Fruit) were the first three papers designed by Morris, issued between 1864 and 1867, and were closely associated with the firm’s medieval-inspired aesthetic. That Morris hung a version of Trellis in his bedroom at his London residence, Kelmscott House – the current home of the William Morris Society – speaks to his fondness for this earliest design. The papers were so commercially successful that by 1884, the term ‘Morrisonian’ had become well known in the trade.
Opposite top
William Morris photographed by Emery Walker, 1889 Trellis wallpaper design, 1862-64
Opposite below Fruit wallpaper design, 1864
Daisy wallpaper design, 1894
But the real genius of Morris was that his creative approach proved all-encompassing. It permeated his life and set his view on design and craft far beyond the traditional confines of painting, sculpture and architecture. It reached all manner of humble household goods. Even “the management of towns and our highways of all kinds” did not escape his discerning eye. Over his lifetime, his polymathic evolution as a designer saw him master the successive disciplines of embroidery, furniture, stained glass, mural decorations, printed and woven textiles and wood engravings. He revived the lost arts of calligraphy, illumination and tapestry weaving, and later set up his own publishing company, the Kelmscott Press. He possessed a vigour for reinvention and innovation. In the words of the late Morris biographer Fiona MacCarthy: “Morris never stopped designing, redesigning and improving.”
Of course, Morris led many parallel lives, as a prolific artist, designer, businessman, retailer, conservationist, poet, writer and political activist. But even his political life was intimately bound with art and the pursuit of a creative life for all people, where the spiritually rewarding joys of handiwork and nature could again be part of everyday existence. His was a bold vision of a world saved by art. Morris’s first biographer, JW Mackail, defined Morris’s ultimate success under these very practical terms, that Morris never designed anything that he could not produce with his own hands. His daughter, May, confirmed this theory, describing how her father “was in direct relation with the silk-weavers and carpet-weavers, dyers and blockers, with pattern-makers and block-cutters, with cabinet-makers and carvers in wood… he had grasped the nature of those he employed”.
Morris’s bold embrace of traditional craft skills, combined with his intensely independent spirit, must have seemed eccentric to a society still reeling from the effects of the Industrial Revolution. His resolute disapproval of industrialism in particular – one of the most important phenomena of his times – defiantly put him out of step with a generation hungry for modernity. But for Morris, craft tradition was also in flux; he did not simply revive, he adapted and reinvigorated craft practices to create something innovative and visionary.
Morris’s distaste for the worst effects of large-scale industry seems remarkably progressive and germane in our own age of net zero and decarbonisation. His connection to the natural world also holds great foresight when around 55 per cent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Then, there is his elevation of the arts of everyday life, part of his wider egalitarian vision of “art for all”. Morris is a designer with great significance for our times, particularly for the strength of British luxury. We recognise at once the integration of innovation with tradition; a love of beauty and a desire to produce beautiful things; creating through time-honed skill, workmanship and craft excellence; the perpetual accomplishment of reinvention. Our leading luxury houses demonstrate these qualities to perfection.
Morris once reflected how: “I love art and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love.” When Morris’s influence shows no signs of diminishing, there is a brilliantly timeless quality to his appeal. His spirit thrives unabated in the timeline of British design and craftsmanship, rediscovered and admired afresh by each generation – including our own.
The William Morris Society Images in this article were provided courtesy of The William Morris Society, a museum and membership organisation dedicated to expanding knowledge of the life and works of Morris and based at his last London Thameside home at 26 Upper Mall, Hammersmith. The Society holds an extensive collection of designs in Morris's own hand, as well as his printing press, furniture, archive and Kelmscott Press books. It is open on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 2 to 5pm. To become a member, plan your visit, hire event space or donate please go to williammorrissociety.org
Modern interior design must utilise time-honoured techniques and local resources to ensure the longevity of both
Words Michelle Ogundehin
his year heralds the tenth anniversary of London Craft Week, an annual showcase of exceptional work from new names and established makers. Yet ‘craft’ routinely suffers from something of an image problem with many mistakenly associating it only with wobbly pots and fiddly tchotchkes. This is a mistake.
To me, craft means something that embodies the hand of the maker. When something has been sculpted, stitched, hammered, whittled or woven by hand, within it by default lies love and care. To be surrounded by such things can only be beneficial to the soul. In the words of artist and designer Helen Amy Murray, “the loving commitment and careful artistry involved in creating unique works of art by hand adds a value far beyond the monetary, the power of hand craftsmanship is infinitely more special to behold”. It is also something the British are particularly good at.
From the virtuosity of wallpaper marque Cole & Son (craft that rests on the shoulders of three centuries of history), to the interiors realised worldwide by the David Collins Studio, what the British excel at is distinctive designs that incorporate artisanal workmanship. It is what Sharon Lillywhite, Founder & Creative Director of Oliver Burns Studio, perfectly describes as thoughtful luxury, “spaces that are felt, rather than formulaic”. In short, craft is design that makes an emotional connection – spaces that affect the way you feel, furniture that you can fall in love with.
It even applies to board games. As Alexandra Llewellyn, designer of intricate bespoke backgammon sets, says: “We have a rich tradition of artisanship in Britain and craftspeople dedicated to creating forever pieces using time-honoured techniques. I’m proud to support and showcase their skill through games that will be played and enjoyed for generations to come.”
This idea of something being made to be enjoyed for generations is what particularly distinguishes luxury craft. Especially as today sustainability must be a dominating theme through all of design. However, that doesn’t mean designers must feel obliged to fashion their wares only from recycled corncobs, mycelium and seaweed. Being environmentally aware is not just about being materially
sustainable but being aesthetically sustainable, too.
In the rush towards ‘new’ eco materials, in some cases the need simply to create things of use and beauty has been rather forgotten. Just because I can now compost my chair cushion or have a night light powered by algae doesn’t mean it has a greater intrinsic value over the long term. In truth, I think the path to the future of craft is a lot less complicated.
At Matthew Cox, every maker is given a letter when they start to remind them of the value of their work. In it Cox writes, “By making everything to the best of our abilities, we ensure they are robust enough for years of use and adaptable enough to serve different purposes over time. We hope each piece lives a long life, proudly bearing the marks of its usefulness and looking all the more wonderful for it.”
This is a time-honoured path to the sort of timelessness that endures. Instead of relying on novelty, it returns to a commitment of creating pieces that can become part of a family’s history. And in the same breath, history is sometimes woven into the pieces themselves, whether by artful appropriation and restoration, the reuse of offcuts or recycling. Cox continues: “By making only what we need, and choosing decoration most likely to bypass trends and become more beautiful with time, we can consciously choose to work in tandem with nature and hasten the healing of our planet.”
It is a sentiment echoed at Goldfinger, an award-winning social enterprise, furniture workshop and academy, where the emphasis is very much on tree-to-table, purpose-led craft. In the words of the studio’s Co-Founder Marie Carlisle, “Circularity in luxury interiors can and should be planet and people positive. Even when designing for a more modern aesthetic, we can be drawing on time-honoured craft techniques and local resources to ensure the longevity of both.”
This to me is the heart and soul of truly future-focused craft. A refusal to compromise on the core values of the discipline itself – quality, integrity, passion. Or as Maryam Roohipour at Peter Reed, the Lancashire-based textile mill dedicated to the manufacture of glorious quality linens since 1861, puts it, “In the future, luxury interior crafts will carry stories and history woven into every stitch, button and seam.”
Below
Alexandra Llewellyn skull poker set and hand making
the day after his 16th birthday and graduated from his apprenticeship with distinction during the week of his 18th birthday.
Senior maker, Andy, using hand planes to achieve the precise dimensions required
How bespoke became – and remains –the most luxurious component of a car
Words Charlie Thomas
t one point in the past two decades, visiting a showroom and purchasing a new car straight from the factory floor wasn’t enough. For the most discerning clientele with an appetite for creativity and the deepest pockets, going for something personalised and unique became the only choice. Who, after all, wants something that everyone else can buy? This idea of exclusivity is nothing new. For well over a century, having a bespoke suit was the height of luxury clothing. Esteemed houses on Savile Row have long dressed heads of state, politicians and Hollywood stars, cutting unique patterns and adding details specifically at the client’s request.
Customisation isn’t new to the car world either. Since four wheels took over from horses as the primary form of transport, drivers have been modifying, tweaking and personalising the look and performance of their cars. In the United States in the 1930s, moonshiners would tune their daily drivers to outrun the police during prohibition, turning their humble V8s into borderline race cars to transport whiskey from rural areas into cities as quickly and efficiently as possible. On their days off they’d race their ‘stock’ cars at local tracks, eventually forming what we know of today as NASCAR.
The following decade saw the rise of lowriding, a subculture that placed importance on looks rather than speed. Mexican American communities on the US’s west coast began to chop up, lower and hand-paint their rides in displays of ultimate creativity. When hip-hop came around in the late-20th century, lowriders and customised cars would form an integral part of the image of many of its biggest stars. Wheels got bigger, interiors more lavish and engines more powerful, all in the name of self-expression. Until recently though, those looking to put their own spin on their car would, more often than not, have to seek out a third party customiser to make the changes. But now, many of the world’s manufacturers are offering in-house bespoke services. And it’s Britain, not the US, that’s leading the charge.
Depending on the brand, the changes a client can make can be as subtle as a unique stitching colour, all the way through to the creation of a one-off car with completely bespoke bodywork. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, for example, has a Coachbuild service in which top clients can help design their bodywork from scratch. One-of-one creations include the Sweptail, designed to evoke the glamour of early-20th century transport; the Boat Tail, commissioned in honour of a 1932 model of the same name; and La Rose Noire Droptail, inspired by the intense colour of the Black Baccara rose, a French-bred flower much loved by the family’s matriarch.
Another company spearheading the bespoke movement is Aston Martin. Its recently launched Q programme is designed to offer customers a wide range of options, not dissimilar to James Bond’s own right-hand-man. “Q by Aston Martin was established to provide our most discerning clientele with the opportunity to create their dream Aston Martin,” says Chief Brand and Commercial Officer Marco Mattiacci.
“Anything is possible,” says Marek Reichman, the marque’s Executive Vice President & Chief Creative Officer. “Changes can be made throughout a vehicle’s specification: within interior materiality – colour, trim, fabrics – including selections of pattern and threading for embroidery and detailing, across finishes such as variations of tinted carbons, and all the way to one-off exterior graphic livery designs.”
Aston Martin has even launched Q New York, the first store of its kind where clients can experience the bespoke service in person on Park Avenue. It’s part showcase, part response to customer demand. “In 2023, Aston Martin achieved unparalleled success with the uptake of our bespoke service,” says Mattiacci. “We experienced a remarkable 36 per cent global growth year-on-year. The European market emerged as our primary destination for bespoke services, closely followed by the Americas.”
Bespoke isn’t just a popular option for sports and supercars. The luxury SUV market is still booming. In 2023, European SUV sales spiked to 51 per cent of the total market, with the category outperforming all other vehicle types combined, according to Automotive News Europe. Range Rover has long been the benchmark for the segment, both in terms of performance and comfort, and its bespoke service, SV Bespoke, is thriving.
Book of British Luxury
Opposite, clockwise from top-left
Rolls-Royce Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow
Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail
Rolls-Royce Sweptail
Range Rover SV Bespoke Sadaf Edition
“The SV Bespoke service as we know it today was introduced in 2016,” says Mike King, SV Bespoke Client Manager. “There has always been strong demand for SV Bespoke services, but this has dramatically increased since we launched our commissioning service for the new Range Rover in May last year. Our clients are used to customising almost every aspect of their life, so this naturally includes creating a Range Rover that reflects their own unique personality.” The brand doesn’t “offer any changes to the powertrain or exterior geometry”. But unique paint colours are the most requested change, while the bonnet and tailgate script can be finished in a range of precious metal options, including 24ct gold. Interior embroidery is also popular, with clients “pushing the boundaries of creativity by requesting everything from monograms to cityscapes, and even pieces of art,” says King. The Middle East is currently its biggest market.
For one British brand, bespoke is a part of its heritage. “Mulliner has provided bespoke services to Bentley ever since the first Mulliner-bodied Bentley in 1923,” says David Parker, Chief Commercial Officer of Bentley Mulliner & Motorsport. Now based in Crewe, Mulliner was brought in-house as part of Bentley in 1959, and has continued to build one-off commissions since then. It’s a service that has never been in more demand, and has exploded since the pandemic. “Bespoke content rose 43 per cent year-on-year last year,” says Parker. “Bentleys ordered with bespoke content have increased five-fold since 2018. In the seven-year period between 2014 and 2021, there were 1,000 Mulliner Bespoke commissions. In 2022 there were 500 alone, and last year this number was 750.” Why? “There is an ever-increasing appetite from clients around the world for personalisation and uniqueness,” he says. Examples of Mulliner coachbuilt commissions include the £1.98mn Batur; the futuristic, roofless Bacalar; and Elizabeth II’s State Limousine, a bulletproof machine based on the Bentley Arnage with bespoke stowage designed to perfectly house the late Queen’s favourite handbag.
As the automotive industry moves into electrification, the bespoke market shows no sign of slowing down. It was once an engine that gave a car its character and personality, but for today’s luxury consumer, going bespoke straight from the factory is an increasingly popular option. It’s one that will separate the finished article from the rest of the pack, whether it has an engine or not.
Ten ways to craft a good and lasting personal brand in a competitive market
Words Viv Groskop
Personal branding can feel like such a cringe. Who wants to announce themselves constantly to the world? None of us is, after all, a box of cereal. To avoid the topic, however, is also professionally risky. No one ever got anywhere by hiding their light under a bushel. So how do you create an impression in the long term that will make you trusted and easily brought to mind in this noisy, competitive world? Thinking about how you want others to talk about you when you’re not in the room is a profoundly useful exercise. And if you reframe 'branding' as 'reputation made intentionally visible, obvious and memorable' it suddenly feels less intimidating. Here’s how.
Do credit and praise others around you publicly – both in real life and online – especially if you are part of a team. Bolster their reputation and they will bolster yours. This is also a great strategy for anyone who is not used to talking about themselves.
Don’t be shy about announcing your achievements. Visibility and self-promotion are not the same thing. It’s OK to make the facts of your achievements and progress public, obvious and visible by marking them and celebrating them on social media. Facts are not boasting or self-promotion. They are just facts.
Do embrace consistency or at least have a strategy for explaining inconsistency. Make your interests, goals and targets obvious and easy to remember. If you are taking on something new or unexpected, expect to explain it.
Don’t expect anyone to know or understand who you are or what you’re about. Make it easy for them. They shouldn’t have to go
digging to work out who you are. Introducing yourself with clarity and without being self-effacing is a courtesy to others.
Do be ready to pivot. Career pivots are a huge part of a long professional life. These involve taking skills, contacts and expertise from one part of your working life and using them in a new direction. Be patient with others who may not be comfortable with the idea.
Don’t try to please all the people all the time. Not everyone is your people. It’s not necessary to cultivate enemies or enmity. But it’s not necessary for everyone to be in love with you either.
Do look directly into the camera in on-screen meetings when you are talking, but also when you are listening. Spend as little time as possible glancing at the faces of others on screen. (And zero time looking at your own face. Hide self-view.)
Don’t expect what works now to work in six months’ time. The parameters of visibility – especially online – are constantly changing. Keep under review who you are trying to connect with, where they are and what counts as currency in that world.
Do prioritise face-to-face interactions and a proven track record. These two things are perennials that cannot be matched by any amount of personal branding or online presence.
Don’t assume reputation is earned the same way in all industries. In some fields, discretion, modesty and gravitas are key currencies. In other contexts, the ability to be colourful, fabulous and bodacious has the most value.
Illustration Jovilee Burton
Traditional methods, zero waste, fermentation and flavoursome seasonal produce are all on today’s fine-dining menu
Words Mina Holland
t his restaurant, Silo, in London’s Hackney, Douglas McMaster uses a hand-operated wooden flour mill. He buys ancient wheat grains directly from farmers, mills them in-house and puts the resulting flour to work with his long-running sourdough starter. Words like ‘wholesome’ come to mind, but, says McMaster, “it’s not some quaint 18th-century situation
– well, it is, but it’s more than that.” Silo is just one example of what has become a movement in the luxury dining sector, where a traditional approach to culinary craft is being championed by chefs and celebrated by customers. Restaurants are reclaiming and bringing in-house lo-fi methods such as milling, fermenting and butchering – with exceptional culinary results.
So, what does ‘traditional’ mean in this context? Broadly, it is the way our antecedents did things, before technological innovation and global supply chains. “My approach is to preserve maternal stories, recipes and techniques,” says chef Ravinder Bhogal of Jikoni in London. “I learnt to cook by intuition, and that’s how I’ve always trained my team.” Key to this is a reversion to the natural rhythms of the food cycle, or the seasonal calendar – this means a lot of squash through the autumn and no green beans until June – and avoiding imported produce wherever possible. Bhogal, for example, makes traditional achars (south Asian pickles), but instead of using the mangoes her “foremothers” would have used in India, she puts British seasonal staples such as carrots and Bramley apples to work. She also avoids unnecessary gadgetry; instead of “fancy smoking guns” she lights a coal, leaves it to smoulder, then adds it to a metal receptacle with ghee. This is then added to flavour things like yoghurt, dhal and biryani.
A big part of all this is using ingredients in their entirety rather than just, say, the prime cuts of meat. “We use the whole animal,” says Simon Spence of Worton Kitchen Garden, a farm-to-table restaurant on a smallholding in Oxfordshire. “We sent four Middle Whites to slaughter a few weeks ago, so we have a lot of pork on at the moment. I’m salting the ears ready to be crisped up for a salad, we had the trotters Szechuan-style for Chinese New Year, we’ll make scratchings, confit offal pâtés, a brawn from the head meat, then ribs and sausages.” This is reminiscent of St John, where Fergus Henderson coined the phrase ‘nose-to-tail’ cooking some 30 years ago. Countless restaurants have since followed suit, and in February St John popped up at Walpole member Fortnum & Mason’s FIELD restaurant, a clear sign that the likes of roast bone marrow are hitting the luxury market in a big way.
When Joké Bakare opened her modern West African restaurant, Chishuru, in London’s Fitzrovia, she started buying whole cull goats and, with her team, learnt how to butcher them in-house. “Now we cut each carcass down into cuts you wouldn’t get from a butcher, like bavette of goat. We use every bit that we can. It honours the animal and is a sustainable way of eating, but it also makes us more creative in our cooking.” Cull (ex-dairy) goats would simply have been culled and not eaten in the past, but Bakare says they have “fantastic mature fat marbling” – so why waste them?
McMaster agrees with Bakare that, as with many creative endeavours, limitation breeds opportunity and new frontiers of flavour. Using up ‘waste’ products is intrinsic to what he does at Silo, the world’s first zero-waste restaurant – and fermentation is key to this, offering ingredients a second life, and a delicious one, too. “We’re unlocking the potential of something that was invented before Christ,” says McMaster of the koji, miso and garums he makes. Rick Toogood of Padstow gem Prawn on the Lawn also makes garum – a fermented fish sauce traditionally made from anchovies in Ancient Rome, but which involves a fermentation process most often used in modern Japan. He explains: “We strip the bones of anchovies, sardines and herrings, salting them for use in other dishes, then blend the heads and bones to a paste, combine this with 18 per cent of salt and leave it in a Kilner jar for six months. We use the resulting filtered liquid to dress things like razor clams, along with lime juice, sesame and Korean mint.”
Both McMaster and David Taylor of Grace & Savour, the restaurant at Hampton Manor hotel in Warwickshire, upcycles the woody ends of mushrooms, buttermilk (a waste product in butter churning) and stale bread into garum and miso respectively, using koji – a strain of fungus grown on cooked rice – to convert them. “With these methods, you can turn something fresh into something that’s stable for a long time, nutritionally advanced and full of rich umami flavour – what an opportunity for chefs,” says McMaster. Flavour is paramount here. If you simply cook with the ingredients that the season makes available, and preserve anything you want to
last longer – as Spence does with his mirabelle plums, pickling the fruit and making drinking vinegar from their blossom – the results will actually taste more vibrant. “It all comes back to produce,” says Johnnie Crowe, Executive Head Chef of St. Barts in London’s Clerkenwell, observing that good ingredients – organically grown or reared and which haven’t travelled far – need only a light touch in the kitchen to taste wonderful. “If chefs put their emphasis on sourcing ingredients produced by good farming practices, they don’t need to do much to it once it’s through the door.” Consciously sourced produce lessens the need for swanky kit, too. As Hugo Worsley, a chef turned knife-maker at All Day Goods, tells me, we all want less but better stuff, and we don’t need much more than good ingredients and an excellent knife to make a stellar meal. Where does the appetite for all this come from? All agree that customers are hungry for, and inspired by, it; they like to know the provenance of their food as a mark of quality. I ask McMaster if he finds it tedious to have an approach that’s so ancient referred to as a ‘trend’. No, he says, it’s a positive, a reflection of how large numbers of people are finding meaning in eating more thoughtfully. Recently, he appointed Silo’s Head of Fermentation, Ryan Walker. “We always need people who are open-minded and malleable to push us forward,” says McMaster. “We’re touching so many industries – politics, philosophy, chemistry, education, cooking, media. Food is not ‘just’ food anymore.” Traditional some of his methods may be, but McMaster is of the culinary vanguard. And they’re just getting started.
What guests most appreciate about British hospitality is its authenticity, expertise and love of storytelling
Words Melinda Stevens
ore privacy, less administrative snarl, more groups, less pomp, more adventures from the doorstep, less unnecessary flourish – this is what the modern traveller is hungry for. Private entrances for discretion, doing away with formal check-in desks, old-school maps pointing to the perfect jam-maker, umbrella seller, or fine suit-maker around the corner – this is what is making sense. Forget the hybridisation of taste and the copycat international style of not very much, the specifics of the hyperlocal – often referenced, rarely authentically followed – is what gets a globetrotter's eyes twinkling.
Take forced rhubarb, the particularly Yorkshire practice of growing young, sweet rhubarb by candlelight in darkened tents; listen to its almost orchestral squeaking as it pushes up through the earth. How eccentric, how intriguing. “It’s exactly what we served last week at Chewton Glen,” says Executive Director Andrew Stembridge, “and asparagus, it was the first proper days of the season.” Because “service is a given now,” says Ewan Venters, CEO of Artfarm, the cool and breezy game-changing hospitality pioneers who understood instinctively that listening to farmers, understanding the treasure beneath our feet, and the power of everyone in turn shining a light on everyone else was not only the right, but the most astute way forward.
“It’s about the storytelling, the authenticity, where that ingredient comes from,” says Venters. “The British cheese industry is flourishing,” he adds, “on a par with the French. Layer on the side that we now have wine of a truly international quality and it’s very exciting. I had dinner with Spanish friends last night and they had absolutely no idea of the provenance of what we were drinking and eating – it all came from the UK. They were blown away.”
So, the most interesting nexus across the board seems to be here, in what the best hotels are giving their guests to feast upon.
Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, A Belmond Hotel, Oxfordshire, has championed farm-to-fork for decades. The establishment’s Head Gardener, Anne-Marie Owens, has been one of the many driving forces at the property, in her case behind delivering exceptional calibre – and inbuilt sustainability – across 11 gardens and the 2,500 strong heritage orchard.
“Her team of gardeners each brings their own specific skills from vegetable growing to orchard management,” says General Manager, Niall Kingston, “and it’s these skills that mean we can deliver on quality.” Meanwhile, Venters is fresh from opening Farm Shop on London’s South Audley Street, with three butchers, one female, under the age of 30. “It’s brilliant to see people enjoying their craft working in the heart of Mayfair. The UK really is beginning to think about and recognise its expertise in a more considered way.”
It’s perfectly logical really, but somehow has been lost in the fray. Let’s hope it’s back and that we’re getting there. For we travel to experience not what is the same, but what is different. In here, true value lies.
As Altagamma passes the presidency of the European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance (ECCIA) to Walpole, we explore why the Made in Italy designation is of such cultural significance to the country’s luxury goods
Words Scarlett Conlon
Few things evoke as much pride in Italians or unite them with the passion for which it is preserved than the Made in Italy moniker. Italy stamping its name on something holds a gravitas that is unrivalled on the world stage.
“Made in Italy is a metabrand that does so much more than indicate the geographic origin of a product,” says Stefania Lazzaroni, CEO of Altagamma, the cultural foundation that promotes Italy’s talents worldwide and lists luxury brands Prada, Poltrona Frau and The Gritti Palace among its members. The space they hold in the high-end sector makes them the best ambassadors of the moniker, she continues, standing not just for exceptional high quality but purveyors of strong cultural content, too. “This last feature underlines the unbreakable bond with Italy and its regions and with an aesthetic that is generally recognised as the Italian lifestyle,” adds Lazzaroni.
Representing 115 brands from seven industries – including fashion, design, jewellery, food, hospitality, automotive and yacht-building – Altagamma is the beating heart of promoting and preserving the Made in Italy metabrand, and over the past decade has seen its popularity soar.
As well as Italian-made brands enjoying international success in new markets, in a post-Covid era “the intrinsic quality of the Italian touch – authenticity, empathy, a warm-hearted approach to life – has gained momentum,” says Lazzaroni. With Altagamma’s members supporting communities where their production was based throughout the pandemic, “it was made even more clear that Made in Italy stands for a specific aesthetic, but also a strong ethical approach towards people and the environment”.
And it’s not just a matter of pride. The funds that Made in Italy brands in the luxury sector inject into the Italian economy
currently accounts for 7.4 per cent of the national GDP and generates approximately 1,922,000 jobs.
“It has always been essential to protect the strict criteria of Made in Italy, but this is now even more relevant,” explains Lazzaroni, highlighting the growing phenomenon of counterfeiting as an increasing and serious threat to its future growth. Indeed, a study carried out by the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) found that the clothing industry alone lost almost €12bn in annual sales between 2018 and 2021 because of fake goods.
As a result, futureproofing the Made in Italy metabrand is of increasing importance. A recent survey by Altagamma reported that by 2026, Italy will need 346,000 workers across the high-end sector but only 50 per cent of jobs will be filled unless there are new-generation experts in the space. To encourage these pathways, the foundation is currently in its third edition of its Adopt a School initiative, which has partnered 33 luxury brands including Fendi, Bulgari and Gucci with 38 vocational schools across 11 Italian regions to create programmes that exalt the importance and value of manufacturing jobs.
“Manufacturing know-how is at the heart of Italian-made excellence and represents a resource that needs to be safeguarded, promoted and handed down to future generations,” said Altagamma Chairman Matteo Lunelli as he announced the new programme in January. “With [this project], we want to send a strong message to families encouraging them to take these careers into consideration.”
It seems Altagamma helping to secure Italian excellence for future generations. Viva Made in Italy!
To learn more about ECCIA's work, visit eccia.eu
Illustration Anna Higgie
British haute joaillerie, long treasured for its innovative techniques and creativity, is set to continue to shine
Words Ming Liu
Book of British Luxury
t may be one of the world’s oldest luxury industries, but UK jewellery is seeing an injection of cutting-edge cool. Cue the nearly 300-year-old house of Garrard, the royal warrant jeweller that’s synonymous with iconic and historic gems, from Queen Mary’s consort crown to Princess Diana’s engagement ring. Last year, the house’s limited edition Wings Rising collection was crafted from unexpected meteorite and rock crystal, highlighting Garrard’s use of unique and innovative techniques and materials. “It’s about turning everything on its head, and taking jewellery from being the accessory of a look to centre stage,” says Garrard CEO, Joanne Milner.
The eponymous jeweller Anabela Chan, who last year picked up Walpole’s Game Changer Award, says that innovation makes the UK stand out. “I think British craftsmanship has long been perceived as lesser than French or Italian craftsmanship, but I believe we’re better at creativity and innovation,” she says. “We are more adventurous and bold in our choice of materials, borrowing different techniques from across industries.” The ten-year-old brand has notably grown by word of mouth and essentially no advertising, its colourful, uplifting jewels today a top choice for A-list celebrities (Naomi Campbell, Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift to name a few).
“It’s about that feeling of empowerment from wearing something magical – that the everyday is extraordinary and worth celebrating,” says Chan. The brand’s other USP is a razor-sharp focus on sustainability: it has exclusively used lab-grown diamonds since the brand’s inception and recently expanded to working with artisanal mines committed to traceability and sustainability. And change is increasingly happening at home: six years ago, all the brand’s recycled gold casters were based in Birmingham, but today are more “widely available” in London, says Chan.
Liverpool-based Boodles – which last year picked up the top gong for British Luxury Brand of the Year at the Walpole British Luxury Awards – has also noticed a sea change in jewellery design, spearheaded by clients. “There’s a growing demand for individuality,” says Rebecca Hawkins, Director of Design at Boodles. “Since Covid, there’s a real desire to have something that represents your identity – your life, your journey – and all the things that mean something to you personally.” Boodles’ recent high jewellery collections have been themed around notable cities, evoking a sense of place, and clients are hooked. “Eighty per cent of pieces were chosen because they connected to one’s life or story, an amazing holiday or a happy memory,” recalls Hawkins. “People want something that is unique – and unique to them.”
That personal touch has galvanised Boodles’ design team, which is split between London’s Bond Street and Liverpool. Not only have the number of high jewellery collections increased, but so too has the work around creating each piece (the team has since grown from four to six designers). A Marrakech aquamarine ring, for example, required researching each individual design before undergoing various production stages: design, technical, 3D building with a CAD engineer. “It’s a lot more intensive,” says Hawkins, with clients welcoming the increasing complexity. “All those extra details have meaning.”
Each piece also requires multiple craftspeople where, say, an enamel specialist works alongside stone experts to source and cut the exact shape and colour gradation. “When you think about all the different specialists involved in a single piece, you can easily have more than 100 years of experience,” says Hawkins.
Centuries-old craft is, indeed, part of jewellery’s allure, something that Hamilton & Inches knows well. Its 40 employees all sit under one roof at its five-storey townhouse in Edinburgh, three floors of which are dedicated to workshops. CEO Victoria Houghton describes it as a unique spot that mixes retail and lifestyle, where clients can have a glass of champagne, chat to watchmakers and see their bespoke jewels being crafted upstairs by goldsmiths. “That’s what people want to see, not necessarily just buying things off the shelf all the time,” says Houghton.
The space is also a boon for craftspeople. David James Ramsay is a senior silversmith who’s worked at Hamilton & Inches for 17 years. “You’re always learning from people here who have a lot of knowledge,” he says. “If I ever have a problem or want advice with stone setting, for example, I can go and speak to the goldsmiths. The industry in general definitely doesn’t have that unless you’re in a bigger workshop,” he says. The practical knowledge earned is priceless and hard to come by. “Even if you’re taught once it doesn’t mean you can do it,” explains Ramsay. “You need lots of experience to build that up, to be comfortable with what you’re doing and learning. It’s a long game.”
Fostering that transmission of skills is the Hamilton & Inches’ Craft Academy, which every year recruits two interns from Scottish universities. Uptake is high, says Houghton, thanks again to the townhouse. “Today, people don’t like to join a business and see a ceiling,” she says. “They want to see opportunities.”
In London, the spiritual home for British high jewellery is Mayfair. Graff’s global headquarters is located on Albemarle Street, a diamond’s throw from its New Bond Street flagship, and a property featuring a top-floor design studio and basement workshops complete with five separate studios. Home to 40 master artisans, the skills range from the traditional (gemstone graders, goldsmiths, polishers) to cutting edge (CAD, laser printing and 3D technicians).
Neighbours Garrard and David Morris also have in-house workshops at their flagships, with David Morris’s listed townhouse located on New Bond Street. The site is home to 12 artisans who work on the jeweller’s ten fine jewellery and two annual high
jewellery collections, the latter often a huge collaborative effort. For example, its latest emerald and diamond Mosaico necklace was an amalgamation of some ten master craftspeople and skills – casting, cleaning, mounting, diamond and emerald cutting, setting and polishing, among them – who all helped to complete the jewel in 15 months. Like its peers, the workshops fuse traditional and high-tech skills, as with father-and-son duo Alan and Lewis Pither, both mounters at David Morris, the younger Pither specialising in CAD. Lewis – who joined the house aged 17 after regularly visiting his father at the workshop from the age of 12 – will still often be at the bench working alongside his father.
“It’s more realistic that way – you’re actually looking at the real thing rather than the computer screen,” says Alan. He adds, proudly: “He’s got into new, modern technology while also doing bench work. It’s forwards into the future now.”
The stalwarts of Savile Row are welcoming new neighbours – and creativity is flourishing
imon Cundey, Managing Director of Henry Poole & Co, the longest-standing bespoke tailor on Savile Row, isn’t an easy man to pin down.
When we speak, it’s via an early morning phone call to New York, where he’s in the middle of a trunk show, taking Henry Poole’s handmade tailoring stateside.
“We’re seeing a broadening of demand right across the US,” he says, citing renewed interest from overseas customers in “long-lasting and elegant clothes”. Certainly, Henry Poole & Co's clothes are both long-lasting and elegant, but the house is also working hard to ensure its tailoring is designed for modern tastes. Last summer, Cundey and his team unveiled a new, super-lightweight suit, designed with the structure and three-dimensional shape that defines a Savile Row suit, but carries a fraction of the weight. “It’s been a huge success,” he says, particularly among clients in the US and southeast Asia.
Henry Poole & Co’s new lightweight take on a classic Savile Row silhouette is just one of a number of innovations taking shape on the street. Edward Sexton’s ready-to-wear collection, for example, now offers several different silhouettes designed to make life easy for clients, from an unstructured, cardigan-like jacket adorned with trademark Sexton peak lapels to a drape jacket with a louche, roomy silhouette and extended shoulder line. Elsewhere, Gieves & Hawkes’ bespoke workshop is experimenting with unlined, informal jacket designs, and Ozwald Boateng – one of the Great Creative Britons at the Walpole British Luxury Awards 2023 – is offering slim-cut, indulgent-looking suits with vivid colours and patterns inspired by Boateng’s Ghanaian heritage.
The Deck, meanwhile, continues to blaze a trail as the first women’s only tailor with a shopfront on the street in Savile Row’s history. In October last year, the brand launched a ready-to-wear capsule to supplement its made-to-measure offering, and the collection has grown rapidly. “Ready-to-wear makes up around 30 per cent of our sales now,” says Founder & CEO Daisy Knatchbull. “Many customers were asking us ‘where do I find the perfect silk shirt?’ Or ‘where do I find a good white T-shirt?’ So, we were in a unique position to understand what our clients felt was missing from the market.”
The Deck has another advantage, too. “We had the measurements of 2,500 women on file with great data on size and fit,” Knatchbull continues. “We were able to develop our own fits and sizes by averaging the measurements of all the data we had available. It’s been really well received, and clients find the fit of our garments to be fantastic.”
Savile Row might be a tailoring destination, but it’s not just tailors who are using data to enhance what they do. At the other end of the street sits shoemaker Arthur Sleep, an 11-year-old footwear brand that made its home on the Row two years ago. Co-founded by Jahangir Azam and Christopher Boadle, Arthur Sleep uses 3D scanning technology to transform the traditional craft of shoemaking.
All the brand’s shoes are made in a dedicated workshop that sits beneath the ground floor showroom at No 7 Savile Row. Just about any kind of footwear you can imagine – from velvet slippers to sneakers – is made to order for clients by hand. But, when a client visits the store, their feet will be captured by a purpose-built 3D scanner, which allows the Arthur Sleep team to create shoes with unique, form-fitting features – supporting dropped arches or making allowances for high insteps, for example.
This made-to-order, customisable approach is unique, and for Azam and Boadle it solves big problems in the footwear industry. “Foot health is in major decline, and 50 per cent of all footwear ends up in landfill,” Azam says. “We need a radically different approach.”
This different approach is a long-term vision for Arthur Sleep, whereby the brand plans to create “a network of micro-factories” that could make shoes locally in key markets, rather than making everything in a single factory and shipping it worldwide. “The footwear industry needs a manufacturing model that’s agile, small-scale and responsive. The sustainability benefits of localising production are huge,” Boadle explains.
Over the street from Arthur Sleep sits another relative newcomer, clothsurgeon. Founded by Rev Matharu, the company takes its name from Matharu’s preference for cutting fabric with a scalpel, rather than traditional tailor’s shears. Known for creating bespoke tailored streetwear and designing one-of-one pieces for clients, clothsurgeon
is a dramatically different proposition from the likes of Henry Poole & Co or The Deck but shares common values with its besuited neighbours.
“It’s a privilege to tell our story through what is probably the greatest menswear street in the world,” Matharu says. “We try to bring a creative edge and contemporary flair to what ‘bespoke’ means.” He designs and drafts the patterns for all clothsurgeon garments personally, working through a process of individual sketches for clients. From cashmere MA-1 bomber jackets to three-piece suits made from up-cycled grey jersey, each piece is then tailored in a small workshop in east London, with client fittings at key stages in the process to perfect the garment.
You might expect the tailoring establishment to baulk at the arrival of brands like Arthur Sleep and clothsurgeon, but Cundey is a pragmatist. “There’s huge value in brands that bring different markets to the street,” he says. “That’s the beauty of Savile Row; different kinds of businesses arriving is nothing new. I remember the days of Tommy Nutter in the Seventies and Richard James in the Nineties. I remember Ozwald moving in. They all brought another perspective to keep the Row moving forward.”
Where Savile Row is heading next is anyone’s guess, but there’s no doubting the creativity of the street’s age-old stalwarts and newcomers alike. In 2024, London’s tailoring heartland is in rude health.
Handcrafted, reworked, repurposed and recycled are among the techniques embraced by boundary-pushing young designers
Words Eni Subair
Book of British Luxury
he ability to pull emotion from people through clothing has long been the formula for capturing the imagination in the fashion world. Lewisham-born British designer Lee Alexander McQueen, arguably one of, if not the best, designers of his generation, could fashion garments that sparked visceral reactions. McQueen’s iconic No 13 spring/ summer 1999 show, in which Shalom Harlow wore a white dress and was spray-painted by robots on a rotating platform, is still a much discussed and referenced moment more than 20 years on.
Fashion’s ability to unlock emotion and feeling has always steered my own approach to shopping and getting dressed. For example, during the pandemic, when so many of us felt isolated and lonely, I’d often find connection through the tribes who followed fashion’s ‘if you know you know’ avant-garde, a cohort of designers whose work centred around handcraft and bold creativity. It’s how I first stumbled across Fidan Novruzova, who was a 2024 LVMH semi-finalist.
Machine-A, one of the first to carry the line, is where I purchased a pair of ombré red boots crafted by Fidan three years ago, and I immediately set about wearing them in my back garden (subsequently, an impromptu shoot took place the day they arrived thanks to self-timer). The visible manipulation and creasing of the boots – a hallmark of her footwear – paired with a needle-thin heel set the designer apart from her peers.
Now, the Moldovan-born designer works between her birthplace and Paris with a small team. Novruzova says creating handmade garments allows her to experiment. “I take risks when it comes to new silhouettes and complicated construction because I can execute it in-house. It fulfils me to be able to work this way.” It’s exciting to own and cherish a piece from a designer you know is headed on an exciting journey.
I realised that I wasn’t alone in my quest for garments visibly made by hand. During the lockdown, there was an uptick in the number of people coveting handmade clothing from designers. With every scroll on social media, I stumbled across a buzzy young designer handcrafting one-of-one knitwear, such as Katya Zelentsova, an ingenious knitwear designer and former Central Saint Martins student. Or I found myself double-tapping a post where a stylist friend shouted out a fashion newcomer, who started up their trade from their bedroom. Meanwhile, New York-based jeweller Shana Cave, beloved by Bella Hadid, began her journey from the confines of her apartment — further testament to the unwavering resilience among young creatives.
At the height of the pandemic, when the world was functioning remotely, the need to feel connected to those around us through clothing was well documented. Working From Home Fits, an Instagram account dedicated to how we all dressed at home during Covid, was proof that we were all suffering from Zoom fatigue and needed a playful outlet. Large businesses shuttered or paused their work in ateliers or factories abroad. And we began to see a wave of emerging businesses built on reconstructing and upcycling.
Fast-forward four years and in 2024 our love for handmade garments hasn’t waned in the luxury sector. Last September, British design duo Jake Burt and Stefan Cooke of Stefan Cooke embarked on a partnership with Mulberry. As someone who purchased my first Stefan Cooke item (a fuchsia-slashed knit piece) last year after waiting for months to pull the trigger, I was immediately interested.
The first launch of the line included 27 pre-loved handbags that had been reimagined for Mulberry’s circularity programme, The Mulberry Exchange. Up until this point, my first and only experience with a Mulberry bag was a Bayswater my older sister proudly wore in the early Noughties.
Stefan Cooke’s reworked iterations, boasting metal straps and handmade bows (signature to the Stefan Cooke DNA) affixed to Bayswater bags was a refreshing jolt of energy and nostalgia. With a second release that recently went live in London’s Dover Street Market, it’s further proof that not only are storied houses shifting their ways of working and embracing the new changemakers, but customers want to see evidence of a more hands-on, if not completely handmade, approach.
Menswear is seeing a shift, too. Paolo Carzana, a 2024 LVMH semi-finalist, and part of a cohort of one-to-watch stars steering London’s Fashion Week calendar, prides himself on the work he creates manipulating fabrics across co-ed collections. “My AW24 collection consists of plant-based materials: aloe vera fibre, eucalyptus fibre, organic cotton and canvas. I also sourced antique materials from Portobello Market,” the Westminster graduate told me inside the LVMH semi-finalist showroom. “I made the AW24 collection in about five to six weeks. It’s a tremendous amount of work. Everything is quite instinctive and I’m working on my designs all the time. There’s never a start and a finish.”
Carzana – who hails from Wales and is one of the designers under the Sarabande Foundation set up by the late McQueen – constructs pieces by hand. Experimentation is the cornerstone of the brand,
and his previous collections have included malleable hats made with Welsh tapestries. Raw hand-stitching dominates his work. “In terms of the fabrication and the rawness, it’s something that I’m working on and developing. I want to get to a point where I’m pushing the boundaries even further.”
Rising in the fashion ranks with Carzana is Róisín Pierce, a Dublin-born womenswear designer dedicated to keeping old Irish crafting techniques alive. “Irish crafting and my heritage are essential [to the brand]. I enjoy creating with my hands,” she says. Working with a mostly eggshell and white colour palette to denote purity, Pierce has an affinity for lace and crocheting, and collaborates with her mother to make romantic, cloud-like pieces. When the National College of Art and Design graduate decided to incorporate crochet, she looked to women from the Guild of Irish Lacemakers, a group founded in 1979. For AW24, Pierce, who started her brand in 2020, decided to add innovative flower designs into her ready-to-wear line, working with Swiss lace, deadstock cotton and recycled poly. Sourcing materials is a year-round process. “With each piece, I feel like they say something new; I want my designs to look as though you’ve not seen them before.” So determined to keep Irish craft going, Pierce and her mum taught a small class of three young girls Irish crochet. “My mother and I wanted the technique to live on through another generation.”
Emotion, handcraft and storytelling — these are the qualities that evoke feeling, as they did in the work of McQueen, John Galliano and so many who have come before. London’s emerging designers have long understood this. Long may they continue to flourish.
Contemporary craft is finding itself centre stage in galleries and art fairs around the world
Words Katy Wickremesinghe
Above left-to-right
Gareth Neal, Twisted Pair and Grace
Below right
Ochre, Drifter Chandelier
Bottom left
Yinka Shonibare CBE works on display at the Serpentine Gallery, London
Bottom right
Yinka Shonibare CBE, Decolonised Structures
rt helps us access and express parts of ourselves that are often unavailable to other forms of human interaction. It flies below the radar, delivering nourishment for our soul and returning with stories from the unconscious.” So said Grayson Perry, one of Britain’s leading proponents of the power and poignancy of craft, whose subversive tapestry and ceramic works reframe social history and politics.
Never has this dialogue been richer than within the craft space. Perry is one of the trailblazing creatives and British treasures who, alongside ceramic artists Edmund de Waal and Magdalene Odundo, have seamlessly oscillated between the art and craft worlds, bringing the latter to the global stage.
But fine art and craft haven’t always been happy bedfellows. Craft was stuck on the sidelines, outside the red rope of the art world until recent years. Our love for craft grew during Covid lockdowns, which saw many of us take up a new skill. In a broken world, suddenly the idea of ‘making’ felt more poignant and the value of human creativity was rebalanced.
We saw a renaissance of the Japanese art of kintsugi — in which broken objects, such as pottery, are literally joined with gold. It was emblematic of how craft can be used to heal the fractures of everyday life and address much wider world issues.
As people have reconnected with the joys of making, craft has become cool to collect. British museums and galleries are taking note, recognising the power of making traditions and everyday materials to tell emotive stories and bind communities together.
Over in the rolling hills of Wiltshire, Messums West boldly created an entire ceramics season devoted to artists who are pushing the boundaries of the medium. The centrepiece of its recent and beautifully tactile Of the Earth exhibition was Pakistanborn, Lancashire-raised artist Halima Cassell’s Virtues of Unity, an installation of hand-carved geometric clay vessels exploring commonalities of humanity. The gallery has also opened Messums Studio in a bid to nurture local talents working in ceramics and “acknowledge the important role that art plays within a community,” as its Director Johnny Messum puts it.
In London, the grand Two Temple Place has devoted a show (The Glass Heart) to artists reinventing the medium of glass, and blue-chip galleries such as Alison Jacques and Lisson have hosted solo shows of textile and ceramic artists. New fairs have entered the fray, including Eye of the Collector in London, founded by former CEO of Masterpiece, Nazy Vassegh, whose innovative approach sees her mix art, sculpture and craft for discerning collectors in its annual future-focused concept.
It’s heartening to see the increasing value given to craft by global institutions, all keen to explore its hidden languages and ability to connect people. This June, the Serpentine Galleries in Hyde Park hosted Suspended States, the first solo institutional exhibition in London for 20 years for the much-loved, BritishNigerian artist Yinka Shonibare RA, featuring his sculptures, quilts and woodcuts. He has long used fabrics – specifically Dutch wax cloth, a material deeply connected to the African continent and its diaspora yet manufactured in the Netherlands – as a vehicle to rewrite colonial wrongs.
While we may not always appreciate it, textiles are the backdrop to our everyday lives – we wrap our bodies in them and drape our homes in them. Our familiarity with textiles and their connection to cultural traditions and labour systems makes them a potent medium for artists – one they are wielding with increasing intensity.
The Barbican’s recent exhibition Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art is a case in point. It showed how textiles have been used as tools for resistance by British and international artists from the 1960s to today, who have harnessed the subversive potential of fabrics – traditionally associated with femininity – to raise questions about power and gender structures and how they are upheld. “Textiles unpack, question, unspool, unravel and therefore reimagine the world around us,” says the Barbican curatorial team in the show guide. In contemporary artists’ hands, the humble thread packs a punch.
Other, lesser recognised – or endangered – crafts are getting a boost. Ochre Design Company, for example, is working with cricket bat makers to craft its elegant oak wood Drifter pendant lights, while Bonfield Block Printers in Dorset specialises in intricate block prints across garments and soft furnishings that explore the myths and stories of country lore. It has a global cult following, spurred on by a showcase at Hauser & Wirth’s Make gallery, a Georgian townhouse in Bruton, Somerset, dedicated to contemporary craft. Craft has also cast off its fusty image to move with the times. Contemporary artists are bringing fresh finesse to once-crude digital printing, while still embracing risk and the beauty of imperfection – inherent and undeniable parts of the craft process. Gareth Neal creates striking, undulating vessels 3D-printed in sand, shown by Sarah Myerscough Gallery at fairs around the world, including Salon Art + Design in New York and PAD London.
Smart technology can help craftspeople eliminate waste in their work – vital when material scarcity is becoming a looming reality. Makers are also helping us fall in love with ‘waste’ that would otherwise be destined for the skip. Discarded neon baling twine becomes a thing of beauty in the hands of Darcey Fleming, who crafts it into flowing, sculptural chairs and dresses at the Sarabande Foundation studio.
Many artists are literally collaborating with nature in their work to boost their eco credentials. Artist-metalsmith Adi Toch eschews toxic patination techniques, instead burying her vessels underground and letting the organic life beneath the soil leave its mark on them. Meanwhile, Zena Holloway is making the case for biodesign by growing her vessels, sculptures and dresses from grass roots.
All this momentum in the craft world comes against a bleak backdrop of cuts in arts funding and education in the UK. In 2021, former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced he was cutting higher education funding for arts courses by 50 per cent, and, last July, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took aim at what he deemed “low-value” degree courses. Thankfully, organisations and charities such as the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust and the Crafts Council are rising to the challenge, helping to secure the future of Britain’s making scene through sponsorship, scholarships, exhibitions and programming for the craft curious.
Drawing inspiration from centuries of wisdom, culture and tradition is key to designing for the future
Words Ben Pentreath
What is our relationship to history, craft, the idea of the handmade and to modernity, science and the future? Thoughts change: perhaps we live in an ever-revolving pendulum that swings between the ‘white heat’ of Harold Wilson's Sixties' technological revolution, the Nineties' Cool Britannia and a more nostalgic Britain, one that at worst can be fearful of change and the future. Too often the bold promises offered by science fail, in reality, to reach their potential; but the tweedy dreams of the historicists can feel like a journey down a quiet cul-de-sac, a dead-end eddy in the river of time. It is a dichotomy as old as time itself – the yearnings of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites versus the huge industrial expansion of Victorian England; or further back still to the arcadian dreams of the Elizabethans, harking to a golden age (that surely never was) in contrast to the revolutionary modernity ushered in by the Reformation and the printing press – the decline of faith in the 1,000-year-old traditions of medieval Europe.
As a classical designer, both of buildings and several new towns in England and Scotland, and of interiors, I have never been fearful of drawing inspiration from the past. In fact, I will cheerfully admit to going a stage further – I’m an unashamed architectural copyist, drawing happily from the deep and rich well of inspiration of hundreds of years of history, culture and tradition. Whenever, in the studio, we are trying to solve a problem – how to detail a piece of joinery, proportion a column or find the perfect width of a street or dimension of a square – I find the easiest and quickest way to the most elegant solution is to see how people answered those
questions in the past; very often, people who had more time than us to think, design and make things, slowly, crafted by hand. At the new town of Tornagrain, 5,000 houses to the east of Inverness, which we are designing for the Earl of Moray’s Estate, we spend a huge amount of time in local towns and villages, absorbing the detail and character of the local highland vernacular. Similarly, in Truro, for the Duchy of Cornwall, we designed a new Royal Crescent facing east over beautiful distant views to the countryside beyond, and we spent much time studying the dimensions, curve and orientation of 18th- and early-19th century examples. The façades of those houses were a copy of a carefully measured drawing of John Nash’s beautiful terrace opposite the British Museum, his first building in London.
None of this is to say that we need turn our back on the huge advantages of science and technology, but increasingly I’m of the view that science without an understanding of history, or of history without an understanding of the infinite possibilities of technological solutions, are both empty vessels – incapable of reaching their fullest potential. In so many fields on the periphery of our work, from regenerative agriculture to water management to ecological building technology, we learn that the wisdom of ancient ways of doing things teaches us powerful lessons today. Evolution not revolution, a harmonic balance of history and the new, an understanding of how things are made and of a sense of the timeless; these are my watchwords today in everything we do.
An independent brand development agency specialising in luxury & technology
In a series of essays and images commissioned by Walpole, we celebrate the people behind some of the exceptional luxury products made in the UK every day. From the intricacies of watchmaking to the teamwork that goes into every high-end car, we speak with some of the highly skilled individuals who pour their passion into their respective crafts
Words Mark Hooper
Photography Sam Walton
Book of British Luxury
The one thing everyone emphasises at The Balvenie is that you can’t rush the process. But that doesn’t mean the learning curve isn’t fast. “It’s been a very quick ten years,” says Kelsey McKechnie, the whisky brand’s Malt Master, who first joined the company as a Technical Graduate in 2014. In 2018, aged 26, she was appointed Apprentice Malt Maker under the stewardship of former Malt Master David C Stewart MBE, and today she is the first woman in the company’s history.
It’s certainly a revered position, steeped in the history and traditions of whiskymaking, but, as Kelsey is keen to stress, a search for innovation is key to those traditions. Much of her training has been in what is wonderfully described as “analysis of the spirit”, looking at analytical data in order to determine how to ensure the quality is consistent in every bottle the brand produces.
What fascinated Kelsey the most about her work was how, for all the data that can be gathered, the final test before anything leaves the site is for “three people to pick up a glass and nose it, and if they say, ‘Oh it’s not right’, it couldn’t go. I love the thought that our most powerful instrument is what’s on the front of our face.” This, she suggests, is what first sparked her passion for the role, asking the difficult questions of “how do we make flavour – and how do we ensure it’s the same in every bottle?”.
Honorary Ambassador and former Malt Master David C Stewart MBE is renowned for introducing pioneering techniques, including cask finishing, using the character of different casks (thanks to the individual properties of the wood used, or the wines and spirits they previously contained) to build up flavours. Indeed, it was David who pioneered this technique, now widely used in the industry. It’s this experimental approach ingrained in the company that constantly inspires Kelsey. “When I think about the years to come, I love the thought of not knowing what The Balvenie’s next innovation will be. Cask finishing 2.0, what does that look like? Is that going to be the way that we look at making The Balvenie for the next 100 years? We’ve got lots of things up our sleeves…”
The mixture of traditional crafts with a modern, forward-thinking outlook means that there is a variety of opportunities for those interested in a career in whisky. These range across what the distillery calls its Five Rare Crafts: growing the company’s own barley; painstakingly malting the grain on its own 1920s malting floor; maintaining and repairing The Balvenie’s copper stills; rebuilding the casks at the cooperage to ensure they remain wind and watertight while breathing character into the whisky; and, of course, the Malt Master role. The distillery also offers an annual scholarship to culinary graduates from Westminster
Kingsway College to gain expert experience in hosting international guests. Similarly, the routes in can vary widely. Some people come from families steeped in whisky-making, such as Cameron Grant, who is three years into his four-year cooper apprenticeship. Cameron is no relation to the founder William Grant, but his father worked as a stillman at Glenfiddich – The Balvenie’s sister brand, distilled next door – for 37 years, and numerous family members including cousins and grandparents have worked for the company at large.
Others, however, find their own route in. For instance, George Paterson, Warehouse and Samples Co-ordinator, worked for his father’s roofing company before discovering the magic of the warehouse. His job consists of monitoring the whisky stocks and drawing samples for the blending team, meaning he is in the rare position of overseeing the casks and getting to nose the whisky, too.
Everyone at The Balvenie speaks of their pride at seeing the fruits of their labour in such famous bottles, aware of the rich heritage they are contributing to. “It’s one of the nicest parts of the role that I get to see both sides,” says Kelsey. “I’ll see the vatted spirit that David’s filled off into casks, and in the next couple of years I’ll see the spirit that I’ve actually filled off. It’s such a lovely handover and such a fantastic legacy associated with it.”
To get an appreciation of the complexity that goes into building a luxury car brand, one only has to see the sheer size of the plant at Bentley. It’s so vast it has swallowed up what was once a public road, with hangar-sized buildings dedicated to specific roles that seem alien to the world of car manufacture.
“It’s quite unique in the high-end luxury automotive field,” says Paul Fisher. “People don’t expect you to say you work in the woodshop!” It is here that the bespoke wooden veneers are created, shaped and moulded, with customers often coming in not only to choose their preferred material and design but having a hand in the making process, too. As Master Trainer, Paul is ideally placed to walk them through the various stages. In more than 20 years since he joined Bentley, he has trained several generations of skilled craftspeople. “It’s very rewarding. Over the past eight years I’ve had 25 apprenticeships coming through the workshop.”
What’s notable is that, in this traditionally male-dominated industry, there is a dedicated outreach programme to showcase the opportunities that Bentley offers, regardless of gender. “We’re attracting more women into the business,” says Paul. “We’re making it more inclusive, letting people know what’s available, and what careers there are here.”
“If you’d told me back when I was at school that I’d be working on cars, I’d probably have
laughed at you, but here we are!” says April Tasker. Having finished her apprenticeship at the start of 2023, she is now a Paint Technician. Her role involves applying paint and protective materials to the bodywork, using specialised equipment, in a variety of colours and finishes according to customers’ personal tastes and choices.
“I didn’t know anyone here or that Bentley offered apprenticeships,” she says. “I just happened to see an advert and I thought that sounds really interesting. I’d always loved cars, so the passion was already there. There were different options – specialisms in woodshop, mechatronics, manufacturing, electrical and paint. I’d looked at doing fashion at university, but I ended up going down the business and commercial route. So I hadn’t had the chance to develop the creative side that I had at school.”
April is proof of the changing demographic at Bentley and enthuses about the atmosphere she’s found there. “In my interview there was one other girl, so it wasn’t quite so daunting. But once I got through and we had our first apprenticeship day, we were put in quite small groups, so you didn’t feel so intimidated and you had to work as a team, which of course you have to do for the job anyway – everything is very team based. They’re my best friends out there now, we get on so well, it’s one of the positives of the job. It’s like a closeknit family.”
Just as the roles in automotive manufacture include traditional crafts such as woodwork, they also embrace the fast-changing technological world of digital and IT. Cameron Ackroyd joined Bentley in 2019 through its graduate apprenticeship scheme and is now an R&D Workshops Engineer, where he helps to build simulators and early prototypes for new models, taking donor vehicles apart completely and rebuilding them with new features. His role within the technical support team means he has to have an overview of the whole process. “There’s no point in me giving someone information on the electrical build unless I know how to build it myself, so I spent most of the first two years with the electrical technicians,” explains Cameron.
His knowledge has also been bolstered after stepping into the production line to fill gaps during the pandemic, and he’s now keen to be a mentor himself, having led Prince’s Trust workshops, running mock interviews and CV classes and become Chair of Bentley’s early careers committee for outreach work. “There are always opportunities to do more if you want,” he says – and the fact he’s already inspiring the next generation at Bentley is proof of that. And, whether it comes to building cars or training people, he says, “Nothing beats seeing the end product and the impact you’ve had.”
Book of British Luxury
Sometimes, qualifications and industry experience count for less than initiative and determination – as is ably demonstrated by Sufyaan Collymore, Assembly Manager at Bremont’s impressive state-of-the-art HQ, known as The Wing, which opened in 2021 in Henley-on-Thames.
Having first gained an interest from collecting “£20 watches you could buy on a part-time salary”, Sufyaan’s career as a watchmaker began on the coffee table in his mother’s house with broken pocket watches he’d bought from eBay. (“I tell you: it’s very easy to take something apart... but when you don’t know what you’re doing, putting them back together again can be very difficult!”) Teaching himself from YouTube videos, he soon amassed a makeshift tool kit – “a cheap pair of tweezers, screwdrivers... my own little eye loupe”. It hadn’t even occurred to him that his after-work hobby could become a career – indeed, he had no idea that luxury watchmaking even existed in the UK until he chanced across Bremont on Google (“everything else was all Swiss, Swiss, Swiss”). When he saw that Bremont was advertising for an Assembly Technician, he sent off his CV together with a covering letter. “I’m not the best writer,” he says,
“so I thought I should just get my personality across.”
It impressed the hiring team at Bremont, but their invitation to come in for a bench test went unopened in his inbox until the day after the test. “I was 19 at this stage, so checking emails wasn’t on the top of my list,’” he says sheepishly. It took a while, but after plenty of back-and-forth messages, he was finally booked in for a bench test later in the year when more positions became available – and was promptly offered a place on the watchmaking team, picking up skills on the job, working closely with the head watchmaker right at the start. “He’d show us every step of the way –how to build a watch, how things worked – and eventually I progressed to the main workshop with the other assemblers,” Sufyaan says. As he built up his knowledge and developed a good skill base, he found he enjoyed helping the newer members of staff as they joined the team. “It got to the point that they needed someone to take over, so two years ago I became the manager of the department.”
Sufyaan’s story is typical of many at Bremont, not only because it is a relatively new brand (it was founded by brothers Nick and Giles English in 2002), but also because,
with a few notable exceptions, luxury watchmaking was virtually non-existent in the UK before Bremont emerged. Consequently, unlike other industries, there is no longestablished route into British watchmaking – no tradition of following in your grandfather’s footsteps, no national apprenticeship schemes and few courses for gaining the relevant skills and experience. Instead of expecting candidates to arrive with industry-standard credentials already in place, Bremont emphasises the importance of enthusiasm and an aptitude for learning (Sufyaan suggests that the assembly job suits the mechanically minded, particularly those who work well as part of a team).
In terms of further qualifications, the brand helps to sponsor the prestigious British School of Watchmaking in Manchester and can put forward one member of staff for one of only eight places on the sought-after, one-year, 1,800-hour course.
And for anyone wishing to join the Bremont team, Sufyaan suggests taking your cue from his own story. “When I’m looking to hire, the CVs can be very samey, but the cover letter is the chance to get their personalities across; so long as they have the passion, we can train them to learn these skills.”
Book of British Luxury
In Northampton, the traditional home of the shoemaking industry in the UK, on-site, hands-on training has proven to be of more value to local businesses than external apprenticeship schemes and courses.
“It’s desperately important for us to find a space for training,” says Euan Denholm, Head of Brand at Edward Green. “But we’ve found it’s best not to have that more structured, part college-based route.” Edward Green has spearheaded its own training programme, inspired by Julie Smart, the company’s Closing Manager, who previously taught at Northampton College. Taking eight staff at a time over 12 Fridays, she walks them through the process of making their own pair of shoes from start to finish. Needless to say, the end results are exceptional. They are being taught by the best in the business after all. The course also gives them a better appreciation of everybody’s role within the business, while learning to multiskill so they can do several of the tasks to the level that Edward Green demands.
From the initial design, via clicking (the precise cutting of the leather patterns) and closing (where the leather pieces are sewed together) to lasting (shape forming) and finishing, every stage requires an
outstanding level of expertise. And it’s clear that the programme is instilling not just skills but enthusiasm and confidence in the staff. “We’ve got one lady, Carleen [Holmes] – wow, she just flew through everything,” says Julie. “And because she’s a machinist, she found that in the lasting room, the motion of her hands is the same. So she’s transferred her skills. And that’s lovely to see.”
Carleen herself reveals that her previous employer sent her on the Northampton College shoemaking course – where Julie taught her before. “I’ve been making shoes for 27 years,” she says. “But in the past nine months working here, I’ve learnt more jobs than I had in all those years. I think it’s really opened the door now for more general roles to be swapped over. And why not? Everybody’s capable of doing different things, so long as you’re taught properly.” It has also proven effective at breaking down the traditional gender barriers that still tend to exist in the industry, as Stephen Wright, Quality Manager, attests. “If we’re short on individual staff for whatever reason, Julie might say, ‘Oh we’ve got a lady here who’s always keen to learn, do you want her to come in and help out?’ And the answer’s always yes!
So we can multiskill across the factory, which is great.”
There is also a healthy influx of staff –often slightly older, with existing making skills from their first careers – such as Marcus Buckland, who works in Top Drawer [“which is basically training to do everything”], who trained as a picture framer, or his friend Dan Battison, a Slipper Operative, who had been in a band with Marcus and retrained from his job as an architectural model maker. Or, less likely perhaps, Lyndsey Robinson, who was previously a fraud analyst for Lloyds. “I was looking through jobs and this particular advert said: ‘Trainee shoemaker, must have neat handwriting’, and I thought, I’ve got nice handwriting, I’ll give it a shot. I didn’t know anything about shoes, it was totally alien to me.”
Now, every finished pair of Edward Green shoes bears her exquisite writing – the final stamp of quality.
The same sense of pride pervades the building at Edward Green – as summarised by Technical Manager & Product Developer, Carlos Iaconianni. “There’s a sense of achieving something here. We are makers. We put our hands and minds and hearts into the product.”
Book of British Luxury
There’s a group on Facebook called Travelling Winemakers – Living the Dream. For those inclined, it offers a tantalising way of life, earning your living (or at least funding your adventure) by following the wine harvests across the world, from Australia to Europe to California. “They’re often quite young, lots of them are doing ‘hemisphere hopping’, so they might come over here after a full-on Australian harvest,” says Mary Bridges. “You look at them and think, ‘You have a great life!’ And they bring good experience because they’re making wine in all those different styles.”
By “here”, Mary is referring to a small corner of Kent, where she is Head Winemaker at Gusbourne, having joined when someone dropped out of the harvest crew on the vineyard. She could also be describing herself – living the dream by playing a major part in helping to establish English wine as a serious proposition on the international stage. Having found her calling in the winery side of the business, her role involves a meticulous process of “tasting, testing, crafting and perfecting”, employing everything from cold data to natural palate and personal taste to create the perfect blend.
“We will assess the wines to work out on paper where things fit, and then you put together a trial blend, using a little bit from various different tanks, and taste it, and then you’ll think, yeah this is really good but it needs a bit of this... It’s such a fun process,” she says. “Once we’ve set on what the blends will be and we start working on the physical processes of putting them together, filtering them and getting them ready to bottle, there’s a new energy. And then four years come round and they’re released. I just love it.
Jon Pollard, Chief Vineyard Manager, knows all about the patience required to develop the product from the vine to the bottle, having joined as “employee number one” when the vineyard was first planted in 2004. “We didn’t have our first harvest until 2006,” he recalls. “That’s then made into wine and bottled, and four years later we’re ready to sell it. So that’s quite a long journey. Our first vintage year was also 2006, and it’s only then you’re truly working in partnership with the vineyard and the winery. Before then you’re making fruit and waving goodbye to it. You can be reactive in some ways, but it’s a very slow burn. I suppose that’s my excuse for taking
time to make decisions. Good things do take time.”
Jon’s approach is a case study in letting nature be the ultimate guide – working with the land and encouraging biodiversity through complementary planting and sustainable practices. A gentleman’s agreement with a neighbouring sheep farmer means “the shepherd gets the benefit of grazing in our vineyard and we get the benefit of weed control and the manure input!”
The beauty of such a young industry is the fact that the learning curve on all sides is constantly evolving. “Even if we’re doing something well I like to ask, why is this blend so great?” says Mary. “You start to pick that apart and pinpoint what’s important to our process. The excitement you feel within the industry is great – it really is there. And it’s nice that people are seeing that from the outside and picking up on it.”
“There’s always been something very exciting just around the corner at Gusbourne,” Jon adds. “The new vineyard being planted, the winery coming online... then the potential in the coming years to plant more vineyards. It’s never stood still.”
Operating out of the same mill on the banks of the River Lossie, where it was first established in 1797 by Alexander Johnston, Johnstons of Elgin continues to produce luxury cashmere and fine woollen products here today. Despite suffering floods and fires over the years, the Newmill Elgin site remains as the core of the company. It’s still family-owned and continues the processes of dyeing, spinning, weaving and finishing in one traditional ‘vertical’ production process.
“Some of the things we do, nobody else can make,” says Alison Burgess, who marked her 25th anniversary at Johnstons in May. “It’s down to the quality. You see some woollen products other companies make and there’s just no comparison.”
Alison is an expert in twisting (the process of binding the yarns together), having trained as a spinner and picking up other skills to cover those on holiday. Now, she admits with a certain pride, people come to her for technical advice. “I’m definitely the go-to person in twisting, for the technicians and the yarn store guys as well,” she says. “But it’s a job that I’m still learning even now. New yarns are always being introduced and new techniques, so it’s always a learning curve, and you need to pass that knowledge on to others so the business can continue.”
In a quarter of a century, she’s seen a huge amount of change, not least in the
increased use of technology and the pace of production. “We’ve come on such a long way from just doing basic tweed and tartans to what we do now – really fancy stuff with the jacquard loom,” she says. “But you’ll never replace everybody with machines, because it always needs those hands-on skills and expertise.”
Kay Robertson is another long-serving employee. She now teaches her craft to the employees in the purling department, demonstrating how the product from weaving is left with the weft open, leaving a fringe of up to 20 to 30cm that needs to be pulled tight onto the combs of the machine. “Back in the day it wasn’t so hard, we only had two machines,” she explains. “Now we’ve got seven and another one coming in. The quality has to be absolutely spot on. It’s fine learning the machine, that’s the easy part. But getting trainees to realise what quality we need to put out and how things should look, that’s hard for them to get to terms with until we can say, ‘OK, they can be left on their own now’. It just takes time to look at things and see that’s right. But you need speed as much as quality, so it’s about getting them up to the right quality, and then to speed it up a bit. That’s when they can go back to making mistakes. So you need to do that without pressurising them too much.”
In all, the company employs over 1,200 staff, making it the largest producer of
luxury cashmere and wool products in the UK. This also means that there are usually job opportunities. “Johnstons is always employing. There are so many different departments from the yarn through to the finished product,” says Kim Main, who works as a Tuner in the weaving department, setting the looms to ensure quality and performance. “It’s a place people stay. I was here in 2004, left in 2008 when I had my son, and I returned nine years later. I like the job. So long as I’m busy I’m happy!’
Kim was the first woman Tuner in her department, but she notes that the job roles are far less defined by gender than when she first started – the weavers, for instance, used to be predominantly women, but she’s finding a lot more men applying for roles.
“We have a few young ones in weaving, too,” she says, “but there is a generational gap. Some of the youngsters treat a job as just a job because they’re used to doing part-time work in a supermarket. Mind you, if they were working somewhere else, they probably wouldn’t get 40 hours a week.”
Regardless of age, gender or background, there’s one particular character trait that everyone shares at Johnstons of Elgin.
“You have to care,” says Alison. “There’s so much emphasis on the quality of the finished product, it’s not just you do your job and you go home. You have to take pride in what you’re doing.”
Book of British Luxury
In the traditionally male-dominated world of Savile Row tailoring, Kathryn Sargent has made the journey from apprentice to having her name above the door of her own bespoke brand – and is the world’s first female Master Tailor.
Kathryn grew up in Yorkshire and studied for a fashion degree in London, specialising in menswear, with work experience at a Savile Row tailor during her final year.
“I was really into tailoring – I used to dress in jackets and suits myself and I wanted to learn how to make garments like that.”
Her final collection – in Harris Tweed –won her an award from the British Wool Marketing Board during Graduate Fashion Week in 1996, and on graduating she landed an apprenticeship at Gieves & Hawkes at its famous No.1 Savile Row address.
‘The tailors I did work experience with suggested I go with a larger company to learn as much as possible,” she says. “Before I even graduated, I expressed an interest in doing an apprenticeship there, because I just fell in love with the craftsmanship of Savile Row tailoring. I was used to buying suits from charity shops, taking them apart and altering them myself, but I’d never seen suits like they
had on those mannequins. There was such a mystique about it, so I was very much romanced by the idea of it.”
Kathryn worked in the bespoke department at Gieves & Hawkes for 15 years, specialising in pattern cutting and fitting, and was made Head Cutter in 2009, the first time there had ever been a female Head Cutter in any of the Savile Row houses.
“I grew up in that building,” she says. “Not just in years but also in confidence and skill. Having gone from a university setting to a workplace with different age groups and backgrounds was quite a contrast. There were a lot of people to learn from and to get help and support from, who took you under their wing.”
But after a couple of years as Head Cutter, Kathryn made the bold step to set up her own business in order to offer tailoring for women alongside men, having noticed a growing demand for bespoke garments among her female friends who were “accelerating in their careers but struggling with what to wear”.
“I went on a part-time business start-up course at Central Saint Martins,” she says. “It was very basic. I downloaded a business plan template from the internet and worked
through it. I looked at what I needed to live on and how I could make it work. I didn’t have this big ambition for it. I had the best time at Gieves & Hawkes, but I’d got to the point in my life where I needed to do something fresh and new.”
Having been established as a brand for 12 years, a new Kathryn Sargent atelier has recently opened in Edinburgh, overseen by her former apprentice, Alistair Nimmo.
“It’s a lovely way to grow my business and do something new,” she says. “There’s a lot you have to learn to get to this point, all the aspects of running a business – not just cutting a suit and fitting it, but also thinking about branding and marketing and the whole package. Plus employing people and sharing my knowledge, training them myself, just as I have been trained. I really love doing that.”
Kathryn now sits on the board of the Savile Row Bespoke Association, which has helped to establish a more formal apprenticeship system with its own industry-recognised qualifications.
“It’s lovely to have a voice in the industry. When I joined there weren’t so many of us around, but now there are lots of young women in the industry learning the craft.”
Book of British Luxury
If anyone epitomises the generations of expertise that has made Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery industry world famous, it’s Steve Barker, a Caster at Pollyanna Fine Bone China, which manufactures handmade bone china products for Richard Brendon. From the age of 17, Steve has worked all of his adult life in the business, first at Royal Doulton – for 25 years – then at Wedgwood, and now at Pollyanna.
Steve’s task at Pollyanna is to make Richard Brendon’s beautiful, delicate designs a reality, applying skills that date back at least to the 17th century. The process involves pouring liquid clay ‘body slip’ into plaster moulds, ready for casting. At least, that’s the simple explanation. The slip first has to be made to an exact level of purity and viscosity before it reaches this stage, during which Steve has to ensure he coats the moulds by a precise amount, which can vary depending on each design, ranging from crockery such as plates and cups as well as teapots to more elaborate figurative designs – the area in which Steve first trained with Royal Doulton.
“A lot of the work now is done by machine, not like this,” he says. “You’ve got to watch the time and see how thick it gets. You can’t just take it when you want; the longer you leave it, the thicker it is. You get a knack for it.” Watching the skill and speed with which
he works as he talks, Steve perfectly demonstrates the importance Richard Brendon puts on the fact that every product made has passed through several pairs of hands. “A lot of brands just want machines, they don’t want hand skills,” Steve says. “But then you lose the quality and the knowledge.” As an example of this innate expertise, Steve describes how he might pick up on obvious design flaws that would be missed in mechanised production.
“People assume you can’t cast anything solid, but that’s a myth. Sometimes I’ll say, if you don’t make that bit solid, some of the hot water will go up the spout and then you’ll burn your hands! There’s no one between the designer and the machines to say, ‘That’s not going to work’. It’s all about communication.”
Once the clay pieces are carefully removed from their moulds, they go through fettling (the removal of any seams, raw edges or excess clay) before being hand-painted. Each stage requires fine craftsmanship, something that Richard himself is dedicated to keeping alive. “There’s always been incredible creativity in the UK,” he says. “What we can do in Stoke-on-Trent – still – is exceptional. It really is the best quality bone china anywhere in the world. Talking to manufacturers, some say we can’t afford
to have apprentices – but you also can’t afford not to have them, because your workforce is pretty much all going to retire within the next ten to 15 years. So the question is how do we support these incredibly high-quality manufacturers that are small businesses so they can start to bring in apprentices?’
Richard feels that a pooling of resources and ideas both within the industry and across the wider luxury sector could be key to sharing best practice. Richard says, “One of our investors was the Chairman of Church’s shoes. Its factory has skill grades, so you work your way up. It’s pretty basic stuff but it’s incredibly difficult for small businesses to figure this out on their own. You could probably put a really good structure in place for them, and then you need funding to make it affordable because, if you’re a small factory, your revenue and profit margins are relatively small. But they are absolutely the right people to be doing the training if you want to get people up to the absolute highest skill level.”
Steve, as ever, sees the bigger picture with disarming simplicity. “The solution is you’ve got to have the Government and industry working together on everything, from the smallest manufacturers. If it’s cheap and nasty, it falls apart. People will pay a little extra for quality, because it lasts.”
Book of British Luxury
At the Savoir Bedworks factory in northwest London, Arjoon, the Works Foreman, has just started on his next mattress remake. Examining the label on the exquisite mattress he is working on, he recognises his own initials. “That’s definitely mine,” he says. “That’s my handwriting; that’s the way I do my fours!” Arjoon first made this (a No 4) mattress in 1998, the year after The Savoy Bedworks – founded in 1905 to supply bespoke beds to the famous London hotel – was acquired by current owners Alistair Hughes and Stephen Winston, prompting the name change to Savoir Beds.
“When Savoir took over there were only three of us,” says Arjoon. Now he is the last of the original Savoy craftsmen still working here. But he’s far from alone in this bustling, cheerful, diverse workplace. “We started taking on more staff,” he says. “And I’ve trained nearly all of them!” There are now almost 100 people at the company, with over 50 craftspeople involved in making beds by hand in the traditional way, using only natural materials. These include horsetail, cashmere, sheep’s wool, cotton and even Mongolian yak hair for the toppers; wooden
canes attached to box springs with old-style oiled-flax cord, as used by archers at the Battle of Agincourt.
Arjoon (“It’s just Arjoon – I’m from Mauritius, and in the workplace everyone calls you by your surname, so I’ve always been Arjoon”) was 23 when he joined in 1987. While the company has grown significantly since then, Savoir takes pride in making fewer than 1,000 beds per year, ensuring it takes the time on each job to maximise the quality without cutting corners. Training typically takes at least a year to teach an apprentice the techniques necessary for making a bed base, three years if you include mattresses and headboards. “We train everyone on preparation first – cutting the material, so they get to know all the different components that go in a mattress,” says Arjoon. “From there we move them on. They can choose to specialise in making the topper, the mattress or the bases. Some people have a real knowledge of stitching or tying the knots on the base already, so they pick it up quicker.” Because of this, there is no set demographic that Savoir looks for in its workforce. “Any age can do it – and it’s
good if they have some experience. Look at TJ, he joined in his late fifties.”
TJ Brown joined in 2000, fed up with the music industry (he was previously a professional keyboardist, touring the world with his band). He had also taught himself to be a tailor and still makes his own clothes, so when he saw an advertisement in the local Jobcentre for people with sewing skills, he applied and got the job at Savoir. “After a while, Alistair, the Managing Director, said, ‘TJ do you want to do something else?’ So he put me on making springs. Then I moved on to making bed bases and then mattresses. I’m a jack of all trades.”
And, it should be added, a Master Mattress Maker. Part of his role involves demonstrating his craft at various industry fairs and Savoir events. “I just think I’m very good at it,” he says. “If they want someone to elaborate on the process, I’m the man they come to, because I can talk! And I present myself well. They see the way I dress – I make everything I wear myself – and they can see that I put care and attention into what I do, just the same as making beds.”
By Numbers
250 Members including Partners & Friends
18 Sectors
Automotive, Aviation & Maritime
Beauty, Fragrance & Wellbeing
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Media
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168 Brands of Tomorrow since 2007, including Bremont, Cubitts, House of Hackney, Ocean Bottle, Orlebar Brown and Nyetimber
11,000 Subscribers to our Daily Luxury Digest newsletter
45,000 Followers across our social media channels
25,000 Visitors to thewalpole.co.uk every month
Walpole is the UK’s only sector body for luxury brands. As the voice of British luxury, our purpose is to promote, protect and develop a sector worth £81 billion to the UK economy, and an ambition to become a world leader in sustainability.
Founded in 1992 as a not-for-profit organisation, it counts more than 250 British brands in its membership and is recognised in both Westminster and Brussels. Walpole members are united by a common focus on discerning and affluent consumers and a shared mission to deliver world-class products and experiences.
For Membership Enquiries
To find out about the benefits of membership and how to join, contact membership@thewalpole.co.uk
We actively promote our members’ interests at home and abroad, and campaign on their behalf
We curate our community and develop member networks Promote Protect Develop
Insight & Expertise
We provide our members with information, support and advice
Walpole Represents our members’ interests both home and abroad, builds networks and encourages collaboration within our Community, and provides members with Knowledge, Insight & Expertise.
Walpole is the sector body for the British luxury industry which is worth £81bn to the UK economy, supports over 450,000 jobs and contributes 3.7% of the UK’s GDP. A not-for-profit organisation, Walpole speaks on behalf of more than 250 of Britain’s finest brands including Alexander McQueen, Aston Martin, Burberry, Claridge’s, Fortnum & Mason, Glenfiddich, Harrods, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Wedgwood, and is recognised in both Westminster and Brussels.
With a mission to promote, protect and develop the business of luxury in the UK, Walpole brings its members together to collaborate and connect. It also provides a collective voice for luxury on key topics, commissions industry-leading research and works with government on issues affecting the sector.
Walpole runs the flagship ‘Brands of Tomorrow’ programme to develop new British luxury brands – alumni include Bremont, Emilia Wickstead, Nyetimber and Orlebar Brown – and works with the London Business School MBA programme to help develop the talent of the future with ‘Luxury Leaders of Tomorrow’.
Walpole also spearheads the British Luxury Sustainability Manifesto, with the vision of making British luxury the global benchmark for luxury sustainability.
Our members are individually stronger when they work collaboratively. We bring our community together and develop member networks, strengthening the brands and the ecosystem of British luxury.
We convene a dynamic community of brand leaders who come together through Walpole’s channels to tackle common challenges and leverage the collective skills of the organisation to achieve their own business goals. We do this using a combination of actual and virtual events, both at scale and through smaller gatherings. Key events include the annual Walpole British Luxury Summit and the Walpole British Luxury Awards.
We connect like-minded brands, promoting both collaboration and brand partnership, as well as co-ordinating round tables and working groups that bring members together.
We facilitate the exchange of ideas and build best practice.
Knowledge, Insight & Expertise
We help our members to develop and improve the effectiveness of both their brand and their people by providing knowledge, insight and expertise, with key topics covering the outlook for luxury, digital innovation, marketing best practice, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, international markets and growth opportunities.
Our members benefit from research and insight from our partners including Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company and London Business School as well as exclusive research and reports commissioned by Walpole. In May 2023 we published the first The State of London Luxury 2023 report in partnership with Cadogan, a comprehensive study exploring London’s status as a global luxury capital, and March 2024 saw the launch of Walpole’s landmark study Luxury in the Making, which explores the positive economic and employment contribution of the luxury sector to the UK economy.
Last November, 400 luxury industry creatives, leaders and influencers gathered in The Ballroom at The Dorchester for the Walpole British Luxury Awards 2023.
This annual ceremony celebrates the very best luxury brands and individuals who contribute unique and exquisite products to UK luxury, as well as those who define the exciting creativity, innovation and global cultural relevance of Great Britain. Every year it shines a light on the world-leading talent and craftsmanship that makes the luxury sector the jewel in the crown of UK PLC.
A hand-picked panel of sector insiders and luxury aficionados selected the best of the best from nominations across categories including Creative Collaboration and Luxury in the Making, while a jury of sustainability leaders selected the Sustainable Luxury Brand of the Year. The biggest award of the night – British Luxury Brand of the Year –was voted for by the Walpole Academy,
comprising luxury stakeholders, panel members and the Walpole membership, making it the ultimate peer-reviewed accolade.
“In a country renowned for its storytelling, every Walpole award has a tale to tell of individual triumphs, of Britain’s extraordinarily rich and diverse history, and of the talent, ingenuity, creativity and innovation of its people.” Helen Brocklebank, CEO, Walpole.
With thanks to The Dorchester and our event partners: AKT, ALR Music, ANM Communications, Charbonnel et Walker, Downey, Focus Productions, Fortnum & Mason, Miller Harris, Monpure, Moriarty, Nous, TJB Super Yachts, Wildabout.
Photos by: Dave Benett and Alan Chapman for Getty, Adam Duke and Colin Dack.
The next Walpole British Luxury Awards takes place in November 2024
Cultural & Social Contribution
Royal Academy of Arts and Claridge’s
Great Creative Britons
Ozwald Boateng OBE, Sonia Boyce OBE RA, David Harewood OBE
Luxury in the Making in association with Elite Associates
Matthew Cox
Sustainable Luxury Brand of the Year in association with Investec
Neal’s Yard Remedies
Made in the UK in association with the Department for Business and Trade Sunspel
Game-Changer in association with Laurent-Perrier
Anabela Chan
Creative Collaboration in association with Moneypenny
Brown’s Hotel, A Rocco Forte Hotel and Sir Paul Smith
Artistic Pioneer
Wayne McGregor CBE
Visionary in association with WOLF
Torsten Müller-Ötvös
British Luxury Brand of The Year in association with Times Luxury Boodles
More than 300 people gathered for the Walpole British Luxury Summit 2024 – hosted at The Londoner, Leicester Square, in April 2024. This unmissable annual event in the sector’s collective calendar brings together the most influential names and brightest creative minds for an inspiring day of panel discussions and keynote talks.
With a theme this year of ‘Where’s Next for Luxury?’, guests gathered to discuss the strategic challenges and opportunities for the luxury sector, explore how the industry’s fastestgrowing businesses prioritise people and future-proof skills, and learn about the emerging global markets from the industry’s leading players.
Attracting luxury leaders and expert commentators, names taking to the stage included: Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor of The Times, starting the day with the macroeconomic and political outlook; Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum, on why it’s too late to take nature for granted; Amrita Banta, Managing Director of Agility Research & Strategy, sharing fascinating insights into the global millionaire; Burberry’s Giorgio Belloli on innovation and customer service; Anant Sharma, CEO of Matter Of Form on luxury, wabi sabi and AI; and analyst and author Erwan Rambourg, Global Head of Consumer & Retail Equity Research at HSBC on China vs US: where to invest next.
Stella McCartney CEO, Amandine Ohayon, was in conversation with WWD’s Samantha Conti discussing the ethics of leadership; writer and curator Ekow Eshun and Christie’s Anthea Peers examined the new wave of collecting with cultural commentator Katy Wickremesinghe; and Jamie Gill, Founder of The Outsiders Perspective, shared the vital work being done to move the dial on representation in the UK, positioning DEI as an imperative to business strategy.
Breakout sessions were hosted by Chalhoub Group on the GCC outlook and state of luxury in the region, and customer service specialist Moneypenny was joined by Harrods and Knight Frank to discuss the art of delivering the ultimate service experience.
With thanks to all our partners and supporters: CAB-E Media, Chalhoub Group, Eight Lands, The Londoner, Moneypenny and WOLF.
The next Walpole British Luxury Summit will take place in spring 2025. For further information and to see pictures from the event, visit thewalpole.co.uk/walpole-summit
In March 2024 Walpole launched its flagship study, Luxury in the Making, as part of its long-term commitment to showcasing and supporting the jobs and skills in the luxury sector. The report shows that the sector supports more than 450,000 jobs, providing rewarding, sustainable work in communities across the UK.
From the minute complications of a Bremont chronometer to the grand, flowing bodywork of a Bentley automobile, British design, craftsmanship and creativity are admired throughout the world. What underpins these products, and all of British luxury, are the highly trained, passionate and diverse people who work in the sector.
Across a dizzying array of roles, businesses and backgrounds, the people who make up British luxury are dedicated to creating the highest-quality products and experiences. Whether this is an exquisitely mixed cocktail or an intricate piece of jewellery, what unites us all is a commitment to excellence –excellence that is recognised the world over and makes the luxury sector a fast-growing, £81bn contributor to the UK economy.
Luxury is an attractive, welcoming, caring employer, whether that be supporting the workforce through the cost-of-living crisis or investing in the
skills and professional development of employees. Businesses in our sector are employers of choice in their communities. Indeed, many of our businesses boast multiple generations of the same family working alongside each other, passing skills down the generations. It is also a sector where your skills are valued, and progression is possible. Not only do we offer secure, well-paid jobs, we offer a life-long career, and a unique chance to pursue your passion. Take, for instance, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, A Belmond Hotel in Oxfordshire, where Head Gardener Anne Marie Owens started nearly four decades ago as one of Chef Raymond Blanc’s garden apprentices.
The British luxury sector is the highgrowth engine of prosperity for the whole UK – an essential source of employment for hundreds of thousands of highly skilled individuals. Walpole’s role is to safeguard and champion this critical sector, and support our members as they grow.
To read our report and learn more about Walpole’s Luxury in the Making campaign, go to thewalpole.co.uk/news/ luxury-in-the-making
IN ASSOCIATION WITH MISHCON DE REYA
Brands of Tomorrow helps aspiring British luxury companies of the future to fulfil their potential. These are brands that will pioneer growth, export goods and services, create employment and drive innovation in luxury in the coming decades. Founded in 2007, the Walpole Brands of Tomorrow programme has helped develop and nurture over 160 emerging luxury brands through a 12-month programme of networking and mentorship, and has proudly seen them become leaders in their respective fields.
Founded in December 2020, Citizens of Soil is a brand for customers who care about quality, transparency, and sustainability. As a B Corp and a member of 1% for the Planet, Citizens of Soil wants to change the olive oil industry for good by sourcing directly from small-scale producers who practise regenerative farming, and by championing the remarkable women makers.
citizensofsoil.com
Gigi & Olive is the ultimate luxury destination for the modern bride. The brand was launched by Georgie Le Roux in September 2019, offering a premium, personalised and unique edit of pieces, encompassing both house-designed items and curated products from female-founded brands. The company’s own line is aspirational, original and imbued with a mission to offer beautiful items that people will keep long after the party’s over.
gigiandolive.com
Fielden is the English whisky that’s changing farming. Most grain in England grown for whisky is done so industrially, with chemicals. Fielden is bringing England’s fields back to life by planting heritage grains that grew here centuries ago. The grain grows in clover, a natural fertiliser that helps the soil stay healthy. The fields are wild and glorious, and the whisky is full of flavour.
fielden.com
From a modest seaside workshop in Kent, Harrison Heritage Industries has crafted a world-class reputation for exceptional charcoal and wood-fuelled ovens since 2016. Founded by Daniel and Natalie Thumwood, it’s a brand dedicated to traditional craftsmanship, performance and beauty, creating handmade-to-order appliances with the intention of each being passed down through the generations. Every component can effortlessly be replaced with a simple allen key – the epitome of sustainable design. harrisonovens.com
Founded in 2020 by Matt and Claire Podesta, Huckleberry specialises in creating luxury outdoor kitchens and furniture. Handcrafted at workshops in the South of England with superb quality and attention to detail, Huckleberry makes garden products that combine FSC-certified solid oak and sustainablysourced materials with timeless design. The result is a selection of outdoor furniture that prioritises long-lasting luxury at home, whether for city spaces or large country gardens.
huckleberryhome.co.uk
Founded in the autumn of 2020, Katto crafts exceptional kitchenware using sustainable materials and – wherever possible – human hands. The business was started on the premise that people today want to own fewer, but better, things: things that make their days (and dinners) that little bit better. Now Katto is expanding to take over the rest of the kitchen cabinet, having now launched cast-iron cookware, chopping boards and more.
katto.shop
Jukes Cordialities was founded by friends Jack Hollihan and Matthew Jukes in late 2019 when a ‘dry’ lunch together inspired them on a journey to create a genuinely sophisticated, alcohol-free alternative to fine wine. Over two years of experimentation using nearly 200 fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices and edible flowers, Jukes Cordialities launched its first two offerings – winning plaudits from London’s top chefs and sommeliers in the process.
jukescordialities.com
Larry King is a world-famous hair stylist known for his work with Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair. After the success of his first London salon, he launched Larry King Haircare with his wife, Laura, in 2018. Larry King’s salons are all about un-intimidating luxury, which permeates his haircare range, providing consumers with multi-tasking, efficacious and clean formulas that protect the health of your hair, without compromising the earth.
larrykinghair.com
MONC was launched in 2016 with a mission to redefine the eyewear industry by focusing on sustainable practices, craftsmanship and timeless shapes. Designed in London by founder Freddie Elborne and handcrafted in Northern Italy at one of the few remaining family-run eyewear ateliers, the brand merges traditional craftsmanship with sustainable materials and a localised supply chain. MONC’s eyewear is built to last and designed to be easily repaired, challenging the optical industry’s fast-fashion attitude. monclondon.com
Launched in 2018, Poodle & Blonde is a luxury British interiors brand founded by Whinnie Williams, Creative Director, and Kierra Campbell, Managing Director. The pair’s original fabric and wallpaper designs take inspiration from the past, reviving and modernising old trends with sustainability in mind. The brand has built an impressive following and secured several notable collaborations, as well as a thriving trade business with clients including Soho House.
poodleandblonde.com
Otiumberg is a B Corp-certified jewellery brand established in 2016 by London-based sisters Christie and Rosanna Wollenberg. The brand was envisaged with the MO of crafting a collection that paired a refined aesthetic with an effortless ease to offer modern heirlooms for the everyday. Otiumberg considers the environmental and social impact of the brand – every item is crafted from recycled or single mine origin sterling silver, gold vermeil or solid gold.
otiumberg.com
SHORE is a design brand innovating in the fields of ergonomic rugs, soft furnishings, and footwear made from handwoven high-performance materials. Founded in 2015 by Louie Rigano and Gil Muller, who met while studying at the Royal College of Art in London, the brand is based on a belief that merging technical innovation and beautifully crafted design can redefine traditional ideas of luxury, novelty, and ways of making.
shore-studios.com
AUTOMOTIVE, AVIATION & MARITIME
BEAUTY, FRAGRANCE & WELLBEING
CULTURE & RECREATION
DESIGN & SERVICES
EDUCATION PROVIDERS
FASHION & ACCESSORIES
FOOD & DRINK
HOMEWARE & INTERIORS
JEWELLERY & WATCHES
LIFESTYLE
LUXURY HOTELS & RESIDENCES
MEDIA
PROPERTY & ESTATE
RESTAURANTS & BARS
RETAIL
TEXTILES
TRAVEL & TOURISM
WINE & SPIRITS
Aston Martin’s vision is to be the world’s most desirable ultra-luxury brand, creating the most exquisitely addictive performance cars. Founded in 1913, Aston Martin is an iconic brand synonymous with style, luxury, performance and exclusivity. It fuses the latest technology, time-honoured craftsmanship and beautiful styling to produce a range of critically acclaimed luxury models.
astonmartin.com
Cunard luxury British cruise line has created unforgettable experiences around the world since 1840. The Cunard Experience is built on fine dining, hand-selected entertainment, inspiring guest speakers and outstanding service. The fleet comprises Queen Anne, launched in May 2024, flagship Queen Mary 2 – the world’s only ocean liner – Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.
cunard.com
Bentley is the most sought-after and largest luxury marque in the automotive industry. With over 4,000 colleagues headquartered in Crewe, a relentless pursuit of luxury and performance has remained a constant throughout its 105-year history. Bentley is committed to becoming fully electric and end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030.
bentleymotors.com
Range Rover is the UK’s leading luxury export. Established in 1970, it leads by example with reductive design, refined interiors, connected technology and electrified performance. Each member of the family – Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and Range Rover Evoque – represents a new level of modern luxury.
landrover.co.uk/range-rover
rolls-roycemotorcars.com
A Rolls-Royce motor car is more than just a precious possession – it is the ultimate expression of one’s individuality. Rolls-Royce clients are not just acquiring rare luxury items, they are creating their own legacies. The marque’s peerless ability to capture its clients’ personal stories and sensibilities has elevated it beyond the automotive realm: today it stands as a true House of Luxury.
Every motor car that leaves the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex,
incorporates some form of bespoke personalisation. This extends from subtle but significant flourishes – an evocative exterior colour, or a client’s monogram – to highly complex artworks requiring months or years of development.
The pinnacle of bespoke lies in Coachbuild, the marque’s equivalent of haute couture. It empowers clients to create completely unique Rolls-Royce motor cars beyond the brand’s product portfolio, participating in every stage of its development over a
number of years.
Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail, an enchanting coachbuilt expression of tranquillity, exemplifies this approach. Designed and crafted in close collaboration with the commissioning client, it is a testimony to their personal codes of luxury, defined by purity, tranquillity and subtle restraint. In its intricate design and unique aesthetic, it inspires curiosity and encourages extraordinary interactions. Wood is a central theme to this motor car, with features and finishes developed over
more than 8,000 hours of painstaking work. Arcadia Droptail also features the most complex clock face in Rolls-Royce history, incorporating an exquisite geometric guilloché pattern with 119 facets. A magnificent expression of the client’s values, Arcadia Droptail empowered Rolls-Royce to develop new materials, methods and technologies that elevate not just what a motor car can be, but what it can mean. Indeed, this is an elevated expression of applied art.
RWD is a superyacht design studio based in Beaulieu on the south coast of England, where it has been creating awardwinning designs since 1993. Working with many of the finest yacht builders, RWD is extremely proud to have earned a reputation for its elegant and thoughtful designs.
rwd.co.uk
Victor is an award-winning leader in on-demand private jet charter, flight management and climate action. Its fully transparent, subscription-free service provides clients with unparalleled access to the world of private aviation. Victor is proud to be the first within business aviation to offer Neste Sustainable Aviation Fuel for every booking worldwide.
flyvictor.com
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AKT (pronounced “act”) is the personal performance company that may change your life. Founded by West End stars Ed Currie and Andy Coxon, AKT creates award-winning deodorants in 100 per cent plastic-free packaging for those who are born to perform – on the stage, at work or in life.
anatomē London Apothecary has been created for modern living to help us sleep, move and create. The apothecary works with an expert team of perfumers, aromachologists and nutritionists to produce the best perfumes, skincare and wellbeing supplements from the finest natural botanical and scientifically proven ingredients to support wellbeing.
aktlondon.com
Founded in 2012 in London, ARgENTUM was created to share the extraordinary benefits of silver in skincare. Grounded in the patented formula of silver hydrosol and DNA HP, every product is born from science and crafted with love. From skincare to bodycare, fragrance to lifestyle, ARgENTUM invites you to discover the beauty in balance.
argentumapothecary.com
anatome.co
Clive Christian creates the world’s finest perfumes – timeless classics made without compromise using exquisite ingredients, with intense and complex formulations and the ultimate craftsmanship. Only the best ingredients are used, whether this is perfectly aged 50-year-old Indian sandalwood, the most superb damask rose, the rarest saffron or the latest groundbreaking perfume technology.
clivechristian.com
When all of the body’s ten systems are nourished and working in harmony, the body is at its most powerful. EQUI produces uniquely comprehensive nutritional supplements to support women at all stages of life, combining around 50 pure, powerful nutrients that collectively give results and replace your shelf of supplements.
equilondon.com
Since 1994, Jo Malone London has created a palette of exquisitely simple, elegant scents and curated a world where every sense is indulged. Today, the brand is internationally known for its unexpected fragrances and distinctly British character.
Delighting fragrance connoisseurs with its collection of classic and contemporary scents since 1730, London perfume house Floris was founded by Juan Famenias Floris in St James’s. This first shop is still run by Mr Floris’s direct descendants today, producing finely crafted fragrances for discerning individuals and for the home.
florislondon.com
Miller Harris is a British fragrance house with a modern and artistic spirit. When creating fragrances it starts with nature, framing precious natural raw materials in complex ways, using ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients while pushing creative boundaries.
jomalone.co.uk
millerharris.com
Born in London in 1971, Molton Brown is an icon of uniquely British style. Its fragrance, bath, body and home collections have always been made in England and cruelty free. Sourcing the best ingredients in exceptional fragrance concentrations, it champions beauty that’s kinder to the environment and empowers you with distinctive scents.
moltonbrown.co.uk
For more than 40 years, Neal’s Yard Remedies has been harnessing the power of the finest natural and organic, ethically sourced herbs, botanicals and essential oils to make awardwinning skincare, body care and wellbeing collections that bring outer beauty and inner health into perfect balance.
MONPURE stands as the pioneer in hair and scalp health. Its groundbreaking product range was recognised with 50+ awards over the past three years and selected as one of Walpole's Brands of Tomorrow in 2023. MONPURE collaborates with elite hotels and spas worldwide to revolutionise haircare with innovative products and experiences.
monpure.com
Noble Isle is a fine-fragrance bath and body brand, inspired by the rich, cultural heritage of the British Isles. The collection is natural, vegan, cruelty free, sustainable and made in the UK using natural extracts from producers around the British Isles including rhubarb from Yorkshire, samphire from Ireland, barley from Scotland and beetroot from Wales.
nealsyardremedies.com
nobleisle.com
Ormonde Jayne fragrances encapsulate British elegance, imagination and craftsmanship. With unmatched originality, perfumer Linda Pilkington pioneers rare ingredients including oudh, Ta’if and black hemlock into a repertoire of intelligent, wearable fragrances. Entering its 25th year, Ormonde Jayne celebrates a new flagship boutique in Mayfair and 450 points of sale worldwide.
ormondejayne.com
Revive Collagen is a multi-award-winning, luxury collagen brand developed to enhance beauty from within. Proudly British with quality at its core, Revive Collagen offers a range of ready-to-drink collagen supplements with type 1 marine collagen, beauty ingredients and essential vitamins to deliver game-changing results to the skin, hair and nails.
revivecollagen.com
Scenting the streets of London since 1870, Penhaligon’s has a rich heritage and an even richer reputation for being one of Britain’s finest fragrance houses. With many a royal accolade up its sleeve and a knack for eccentric storytelling, there's a dazzling dose of wild wit and wide-eyed wonder in every spritz.
penhaligons.com
Ruuby is the premium beauty and wellness concierge service that delivers beauty treatments wherever and whenever you need them. Ruuby connects private clients, corporates and brands to its black book of expert professional mobile therapists for a wide range of beauty services, including at-home exclusives from cult brand favourites.
ruuby.com
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Historic Royal Palaces is the independent charity that cares for some of the UK’s most iconic royal landmarks – the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens – telling stories about the monarchs you know, and the lives you don’t.
hrp.org.uk
Founded in 1824, The National Gallery houses more than 2,300 masterpieces, spanning nearly 800 years of creativity. The permanent collection includes masterpieces by renowned painters such as van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt and da Vinci. In this year of its bicentenary, The National Gallery continues to welcome over 3 million visitors annually.
nationalgallery.org.uk
Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. With every performance it aims to bring wonder to the modern world, and cement its position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century.
lpo.org.uk
Founded in 1856, the NPG tells the story of Britain through portraits from the Tudors to the present. The recent major redevelopment has brought to life the collection and spaces fit for the 21st century, presenting an inclusive and dynamic picture of those who have contributed to the nation’s rich history.
npg.org.uk
Dubbed the ‘Cathedral to Nature’, London’s Natural History Museum is a world-leading science research centre, with a vision to build a future where people and planet thrive. Since opening in 1881, the museum now proudly works with more than 370 scientists, an 80 million-strong collection, and welcomes over five million curious minds annually.
nhm.ac.uk
The Royal Court is the writers’ theatre. It is the leading force in world theatre for cultivating and supporting writers – undiscovered, emerging and established.
The Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1768, is an independent, privately-funded institution led by eminent artists and architects to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. As an independent charity, the Royal Academy receives no government funding.
royalacademy.org.uk
The Royal Opera House aims to enrich people’s lives through opera and ballet. Home to two of the world’s great artistic companies – The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet, performing with the orchestra of the Royal Opera House – the Royal Opera House seeks to be accessible and engaging, to develop audiences across the UK and break new ground in the presentation of lyric theatre.
royalcourttheatre.com
roh.org.uk
Saatchi Gallery exists as a registered charity to provide an innovative platform for contemporary art and culture. It is committed to supporting artists and rendering contemporary art accessible to all. It strives to present projects in physical and digital spaces that are engaging, enlightening and educational for diverse audiences.
saatchigallery.com
The British Museum was the world’s first national public museum and is unique in bringing together under one roof the cultures of the globe, spanning continents and oceans. No other museum is responsible for collections of the same depth and breadth, beauty and significance. Its 8,000,000 objects allow visitors to explore the extraordinary diversity of human cultures.
britishmuseum.org
Home to great stories and ideas, the British Library presents exhibitions, events and receptions inspired by the treasures in its care. Every day the vast collection sparks lightbulb moments – who knows where this inspiration will lead?
A hot new design, product or innovation. A successful novel. It’s all here, for everyone.
bl.uk
Today, governed by Royal Charter, The Jockey Club owns some of the country’s most prominent racecourses and stages several of the nation’s highest-profile events, including the Randox Grand National, Cheltenham Festival and four of the five ‘classics’, including the Derby. It reinvests all profits into British racing.
thejockeyclub.co.uk
The Old Vic, London’s independent, not-for-profit theatre, is a world leader in creativity and innovation, driven by a strong social mission. Today, Artistic Director Matthew Warchus builds on over 200 years of creative adventure to use the power of storytelling to make a positive change to people’s lives.
oldvictheatre.com
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AGC is Britain’s first B Corp certified interior design collective, delivering world-class interiors and furnishings to the global property market, private clients and consumers. Operating from London, New York and Dubai, AGC is home to seven elite brands and is the only collective to excel in all sectors of the industry.
agofc.com
ALR Music is a unique music agency that creates, manages and books exceptional entertainment for luxury parties, weddings and brand events in the UK and around the world. Elegant, energetic and effortlessly cool, ALR Music’s artists do more than just perform, they create an unforgettable experience your guests will be talking about for years to come.
alrmusic.co.uk
A members’ club in the heart of Mayfair, created by women, for women. AllBright is a global collective committed to creating connection, development and physical spaces for ambitious women.
allbrightcollective.com
David Collins Studio stands at the forefront of interior architecture and product design, garnering acclaim over 39 years for its globally recognised luxury ecosystem. A well-established network of global artists and craftspeople empowers The Studio to consistently redefine the notion of timeless glamour.
davidcollins.studio
Downey is a creative printing house that has served as a specialist partner to luxury brands for over a century, providing a full range of bespoke invitations, business and social stationery along with custom presentation boxes. Downey has a central London studio with its own production in Norfolk.
Fitzdares is the world’s finest bookmaker and has been taking bets since 1882. With a historic focus on racing, it was named SBC’s Racing Sportsbook of the Year as recently as 2020. Fitzdares’ highly personalised service distinguishes it from the field, complementing its slick, fast and easy-to-use digital platforms.
downey.co.uk
Focus brings event concepts to life, turning a client’s creative vision into a spectacular real-world event. Offering precision expertise in every area of live event production from technical support to comprehensive event design, creative styling and project management, Focus is a renowned production professional for the live events industry.
focus.productions
fitzdares.com
Founded over 25 years ago, Graham Shapiro Design has created brands and websites for some of the world’s most respected companies from its 400-year-old head office in Cheshire. Its founder, Professor Graham Shapiro, is an award-winning inventor, acclaimed designer, digital entrepreneur and Ambassador of Innovation at the University of Cambridge.
gsd.net
The Heathrow VIP Service provides an exclusive personal service for a seamless journey through Heathrow’s private terminal, the Windsor Suite. The Black Service offers chauffeuring to and from the aircraft, privacy in one of eight lounges and a security and immigration area, while the VIP team handles all the airport formalities.
heathrowvip.com
A print shop founded in 1971, Imprimerie du Marais has devoted its savoir-faire to provide innovative solutions in the creation of high-end, bespoke print products. Relying on a production line in Paris and sales offices in London, New York and Geneva, it has made the art of the possible its credo.
Hurtwood is an independent publisher of books on the fine arts and humanities. Heroes of the art world, rock aristocrats, designers and global institutions all trust Hurtwood to deliver books on time, on brief and on budget. Big or small, many or few, lavish or restrained, Hurtwood makes books for you of timeless quality and beauty.
hurtwood.co.uk
James Cropper is a market leader, making a material difference. Established in 1845 and based in the Lake District, it innovates bespoke paper and moulded fibre packaging solutions for many of the world’s leading luxury brands and designers. With expertise in colour and sustainable fibre, the options are limitless.
imprimeriedumarais.com
jamescropper.com
From its origins as a community florist, McQueens has grown to become a global leader. It continues to adjust its creative footprint, with the McQueens Flower School leading the development of new and innovative concepts. McQueens is a home for creatives passionate about using flowers to curate sustainable art.
mcqueensflowers.com
Neill Strain Floral Couture excels in crafting bespoke floral arrangements with high-fashion precision. From chic bouquets to extravagant wedding and event installations, each creation is meticulously designed. With flagship boutiques in Belgravia, Mayfair and at Harrods, the brand has delivered exquisite floral couture globally since 2008, defining elegance in floristry and event design.
neillstrain.com
Moriarty crafts unforgettable moments that celebrate innovative production techniques, craftsmanship and unwavering creativity. This multidisciplinary global creative studio spans event production, brand strategy, conceptualisation, design and management for luxury brands and private clients. Moriarty understands brand DNA and combines strategic touchpoints with beautiful design to orchestrate fully immersive experiences.
moriartyevents.com
Oliver Burns Studio is an award-winning luxury architectural interior design studio, a global force in design, where beauty and function combine to deliver thoughtful luxury. The team works on the world’s finest interiors across residential, marine, aviation and hospitality, from listed heritage buildings to lakeside villas and beyond.
oliverburns.com
Sybarite is a leading force in architecture and design, specialising in a holistic approach to retail, hospitality and experiential lifestyle. Projects range from monobrands and department stores to masterplans, and encapsulate a meaningful understanding of context, commerciality and culture, resonating with stakeholders and driving client success on a global scale.
sybarite.com
Wildabout has a reputation for creating awe-inspiring floral installations for its clients. With an eye for detail and Wildabout anything floral, the company is one of London’s most innovative floral designers, discreet in its approach, flawless in its execution. Providing floral designs for events and weddings in the UK and Europe.
Ten is the leading global travel and lifestyle concierge, supporting affluent individuals and families as they discover and enjoy dining, entertainment, travel and luxury retail. Live life filled with unique, memorable experiences, organised effortlessly. Founded in 1998 and recently B-Corp certified, Ten’s vision is to be the world’s most trusted service.
tenlifestylegroup.com
Winch Design is a globally leading multidisciplinary studio specialising in the bespoke design of superyachts, residential and commercial properties and private jets.
wildabout.co.uk
winchdesign.com
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Cultivating the next generation of luxury talent
regents.ac.uk
Regent’s is reimagining higher education. For a different generation, in a whole new world. Through brilliant teaching and transformative learning, it is cultivating globally minded graduates to bring purpose and passion to people and planet.
Here, higher education isn’t about lecture halls and essay-writing – for Regent’s it’s about learning by doing, from some of the best in the business, through real-world projects with some of the world’s leading organisations and brands.
Regent’s future-facing curriculum, intimate campus environment, highvalue networks and vibrant culture of challenge and collaboration all combine to support students’ personal and
professional development. It has industry connections at the highest level and a growing reputation as a launchpad for creative founders.
While proudly international in outlook, its intimate campus feels like a home away from home. Set in 11 acres of private gardens within Regent’s Park, the university is in the heart of one of the world’s greatest cities – brimming with opportunity and inspiration.
It’s this combination of place, scale, cosmopolitanism and educational approach that makes Regent’s unique. It enables the university to offer what it believes is a higher education fit for the times we’re in: a world of unbridled change, uncertainty and possibility.
EFI Training works together with industry to provide marketleading training and talent development programmes to secure the future of job-ready talent for sectors including fashion, retail and travel. It helps brands upskill their workforce and recruit the next generation of talent through sector-specific apprenticeships and expert-led, bespoke training.
efitraining.co.uk
London Business School aims to have a profound impact on the way the world does business and the way business impacts the world. It is ranked among the best business schools globally and known as a centre for outstanding research. As well as degrees, it offers award-winning Executive Education programmes.
london.edu
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Alexander McQueen is a British luxury fashion house founded in 1992 by Lee Alexander McQueen and now under the creative direction of Seán McGirr. It is distinctive for an expression of individuality, subversive strength and raw power. With a design studio and atelier in London, McQueen is known for uncompromising quality and creative vision.
alexandermcqueen.com
Burberry is a modern British luxury brand with a rich history and heritage, built on its founder Thomas Burberry’s principles and his passion for the outdoors. The brand produces luxury goods that marry the finest craftsmanship and design with a commitment to quality, innovation and creativity, including the iconic Burberry trench coat.
uk.burberry.com
Anna Mason is a leading independent British luxury womenswear designer. RCA alumna Anna held prestigious design roles at Karl Lagerfeld in Paris, Max Mara and Valentino in Italy. Anna Mason London was launched in 2012 and the brand offers authentic made-to-order and ready-towear go-to wardrobe favourites with a signature feminine, romantic aesthetic.
annamasonlondon.com
Founded by Gabrielle Chanel in 1910, Chanel offers a wide range of creations including fashion, fragrance and beauty, and watches and fine jewellery. Dedicated to ultimate luxury and exceptional craftsmanship, Chanel promotes culture, arts and creativity worldwide and invests significantly in people, sustainable development, research and development plus innovation.
chanel.com
Bringing 251 years of heritage and hatmaking, Christys’ London is the Great British hatmaker. Crafting its hats and caps from top hats, felts and panamas to baker boy, flat and baseball caps with time-honoured skills in its factory in Oxfordshire, Christys’ passion for quality and craftsmanship has passed through generations of hatmakers.
christys-hats.com
Synonymous with craftsmanship and design, dunhill is the foremost British men’s luxury house with a history spanning 130 years. A trusted destination of elevation, classicism and hedonism, dunhill offers a full lifestyle proposition from refined tailoring and ready-to-wear, to elevated leather goods, exquisite gifting and hard luxury pieces.
dunhill.com
Church’s began in 1617, when master shoemaker Anthony Church was handcrafting shoes in Northampton, a town renowned for producing fine footwear since medieval times. His descendants established Church & Co in 1873. In 1999, Church’s was taken over by the PRADA Group, which fully respects its English identity. Church’s still manufactures in Northampton.
church-footwear.com
Ever since Edward Green established his workshop over a century ago, his name has been synonymous with craftsmanship and English style. Today, the company continues to focus on making the finest Goodyear welted shoes, upholding the highest standards of Northampton’s shoemaking tradition. Shoes are still hand sewn using boars’ bristle needles as they were a century ago.
edwardgreen.com
Founded by Gerry Ettinger in 1934, Ettinger has established its reputation in the UK and internationally as a brand that manufactures some of the finest British leather accessories. Its extensive portfolio, which ranges from bespoke attaché cases to small leather accessories, is handmade by highly skilled Ettinger craftspeople at its factory in England.
ettinger.co.uk
One of the UK’s leading luxury bridalwear brands, Halfpenny London empowers women to express their individuality with an ever-evolving collection of contemporary dresses, interchangeable separates and statement accessories that celebrate the glory and nuance of the female form. Passionate about British manufacturing, the brand proudly makes each garment in England.
halfpennylondon.com
The home of British menswear, Hackett London is known for its excellence in craftsmanship and detail, specialising in classic English tailoring for the modern man with over 1,000 points of sale across the globe. The brand’s range of products and services includes made-to-measure, personal tailoring and exclusive bespoke services at the flagship store at 14 Savile Row.
hackett.com
Henry Poole & Co on London’s Savile Row has offered the very best in fine British tailoring since 1806. Every garment is handmade by a master craftsman at the Savile Row premises to the client’s individual pattern. Generations of the Poole family have proudly served customers since James Poole stitched military uniforms in the Napoleonic Wars. His son, Henry, is seen as the founding figure of Savile Row.
henrypoole.com
Fine craftsmanship since 1797
johnstonsofelgin.com
Johnstons of Elgin embodies a legacy of craft spanning more than two centuries. Working with the finest natural fibres, the family-owned business creates timeless cashmere and merino wool knitwear, clothing, accessories and home fabrics and accessories in its own Scottish mills. Proudly B Corp certified, Johnstons of Elgin is committed to social and environmental responsibility – closely overseeing its impact from product traceability to the welfare of its people. As makers and artisans, Johnstons of Elgin creates enduring, effortless designs, weaving and knitting its passion and exceptional craftsmanship into every product. Techniques and hand skills passed down through generations ensure high quality and durability. The Elgin mill
is the only one of its kind in Scotland, where the brand is responsible for every process, from dyeing and spinning to weaving and finishing.
Johnstons of Elgin is unique in creating its own yarns and fabrics, bringing heritage designs and patterns up to date. The mill-based designers work with dye and fibre experts to get the best from the natural materials, taking inspiration from the local landscape. The brand supplies tweed to the royal household and was granted a royal warrant by King Charles when he was Prince of Wales.
All the products are versatile and enduring. Each piece evokes a sense of ease and fluidity, with a softness that only the world’s best fibres can produce. Proud to be made in Scotland.
Katherine Elizabeth is an award-winning milliner based in central London with a flagship store in the iconic Oxo Tower. Katherine began her career in millinery under the talented eye of Stephen Jones, creating pieces for the Dior runway shows and the John Galliano boutique in Paris.
With over 25 years of Savile Row bespoke tailoring expertise Kathryn Sargent, London’s only female master tailor, boasts an atelier in London and Edinburgh. Offering bespoke tailoring for both men and women, Kathryn creates garments that exhibit her signature elements, and each is crafted entirely uniquely for the client.
katherineelizabethhats.com
Established in 1676, Lock & Co is the oldest hat shop in the world, the oldest shop in London and one of the oldest family-owned businesses still in existence. Its passion for hats is unbounded and its expertise unrivalled, attributes that make Lock & Co the best hat brand in the UK and globally.
lockhatters.com
kathrynsargent.com
London Sock Company was founded on the belief that a great pair of socks can transform your style and state of mind. Since 2013, it has crafted socks from the finest materials with the mission of inspiring you to Walk Brighter. Loved by celebrities and CEOs the world over, these socks are the first steps to effortless style
londonsockcompany.com
With a career spanning more than 50 years, Manolo Blahnik is one of the world’s most influential footwear designers, whose shoes have spellbound an international set of adoring and loyal devotees. The privately owned company is headquartered in London with over 270 points of sale globally, and its own atelier in Italy.
manoloblahnik.com
Established as a family business in Somerset in 1971, Mulberry is now the largest manufacturer of luxury leather goods in the UK. With its contemporary take on British heritage and a focus on responsible craft – including repairs and exchange services – Mulberry creates timeless collections that are made to last, building a truly sustainable legacy.
mulberry.com
mou
Cult London label mou offers original, handcrafted footwear and accessories in premium natural fibres. Warm, durable and soft, mou shoes are loved for their back-to-nature feel and eclectic styling. At mou, ethical and eco-friendly production is a priority. Design innovation combines with traditional handcraft manufacturing techniques to maximise the natural beauty of the leathers.
mou.com
From classic crews to cotton sweats, Navygrey makes great knits for even greater women. The everlasting, the beautifully made, the reach-for-over-and-over sort – because a truly great knit is one that never falls out of favour. A champion of Great British wool and manufacturing, Navygrey always uses 100% natural, traceable yarns.
navygrey.co
Pepa London produces children's clothing with quality and comfort in mind. Every carefully crafted heirloom piece has the artisanal flourishes and exceptional precision of European craftsmanship, with a traditional style that is quintessentially British. Pepa London is united with parents who love to see their children looking, being and feeling like children.
pepalondon.com
Sabina Savage is a luxury scarf and clothing brand offering hand-rendered prints on exquisite fabrics. Each illustration takes between four to six weeks to complete, and every scarf is hand-drawn in its entirety. Fantastical stories are woven through each collection, and the products are all designed and made in England.
sabinasavage.com
ROKSANDA is defined by its unmistakable feminine design aesthetic. As a woman consciously designing for women, Roksanda creates pieces that reveal personality while providing a sense of shelter and refuge through unique design, signature colour blocking and modern, architectural shapes, cemented with a dedicated focus on craftsmanship.
roksanda.com
Elevate your handbag style as you discover the joy of Sarah Haran’s versatility and modern luxury craftsmanship. Make your bag your own as you personalise it to reflect your style with playful accessories and an ingenious popper system. Sarah Haran bags transcend trends and the quality stands the test of time, certified by a lifetime guarantee.
sarahharan.com
Preservers of time since 1898
rapportlondon.com
Rapport London has crafted watch and jewellery accessories for more than 125 years. The fourth generation company, defined by rich heritage, manufactures the finest selection of watch winders, collector boxes, trunks and travel accessories for
luxury timepieces and jewellery. Designed with timeless elegance, innovation and impeccable craftsmanship, the products are crafted for generations. Rapport is a tribute to the masterpieces, the loyal companion to your timepiece.
Shackleton designs and develops high-performance apparel and life-changing expedition experiences. Driven by exploration and innovation, the company is built on the life and values of polar titan Sir Ernest Shackleton and exists to inspire, enable and equip people to Live Courageously.
Rooted in British heritage, Smythson represents 137 years of exquisite craftsmanship. From sophisticated bags, accessories and pieces for the home to notebooks, diaries and stationery, Smythson elevates the everyday.
shackleton.com
Founded in 1860, British luxury brand Sunspel crafts elegant wardrobe essentials from the highest quality natural materials. It has a global reputation for innovative fabrics, uncompromising quality and timeless design. Sunspel made the world’s first luxury T-shirt, introduced the boxer short to Britain and tailored its Riviera Polo Shirt for Daniel Craig’s James Bond.
sunspel.com
smythson.com
Since 1885, Turnbull & Asser has been the definitive shirtmaker, crafting impeccable garments from its English workrooms. Renowned for its ready-to-wear, made-to-measure and bespoke quality, the brand has embarked on in-depth research to revive authentic designs from its British tradition, introducing new categories and infusing heritage with a contemporary aesthetic.
turnbullandasser.co.uk
From its beginnings in the silver district in Hanau, Germany, in 1834 through to the present day as a global luxury brand, WOLF is a five-generation, family-owned business that has been operating continuously for 190 years.
wolf1834.com
To celebrate the five generations in its anniversary year, WOLF has designed five collections inspired by its stories: Silver, Ida, Ballet, Philipp and Earth. Ballet, for instance, the iconic twirling
ballerina jewellery box originally designed by Philipp Wolf III, is brought back with a beautiful walnut veneer finish featuring exquisite marquetry. The sounds of Swan Lake coupled with the turning ballet dancer at its centre will surely bring happy childhood memories to many.
Visit the website to read more about the 190 years of WOLF and discover all five anniversary collections.
Vivien Sheriff embraces Britain’s long and distinguished millinery heritage using artisanal traditions to create extraordinary modern-day headwear that inspires top-to-toe styling. The brand has been instrumental in revitalising the art of bespoke millinery design, attracting an impressive roster of luminary clients including prominent members of the British royal family.
viviensheriff.co.uk
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Biscuiteers is the original hand-iced biscuit company. Each biscuit is intricately iced by artists at the London HQ, the Ministry of Biscuits, creating unique gifts for life’s important occasions. Collections are inspired by all things British. The corporate arm of the business creates bespoke biscuits for prestigious brands including Christian Dior, Claridge’s and Boodles.
biscuiteers.com
Most coffee lovers haven’t experienced the world’s finest coffees. Difference Coffee, the UK’s leading coffee brand for Michelin-starred restaurants, aims to change that by offering the world’s rarest coffees in convenient capsule form. This curated selection features exceptional coffees sourced from the world’s top producers, including legendary estates, coffee competitions and auctions.
differencecoffee.com
Charbonnel et Walker, Britain’s first luxury chocolatier, was established in 1875 on London’s Bond Street. Encouraged by Edward VII (then Prince of Wales), Mme Charbonnel, known for making delectable chocolates in Paris, was introduced to Mrs Walker, who made fine jewellery boxes, hat boxes and more. The company was awarded a royal warrant in 1970.
charbonnel.co.uk
Founded in 2012, Exmoor Caviar was the first producer of sturgeon caviar in the UK. With a focus on supplying an exceptional range of caviar, it now works with a number of partner farms worldwide and is the leading caviar supplier to the UK market supplying more than 250 restaurants, many with Michelin stars.
exmoorcaviar.com
JING is the global, single-garden tea brand of choice for premium hospitality and Michelin-starred restaurants. Supporting the people and places behind its teas, JING directly sources the highest-quality teas and forms long-lasting relationships with tea masters – delivering unforgettable tea experiences by taking tea lovers on incredible taste journeys.
jingtea.com
Founded in 2000, Newby Teas is the world’s most-awarded luxury tea brand. Based in London, the company now operates globally, supplying hundreds of esteemed hotels, Michelinstarred restaurants and luxury retailers with the finest of teas. The company dedicates all its profits to charitable causes through N Sethia Foundation.
newbyteas.com
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Since 2010, British designer Alexandra Llewellyn has put the magic in play with a unique vision of the most exquisite board games. Working with an incredible network of British craftspeople, Alexandra ensures that any design or material is possible, with each luxury game crafted to the very highest standards.
alexandrallewellyn.com
Britain’s most prestigious carpet manufacturer, Axminster Carpets high-quality bespoke and woven-to-order carpets, rugs and runners can be found in royal palaces, the finest hotels and private homes. Using high definition, eight-pitch traditional looms, the highly skilled team weave the finest carpets in the world. Beautiful British manufacturing.
axminster-carpets.co.uk
Aiveen Daly, London’s preeminent textile artist, serves top global interior designers with quiet, ethereal and textured artworks. Her designs exude serenity and calm, adding depth and sophistication to elite interiors. From London to Shanghai, Aiveen Daly’s creations grace the walls of the most prestigious residences, superyachts and hotels worldwide.
aiveendaly.com
Pioneers of plant-based paints, Edward Bulmer Natural Paint is on a campaign to change the paint industry with its awardwinning, beautiful and environmentally friendly natural paints. With over 100 exquisite colours, a flagship Pimlico showroom and a suite of colour consultancy services, it is leading a new generation of luxury interiors.
edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk
cole-and-son.com
A celebration of one of Cole & Son’s most beloved design icons, Hummingbirds’ diminutive figures have become the design house’s greatest hero.
Originally created in the 1780s as an 18-colour hand-block-printed motif –taking a total of 11 blocks to print using a method called patch printing, where the printer could print more than one colour with each impression – Hummingbirds has remained a jewel within the Cole & Son portfolio. Now a 12-colour surface print, this late-Georgian design can still be found in distinguished homes and royal residences, notably Queen Victoria’s former bedroom at Kensington Palace.
The house’s new Selection of Hummingbirds also incorporates textiles in crisp cotton poplins as well as raw silks, both plain coordinates and luxurious embroidered silks, showcasing the dazzling hues of each bird’s plumage.
The collection is complete with two new designs: a striking panel called Hummingbirds Flora and coordinating all-over trail design Flora, hand-painted at Cole & Son’s flagship in Chelsea, London. The delicate, hand-rendered watercolour creates an expansive scene of these beautiful birds in their unique flight.
Hummingbirds’ timeless design combines classic printing methods with a modernity of palette and hue, presented in four colour stories. The first, LOVE, is fresh and floral, the courtship diving and swooping of each bird wrapping foliage tendrils, the birds a shimmer of flying jewels unified as one group. The second is NECTAR – as the hummingbird flits from each flower it is surrounded by warm amber, honeyed oranges and candied corals. Thirdly, WATER is a bursting oasis in inky washes of midnight, cornflower, duck egg and azures. SHELTER is where the migration comes to a fleeting pause, with the comforting cocoon of earthy hues – charcoal, ginger and emerald greens. Flightiness is forgotten and home is found. Discover Selection of Hummingbirds wallpapers and fabrics at Cole & Son’s flagship gallery, Chelsea, London.
The eto story began in 2012 when British designer Tom Cotton had the ambition to reduce wine waste and enhance the drinking experience for wine enthusiasts around the world. The result was eto, a handcrafted decanter with an awardwinning preservation design that expertly preserves the wine’s flavour. The decanter reinvented.
etowine.com
Goldfinger designs and crafts timeless furniture and homeware from locally sourced sustainable materials. It is an awardwinning social enterprise working for the good of people and planet. Goldfinger’s artisans also craft bespoke furniture in collaboration with interior designers and architects for homes, restaurants, hotels, offices, retail and wellness centres across the UK.
goldfinger.design
Feldspar was founded by Jeremy and Cath Brown, and in just six years has become a sought-after luxury brand stocked in design stores worldwide. It focuses on creating eccentric pieces for the everyday: objects for life. With an elegant, simple aesthetic designed for longevity, each piece is made by craftspeople in the UK.
feldspar.studio
Established in 1984, Heirlooms is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of fine-quality bed, table and bathroom linens. With a strong creative element, Heirlooms is unique in combining the finest materials and traditional craftsmanship to design and manufacture exceptional linens that complement and enhance the overall interior décor.
heirlooms-linens.com
Globally recognised artist and designer Helen Amy Murray creates meticulously embroidered and hand-sculpted works of art in leather and textiles. Experimenting with texture, colour, depth and light, the work takes on a variety of forms including architectural installations, and is sought after by leading interior architects and luxury brands.
helenamymurray.com
Lauren Dickinson Clarke creates scented candles and home accessories that celebrate the muses, misfits and rebels – those who have liberated culture and inspired artistic movements. Its expressive reactions are for creative souls who reject the status quo. Every piece is made in England to the highest standards of craftsmanship and imagination.
laurendickinsonclarke.com
Holmes Bespoke specialises in custom rugs, handcrafted to order using the finest natural fibres for projects worldwide across luxury residences, hotels and superyachts. Led by Laylah Holmes, the brand draws on the knowledge and expertise of its skilled artisans, whose centuries-old techniques ensure each unique design will last a lifetime.
holmesbespoke.com
Founded by David Linley in 1985, LINLEY has a world-renowned reputation for fusing striking design with exemplary craftsmanship. Everything LINLEY conceives is recognisable by those quintessentially British characteristics of ingenuity and creativity, imagined, and then realised by world-class artisans and engineers.
davidlinley.com
Fleming & Howland is the creator of the world’s best known British sofa and chair design, the iconic Chesterfield. This highly distinctive design has been preserved using the same techniques since its origins more than two centuries ago. As a small cottage industry, the family migrated from the forests of High Wycombe to the plains of Lancashire, where it now quietly operates under an
exclusive direct-to-consumer business model.
A Fleming & Howland client will know that the brand’s hand‐coloured leather is not machine made. The colouring process is both science and an art. Dyes are mixed and gently massaged into the leather, which is then allowed to dry. This process is repeated at least six times to ensure a beautifully toned finish. The result is a leather that is
incredibly supple and transmits a distinctive, warm and natural fragrance. Best of all, the dyes result in a natural ageing process that improves the look of the leather over time and use. The technique is highly skilled and often unpredictable, but the resultant patina is one of the most unique and radiant colours, with an almost three‐dimensional finish. Skills, dedication, passion and art combined into one.
Matthew Cox designs and makes furniture to be as essential and beautiful in 100 years as it is today. By balancing timehonoured methods with innovative practices, the team creates elegantly customised furniture made for graceful longevity. The 100-year plan supports both the pieces they produce and the people they employ.
matthewcox.com
Makers Cabinet was founded in 2017 by Odin Ardagh, Benjamin Weininger and Noah Bier, who met studying Product Design at Central Saint Martins and were dissatisfied with the wasteful nature of the stationery market. The brand has a range of heirloom-quality tools, and is pioneering a resurgence of well-made, premium stationery.
makerscabinet.com
Maison Margaux is a luxury British homeware brand offering beautiful linens, tableware, candles, cutlery, glassware, bespoke accessories and more to rent or buy. Founded by a group of events industry experts, its teams travel the world to find unique pieces. Clients include event planners, luxury hotels, private members’ clubs and luxury brands.
maisonmargauxltd.com
Pioneers of sustainable bedding, Penrose is truly passionate about sleep innovation and the benefits of using sustainable fibres to enhance wellbeing. Offering the opportunity to design complete and bespoke sleep solutions that fulfil ethical and environmentally friendly commitments without compromising on comfort or quality, every luxurious sleep experience is handmade.
penroseproducts.com
Peter Reed has crafted luxurious linens in Lancashire since 1861. Its royal warrant highlights its dedication to precision through meticulous in-house crafting. With thread counts ranging from 210 to 1,000, the collection features percales, sateens and linens for beds, tables and bathrooms. The skilled team also offers custom monograms and intricate embroidery.
peterreed.com
Richard Brendon makes the everyday exceptional with beautifully crafted tableware that showcases quality, integrity and longevity to be enjoyed and admired by generations to come. Focusing on the provenance of materials, traditional craftsmanship methods and timeless design, the brand seeks to enhance every dining experience by delivering the highestquality tableware products available.
richardbrendon.com
Rachel Vosper is a leading British chandler and home fragrance expert, specialising in hand-poured candles and signature home fragrances. Rachel Vosper also offers bespoke fragrance and design services, alongside a unique refill system that allows clients to bring in any vessel – from previously bought and burnt votives to precious family relics – to be transformed into a candle.
rachelvosper.com
Royal Doulton has been at the forefront of contemporary design and craftsmanship since 1815, bringing a casual and relaxed look to your home. With its unique handcrafted designs, it has been savouring the moment for over 200 years, introducing stories and flavours from around the world, and creating authentic connections around the table.
royaldoulton.com
Celebrating British eccentricity and classical elegance for future generations
Founded by Arthur Sanderson in 1860, Sanderson began as a business importing luxury French paper hangings to Britain, and evolved to become one of the most renowned interior design and decorating brands worldwide. Since 1924, Sanderson has held a royal warrant for supplying fabrics, wallcoverings and paint to the royal residences.
From roots in imports to establishing printworks and business acquisitions, Sanderson’s illustrious history and beautiful designs have formed a prestigious legacy, and paved the way for a future that pushes the boundaries of heritage design.
The treasured archive houses a vast collection of fabrics, wallpapers and woodprint blocks dating back to the 16th century, encapsulating an impressive history and providing a reference point for the design studio today.
British craftsmanship is championed at every turn, finding expression in all Sanderson delivers, no more so than the return home to the magnificent, Grade II listed Voysey House. The only commercial building designed by celebrated architect and designer sanderson.sandersondesigngroup.com
CFA Voysey, originally completed in 1902 as a wallpaper factory for Arthur Sanderson & Sons, it now brings together the past, present and future of Sanderson, the founding brand of Sanderson Design Group.
This chapter, a work in progress for more than two years, includes the Layers of Legacy campaign, celebrating the enduring popularity and importance of Sanderson design over the centuries. Significant moments and collaborations touch on the joy of nostalgia with an eye to the future.
The return to elegance of the Sanderson logo from the 1930s and the launch of a special collection with British couturier and illustrator Giles Deacon celebrating the ‘unstately’ home, incorporating commissioned artworks, iterations of archival jacquards and prints from his studio and the Sanderson archive contribute to these new chapters of the brand.
Ushering in this new era, unexpected and inimitable Sanderson continuously looks back to move forward with exceptional designs that captivate audiences worldwide.
Extraordinary beds since 1905
savoirbeds.com
In 1905, Richard D’Oyly Carte, the visionary owner of London’s iconic Savoy Hotel, imagined a bed that would redefine luxury and comfort. To meet his exacting standards, he commissioned an expert upholsterer to craft a bed exclusively for the hotel. The Savoy bed quickly became a success, attracting celebrities and royalty from across the globe who adored the bed’s cloud-like comfort. Today, the same dedication to craftsmanship and attention to detail guides the artisans at the Savoir Bedworks in London and Wales. Each bed is crafted with the finest natural materials and traditional techniques passed down through generations. Skilled craftspeople take their time to star-lash the hourglass springs, hand-tease the horse tail and
hand-stitch the iconic Trellis ticking to ensure the perfect balance of tension, stability and comfort. Savoir’s commitment to quality is evident in every aspect of its bed-making process. The brand’s craftspeople are not driven by mass production but by a relentless pursuit of perfection. Each bed is signed only when they are entirely satisfied with their work, in the same way an artist signs their masterpiece.
New for 2024, Savoir introduces The Savvy Nº5, which aims to attract younger luxury consumers to the world of extraordinary beds. The Nº5 is crafted to order in Wales according to the client’s preferences, upholding the brand’s legacy of providing unmatched luxury and craftsmanship in the realm of sleep.
Established in 2006, Shawstephens designs and makes exceptional bespoke furniture and fitted joinery for luxury residential interiors. A diverse portfolio of work includes authentically detailed French-polished joinery for period country houses, and contemporary heirloom pieces using innovative methods and modern decorative finishes.
shawstephens.com
One of the world’s leading luxury bed brands, Vispring has been manufacturing in the UK since 1901, and is the benchmark for handmade, bespoke, quality beds using the finest natural materials. With excellence and craftsmanship at its core, Vispring combines technical prowess with a bespoke approach, and is the international standard for comfort and sophistication.
vispring.com
Specialists in decorative arts, Sterling Studios produces exquisite bespoke finishes in its West London workshop. Eglomise, antiqued, gilt, carved and cast glass, alongside lacquers, scagliola, crackled gesso and embossed leathers as well as a variety of resin, metal and painted finishes are commissioned worldwide by designers. The work is used in contemporary and classical settings, high-end residential and commercial projects.
sterling-studios.com
Waterford has mastered the art of crafting fine crystal to inspire generations and create lasting memories for 240 years. The collections provide an emotional attachment to Ireland’s rich heritage with designs that evoke a feeling of timeless discovery: reflect on the past, experience the present and look with excitement to the future. Crafted since 1783 for this very moment.
waterford.com
Since 1759 Wedgwood’s rich heritage of design innovation and craftsmanship has astonished the world. Wedgwood is the home of curious, creative and imaginative people, a place fuelled by creativity and self-expression – a confident and colourful world in which people are surprised and inspired.
wedgwood.com
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A Walpole Brand of Tomorrow in 2020 and winner of the Game-Changer Award in 2023, Anabela Chan is the world’s first fine jewellery brand to champion laboratory-grown and created gemstones with high jewellery design, craftsmanship and a focus on sustainable, ethical innovations. Discover more at the flagship boutique at 35B Sloane Street London and online.
anabelachan.com
From the legendary setting of the Cullinan I diamond to Princess Diana’s engagement ring, Garrard has crafted some of the most famous jewels of all time, with each bold new creation bearing the quintessential British hallmarks of heritage and hand craftsmanship.
Founded in 2002, Bremont is motivated by a determination to create the world’s most capable tool watches. Crafted with precision and detail, Bremont watches excel in the depths of the ocean, on mountain peaks and the far extremities of the Earth’s surface. They are relied on by explorers, adventurers and the military.
bremont.com
Founded in London in 1905, Rolex is an integrated and independent Swiss watch manufacturer. Headquartered in Geneva, the brand is recognised for its expertise and the quality of its products – symbols of excellence, elegance and prestige. Rolex pioneered the development of the wristwatch and numerous major watchmaking innovations, such as the Oyster, the first waterproof wristwatch, launched in 1926.
garrard.com
rolex.com
Extraordinary jewellery creations
boodles.com
Since 1798, Boodles has represented the epitome of fine British jewellery. Still a privately owned family business, Boodles stands for the very best in creative design, the highest-quality diamonds and gemstones, and the fusion of traditional craft skills with innovation. Every piece of Boodles jewellery is designed and hand finished in Britain.
While renowned for its extraordinary jewellery creations, Boodles' presence transcends the confines of the showroom. Last year it held more than 350 events, as well as sponsoring many prestigious events such as the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, Salon Privé and The Boodles Tennis. The brand also has an annual garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which was visited by HM Queen Camilla last year.
At the core of the brand lies a deep appreciation for family. Last year, Boodles proudly embraced two sparkling sisters, Lady Amelia and Eliza Spencer, as the
faces of its latest campaign, embodying the essence of familial significance. Beyond aesthetics, Boodles is committed to sustainability and social responsibility. Following on from the success of the Peace of Mined collection in 2022, Boodles will be expanding this collection by creating pieces of jewellery featuring diamonds directly from the Diavik Mine in Canada, as well as continuing to work with Single Mine Origin (SMO) gold.
Boodles is The National Gallery’s Bicentenary partner. To celebrate this partnership, Boodles designers have created a collection of jewellery inspired by many of the main paintings in the gallery. The collection, launched in May 2024, is made up of four different themes: Motherhood, Perspective, Brushstrokes and Play of Light.
Boodles was delighted to be awarded British Luxury Brand of the Year at the Walpole British Luxury Awards in 2023.
Edinburgh’s foremost jewellery and silverware house
hamiltonandinches.com
Hamilton & Inches has been Edinburgh’s foremost destination for fine jewellery, luxury watches and handcrafted silver since 1866. A proud royal warrant holder for more than 125 years, its onsite workshops are home to a team of master polishers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, engravers and watchmakers, all of whom have honed their craft and skills through knowledge passed down from previous generations. Offering a range of specialist services including bespoke commissions and personalised pieces, repairs, engraving and valuations, the official Rolex retailer is also proud to operate a Rolex-accredited service centre. Hamilton & Inches’ elegant Grade II listed store celebrates heritage alongside contemporary design and is dedicated to providing exceptional client experiences.
One of only two jewellers in the world with access to Scottish gold, the house’s master goldsmiths bring modernity to heritage craftsmanship through their unique and contemporary designs. The fine seam of Scottish gold is delicately
and ethically extracted from beneath spectacular National Park scenery at the edge of The Trossachs, illustrating Hamilton & Inches’ commitment to responsible making. Scottish gold pieces signify timeless elegance and are crafted as future heirlooms.
A commitment to sustainability and traceability underpins Hamilton & Inches’ stringent sourcing process, and its expertise and commitment is further showcased within the house’s latest designs. The new Honos collection is handcrafted from 18ct Single Mine Origin (SMO) gold, and is accompanied by a certificate allowing the client to trace the gold back to the mine it came from. The latest Luna diffusion line also embraces an environmentally conscious way of making, as each piece is crafted using 18ct recycled gold. This ethos is not only showcased within the brand’s current collections, but can be requested within bespoke commissions, all of which receive the dedicated care and attention of an expert team, who will bring your next heirloom to life.
In 1837, Charles Lewis Tiffany founded his company in New York City, where his store was soon acclaimed as the palace of jewels for its exceptional gemstones. Since then, Tiffany & Co has become synonymous with elegance, innovative design, fine craftsmanship and creative excellence.
tiffany.co.uk
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Since Purdey was established in 1814, it has built worldwide recognition for excellence and innovation in British craftsmanship. Its unrivalled guns are exclusively made in London by the best team of specialists, while clothing and accessories follow suit; every piece reflects the heritage, quality and luxury inherent to the brand.
purdey.com
Ocean Bottle is a reusable bottle brand that does good. The sale of each Ocean Bottle stops 11.4kg of plastic (the equivalent of 1,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles) from entering the ocean. Made from 90 per cent recycled stainless steel as well as recycled ocean plastic, its award-winning Ocean Bottles are recyclable.
oceanbottle.co
Leica’s legendary status is founded on the long tradition of excellence and supreme quality found in its cameras and lenses. Since the first 35mm camera in 1925, Leica has continued to create innovative products while remaining timeless and elegant through its commitment to design.
leica-camera.com
Established on a tradition of heritage style and sporting adventure, Westley Richards is regarded as the finest maker of bespoke firearms, fine leather goods and timeless safari clothing. The brand’s independent spirit has cultivated an unparalleled culture of innovation, artistry and excellence for well over 200 years.
westleyrichards.com
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Located just off Sloane Square in Chelsea, ...At Sloane combines British style and Parisian flair. This Victorian townhouse has been redesigned by architect and designer François-Joseph Graf; as well as 30 individually designed rooms and suites, an all-day restaurant offers Parisian cuisine and a speakeasy bar welcomes guests into the late hours.
atsloane.com
Beaverbrook estate, set in 470 acres of countryside in the Surrey Hills, comprises four distinctively designed venues that make up the hotel, four restaurants and a nature-focused wellness spa. Guests can also enjoy a range of indoor and outdoor activities, including a plush private cinema, as well as meeting spaces for all occasions.
beaverbrook.co.uk
45 Park Lane is a vibrant beacon of contemporary culture in a luxury hotel. An invigorating blend of art and landmark architecture in the middle of classical London. World-class cuisine includes Wolfgang Puck’s CUT and Michelin-starred Sushi Kanesaka.
dorchestercollection.com
Beaverbrook estate, set in 400 acres of countryside in the Surrey Hills, comprises three distinctively designed venues that make up the hotel, three restaurants and a nature-focused wellness spa. Guests can also enjoy a range of indoor and outdoor activities, including a plush private cinema, as well as meeting spaces for all occasions.
beaverbrook.co.uk
A collection of 47 properties across 28 countries, Belmond was born from a passion for connecting discerning travellers with the world’s most remarkable hotels, trains, river cruises and safaris. The group’s legendary properties include the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and Copacabana Palace. Belmond is part of LVMH.
belmond.com
Set in the heart of Mayfair, Claridge’s is an art deco icon and a byword for timeless elegance. Since the 1850s, Claridge’s has excelled at the finer things in life: glamorous design, inspiring dining, impeccable service. There are many five-star hotels in London, but nowhere quite like Claridge’s.
Located in London’s most exclusive borough, Brown’s Hotel is a microcosm of chic and arty Mayfair, making it the ideal base for luxury travellers. Moments from leading fashion houses and within walking distance of five royal parks, Brown’s Hotel is at the centre of the capital’s finest experiences.
roccofortehotels.com
Corinthia London is an elegant retreat in the heart of London, where grandeur and heritage meet exquisite, intelligent design and every comfort is considered. Whether you’re interested in arts and exhibitions, cultural traditions, gastronomic delights or child-friendly activities, the city offers plenty of opportunity to explore your greatest passions, or even develop a new one.
claridges.co.uk
corinthia.com/london
Cromlix is a five-star country house hotel owned by tennis player Andy Murray and his wife Kim. It is situated close to both Edinburgh and Glasgow and set in 34 acres of private woodland and gardens. This Victorian mansion was totally refurbished in 2023; Kim worked with interior designer Suzanne Garuda.
A charming country estate, a rural family adventure, a cosy couples’ retreat, a home from home – Gleneagles is a luxury hotel, spa and golfing destination in the heart of the Scottish countryside. From country pursuits, award-winning spa and a range of restaurants and bars to iconic golf courses, the Glorious Playground celebrates a century of heritage.
cromlix.com
Presenting the perfect urban gateway, Gleneagles Townhouse is home to a 33-room hotel, lively members’ club, state-of-the-art wellness space, bustling all-day restaurant and rooftop terrace where guests will enjoy extraordinary views over Edinburgh. Gleneagles Townhouse is a place to gather and be glorious.
gleneagles.com
Grosvenor House Suites on Park Lane in Mayfair offers the services and facilities of a luxury property with the privacy and comfort of a home. The 130 suites range from studio suites with fully equipped kitchens to penthouses with ensuite bedrooms, dining and living spaces, plus panoramic views over Hyde Park or Mayfair.
gleneagles.com/townhouse
grosvenorhousesuites.com
The Groucho Club is a private members’ club based in Dean Street in the bohemian heart of London’s Soho. With celebrated restaurants and bars, famous events and party room hire, (infamous) bedrooms and exclusive member services, The Groucho Club is the benchmark for the new generation of members’ clubs.
thegrouchoclub.com
An eclectic collection of unique, distinguished, intriguing properties sharing effortless comfort, sublime locations and absorbing stories, from Cliveden House, one of England’s finest estates, to the Hotel Excelsior in Venice. The portfolio also includes Chewton Glen, The Lygon Arms, 11 Cadogan Gardens in Chelsea, The Mayfair Townhouse and The Chelsea Townhouse.
iconicluxuryhotels.com
Hotel Café Royal, part of The Set Collection, is a London landmark in Mayfair, Soho and St James’s. Designed by Sir David Chipperfield, its 159 rooms blend historic grandeur with contemporary design. Highlights include two-Michelinstarred Alex Dilling, Cakes & Bubbles by Albert Adrià, award-winning afternoon tea, the famous Green Bar and Akasha spa.
hotelcaferoyal.com
An iconic landmark sitting on both Knightsbridge and Hyde Park, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London blends timeless heritage with impeccable service. Renowned designer Joyce Wang curated each room and suite, there is an award-winning spa, and dining options include Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, a Japanese izakaya and afternoon tea.
mandarinoriental.com/london
The world’s first super boutique hotel
thelondoner.com
Imagine an urban resort – but with an immersive Yabu Pushelberg design, modern art collection and exquisite furnishings. Welcome to The Londoner, a super boutique hotel brought to life across 16 storeys on Leicester Square, curated to reflect the drama and elegance of West End life. Open since September 2021, The Londoner features 350 bedrooms and suites, two screening rooms, a state-of-the art ballroom, a curated programme of events and six restaurants and bars including a Japanese rooftop bar, a signature French Mediterranean restaurant and a tavern. Aside from opening bedrooms, room keys unlock three private spaces within The Residence including a secret, green velvet whisky parlour accessed via the powder rooms. Each room has a unique personality where guests can eat, drink, work, relax and enjoy the art of British hospitality, with complimentary antipasti, soft drinks, tea and coffee served throughout the day.
The Retreat is an entire floor dedicated to wellness and beauty, featuring cabanas surrounding a tranquil pool, treatment rooms, 24-hour gym, hair salon, gentlemen’s barber and a superfood bar. An industry-first £175mn green loan funded innovative, sustainable technologies to help the hotel achieve an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating. Since opening, The Londoner has won multiple awards in several categories, including Hotel of the Year and five other accolades at the AHEAD Global and Europe Awards.
Many hotels claim to have landmarks on their doorstep; few can say their doorstep is a landmark. The Balmoral is Edinburgh’s iconic Rocco Forte hotel located at the city’s most prestigious address: 1 Princes Street. A symbol of the city, The Balmoral is also a love letter to Scotland.
One of London’s smartest five-star luxury hotels. Superbly located on a garden square in Mayfair, The Beaumont has established a reputation for its thoughtful, friendly service as well as its 1920s’ design found in the glamorous Colony Grill, Le Magritte Bar, the award-winning afternoon tea lounge and the elegant spa.
roccofortehotels.com
The Berkeley has been treading its own path for more than 100 years. Midway between fashionable Knightsbridge and Belgravia, it is still taking style, comfort and service to inspiring new levels with stunning rooms by the brightest minds in the design world and intuitive service that always seems one step ahead.
the-berkeley.co.uk
thebeaumont.com
Situated in the heart of Knightsbridge, one of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, and rising high over world-class shopping destination Sloane Street, The Carlton Tower Jumeirah is a beacon of sophistication where heritage meets contemporary luxury. The hotel has been reinvented for a generation of discerning guests with elegant, timeless interiors and spectacular views.
jumeirah.com/en/stay/london/the-carlton-tower-jumeirah
Situated in the heart of the Highlands on an 8,000-acre estate, The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle offers its members complete escape. Set against breathtaking vistas, this exclusive club boasts unique and luxurious accommodation, mouthwatering dining, world-class golf and an array of activities from the relaxing to the adventurous.
carnegieclub.co.uk
The Fife Arms is a gloriously reimagined 19th-century Victorian coaching inn, positioned at the heart of the historic village of Braemar. Rooted in the local community, the 46-room hotel brings together Scottish heritage and craftsmanship, a world-class art collection, the finest seasonal produce and wild adventure within the Cairngorms.
thefifearms.com
A cocooning blend of heritage and modernity, The Connaught is the choice of those in the know. From its position in the beating heart of London’s Mayfair, highly personalised service, contemporary style and exquisite culinary craft unfold – with destination dining from world-renowned mixologists and Michelin-starred restaurants. At once timeless and effortless, relaxed and refined.
the-connaught.co.uk
The Lanesborough is a masterpiece among London’s five-star hotels, adjacent to Hyde Park and a short walk from London’s most exclusive shopping districts. Grand in its Regency architecture, it has 93 luxurious suites and bedrooms, all serviced by an elite team of butlers offering anticipative personalised service, and the magnificent Lanesborough Club & Spa.
oetkercollection.com
The Langham, London has an unrivalled location at the top of Regent Street. The hotel offers luxurious guest rooms and suites, classically styled and evoking a warm residential feel with flawless service. The Langham’s bars and restaurants include the award-winning Palm Court, Artesian bar, The Wigmore and cookery school Sauce.
langhamhotels.com
Members enjoy access to spectacular spaces within the building including Ned’s Club Rooftop, The Vault Bar, a 640m2 gym, spa, indoor and rooftop pools, a monthly calendar of events, plus perks. Members have access to Ned’s Clubs globally: London, New York, Doha, and Washington DC, which opens later this year.
thened.com
Inaugurated by King George V in 1927, The May Fair Hotel is set behind Berkeley Square with Green Park on the doorstep. This iconic property has an award-winning restaurant, spa and spacious signature suites. Edwardian Hotels London owns a collection of five-star hotels, including The May Fair Hotel.
themayfairhotel.co.uk
Situated in Belgravia with views over Hyde Park Corner and Wellington Arch, newly built The Peninsula London’s 190 light-filled guest rooms and suites have been exquisitely designed by Peter Marino. Gathering spaces include twoMichelin-starred Brooklands helmed by Chef Director Claude Bosi, the idyllic Peninsula Spa and a luxury retail arcade.
peninsula.com
Where the spirit of London thrives
dorchestercollection.com
Standing tall in Mayfair, The Dorchester is a destination in itself. Here – embodying London’s vibrant spirit – the worldly and the curious feel at home, at ease and at the centre of everything. One of Dorchester Collection’s beautiful hotels, The Dorchester is steeped in history with a reputation that conjures the unique alchemy forged between its distinctive location, landmark property and the remarkable people who inhabit the hotel. A stay at The Dorchester is London living in full glory, within accommodation of exceptional grace and comfort and with views over Hyde Park or the hotel’s landscaped terraces. The stylish suites range from the Junior to the generous Dorchester Suites, topped off by three rooftop suites and the famous Oliver Messel Suite as the crowning glory. The serene and spacious bathrooms –predominantly designed in Italian marble to honour the art deco style of the hotel’s origins – are said to feature London’s deepest baths.
The hotel has something for every palate from three Michelin-starred Alain Ducasse to China Tang’s Cantonese cuisine and London’s legendary afternoon tea. The new Cake & Flowers boutique is elegant and delightful, the Vesper Bar exudes 1930s glamour and the relaunched Grill by Tom Booton is the perfect spot for breakfast, lunch or dinner. When it’s time to relax, The Dorchester Spa presents a range of sublime treatments to soothe and rejuvenate body and mind. The luxurious spa delivers relaxation, rejuvenation and beauty treatments from world-class therapists in tranquil surroundings. This unique experience includes the famous relaxation room of pure bliss.
At the heart of impeccably stylish rooms, the serene spa, diverse restaurants and cocktails to match, is the way of life with which The Dorchester continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of those who make the world turn. As London moves, The Dorchester’s bold legacy also steps ahead.
A luxury five-star hotel in the heart of Belgravia, London
thehari.com
Welcome to The Hari, a luxury five-star hotel in the heart of the quintessentially British neighbourhood of Belgravia, London. Moments from Harrods and the high-end shops of Knightsbridge, The Hari is also within walking distance of Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as the city’s most famous museums.
The Hari brings together a long heritage of hospitality bestowed by its owners, the Harilela family. As a result, the hotel is renowned for impeccable and personalised service. Working with acclaimed British designer Tara Bernerd, The Hari’s guest bedrooms have recently undergone a soft refurbishment, together with subtle technology and comfortable new furnishings. All 85 bedrooms, 14 of which are luxury suites, are designed to make every stay as relaxing as possible, with a mix of velvet upholstery, marble bathrooms and contemporary art. Social spaces within the hotel include the stylish
yet intimate Hari Bar, the beautiful Garden Terrace, which transforms from an elegant suntrap on warm days to a cosy retreat in winter thanks to its retractable roof and heaters, and Italian restaurant il Pampero, which prides itself on serving exceptional homemade cuisine.
At the centre of The Hari is the brand’s love for art and sustainability. Since opening in 2016, A Space For Art has curated the hotel’s public spaces on a rolling art programme, and in 2022 collaborated with The Hari on launching The Hari Art Prize, which will be held for its third consecutive year in 2024. The Hari is also committed to achieving environmental and social sustainability within the hotel and is working towards giving guests an energy-conscious stay. In 2023, The Hari was awarded silver accreditation by EarthCheck, the world’s leading environmental certification and benchmarking programme for the travel and tourism industry.
The Savoy has represented the height of glamorous hospitality for over 130 years. London’s first purpose-built deluxe hotel, The Savoy has long been a magnet for the discerning, with stories of legendary parties hosted by some of the world’s most famous faces. It continues to innovate, remaining a distinguished destination for eating and dining.
thesavoylondon.com
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From the new thought leaders driving the global movements to the UK’s emerging creatives shaping the future of fashion, ELLE is proud to shine a light on the women and ideas defining our brave new era. ELLE is your indispensable guide to what is happening now and next.
At the forefront of contemporary living since its launch in 1989, ELLE Decoration is the world’s bestselling design media brand showcasing inspirational, luxury interiors alongside expert advice and in-depth knowledge. Always ahead of the curve, across print, digital and social media, ELLE Decoration reaches over one million tastemakers and industry insiders.
elle.com/uk
The country’s most stylish, sophisticated and substantial men’s media brand, Esquire has unrivalled authority in men’s style and luxury. It offers world-class writing and visual storytelling across print, digital and events for its highly influential audience of affluent, literate, urbane, style-obsessed men with a genuine interest in living well.
esquire.com/uk
elledecoration.co.uk
The Financial Times holds a commitment to reporting the news ‘without fear and without favour’. This promise was present on the FT’s first front page and its principle still holds true today. That’s why the FT remains a trusted source for information to more than 22.4 million monthly global readers.
ft.com
Harper’s Bazaar is the world’s longest-running style magazine, offering an intelligent take on fashion and beauty. Created for an ambitious and culturally discerning readership, every issue features interviews with leading women from the worlds of film, art, business and beyond, alongside inspirational ideas for luxury living.
harpersbazaar.com/uk
The Sunday Times continues to challenge, provoke, entertain and inform readers through its multi-platform approach. Ensuring it continues to set the news agenda for the week ahead, The Sunday Times maintains its position as the premium investigative news brand, helping to create and effect change.
OutThere is a multi-award-winning luxury and experiential travel journal, proudly rooted in the brand’s values of diversity, discovery and discernment. Unique in its mission to be an inclusive media brand, OutThere has, for over a decade, curated opinion-leading content for the affluent and discerning demographics that are underrepresented in the mainstream.
outthere.travel
The Times offers readers and listeners a multi-platform approach, delivering trusted premium content every day, through brands including Times Radio, events and podcasts. Advertising clients benefit from readers’ deep relationship and high levels of engagement. The Times is authoritative, respected, trusted and remains a premium British brand, recognised the world over.
thetimes.co.uk
thetimes.co.uk
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Cowdray House, West Sussex, is an exclusive-use venue offering 110 acres of landscaped gardens, 22 bedrooms, reception rooms and entertaining areas. Newly renovated cottages and houses plus new treehouses provide outstanding luxury sanctuaries. The walled garden wedding venue overlooks Cowdray ruins, and guests can enjoy a farm shop, golf, polo and more.
cowdray.co.uk
Goodwood is England’s greatest sporting estate, seat of the Dukes of Richmond for more than three centuries and home to the world-famous Festival of Speed, Goodwood Revival and Glorious Goodwood. Guests are welcomed to the 11,000-acre estate every day with an array of experiences, beautiful places to stay, and food from Goodwood’s organic farm.
goodwood.com
Coworth Park, Ascot, is Dorchester Collection’s luxury country house hotel and spa. Relax from the moment you discover Coworth Park’s picturesque parkland. This luxurious, high-end country house hotel on the borders of Windsor Great Park is an idyllic romantic retreat and a favourite with families seeking a relaxing break only 45 minutes from London.
dorchestercollection.com
Kinross House is the architectural jewel in Scotland’s crown. Built in 1685, the masterpiece of Sir William Bruce, it is Scotland’s first neoclassical Palladian mansion. The 4,000-acre Estate also comprises Loch Leven, on an island on which stands Loch Leven Castle. The Estate is perfect for exclusive-use holidays, corporate retreats and private events.
kinrosshouse.com
Safeguarding the spirit of Chelsea’s community and creating a sustainable future
cadogan.co.uk
A long-term family business with unwavering commitment to the local community, Cadogan’s careful curation of the Estate’s 93-acres spanning Chelsea and Knightsbridge sits at the very heart of their strategy.
Current major projects include completion of The Gaumont, heralding a new era for the King’s Road. The beautifully restored art deco façade will soon be home to exciting flagship retail, an independent creative cluster, a new Curzon cinema, pub theatre, rooftop bar with panoramic views of the capital and a significant new public art commission inspired by the neighbourhood.
A focus on introducing more fantastic food and leisure across Chelsea has seen notable recent openings, including At Sloane, a collaboration between Cadogan and celebrated Parisian hotelier Jean-Louis Costes to create a truly beautiful and unique property that reflects so much of the area’s exquisite architecture and rich artistic heritage. There’s also Azzurra, an enticing new
restaurant from the Aqua Group that has brought the Amalfi Coast to Sloane Street. Elsewhere, celebrated chef Jason Atherton will be bringing his newest concept to Chelsea’s village heart, Pavilion Road, in 2024.
This stewardship ethos also manifests itself in Chelsea 2030, Cadogan’s commitment to integrating sustainability into every aspect of the business, which sets out ambitious environmental targets to ensure cleaner air and a healthier London, along with a community fund that contributes over £4mn annually towards positive social impact. Over the past year, a 10 per cent carbon saving has been achieved, alongside the launch of a £90mn decarbonisation programme on the race to net zero. This year will also see the completion of a significant investment into Sloane Street – transforming it into a beautiful green boulevard spanning Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, and help London compete harder on an international stage as the destination for luxury shopping.
Knightsbridge Partnership enhances the unique character of Knightsbridge’s International Centre status, positioning it as a desirable place for residents, visitors, businesses and employees. It delivers a destination marketing strategy, operating the official website and social channels, raising awareness of Knightsbridge’s commercial offering, driving footfall and promoting its 200-plus member businesses.
knightsbridgepartnership.com
Rothes Glen, the luxury castle for whisky connoisseurs, is a private castle with 14 ensuite bedrooms in Speyside, Scottish Highlands. Breathtaking views surround the castle, which is set in 11 acres and has its own lochan, helipad, courtyard and whisky-tasting rooms. Guests are looked after by the in-house team and award-winning chef.
rothesglen.com
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This modern London restaurant on the first floor of iconic Mayfair landmark The Audley Public House brings together food, drink, craftsmanship and culture, with a menu inspired by the capital’s culinary history. Above the restaurant are four beautifully designed spaces, each with a story to tell and available for private hire.
mountstrestaurant.com
The Audley Public House is a traditional neighbourhood pub, carefully restored, and where history and contemporary art collide. It is a place to drink draught beers and ciders, with a small menu of classic bar snacks and dishes, and serving a traditional roast on Sundays.
theaudleypublichouse.com
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Celebrating 175 Years of Extraordinary
harrods.com/175
Since Harrods first opened its doors on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London in 1849, it has staged the world’s finest – from truly exceptional food to extraordinary fragrances; trendsetting fashion to rare watches. The store’s products and people have changed over its 175-year history, but as much as Harrods reinvents, it remains steadfastly committed to providing first-class service, world-leading creativity and a home for the globe’s greatest brands.
Harrods’ 175th anniversary promises a year filled with limited editions and limitless possibilities. The anniversary will see the store reflect on its origins as a tea merchant by presenting celebratory moments that bow to the art of fine brewing. Throughout 2024, it will release collectible caddies of loose-leaf Harrods tea, including an archive blend inspired by the first tea lists of Charles Henry Harrod’s 1849 store.
Customers can expect to find collectible homewares from Baccarat, Christofle and Fornasetti inspired by the store’s architecture. For the Champagne lover, head to the Moët & Chandon bar to experience a cocktail made in tribute to Harrods’ anniversary, the Knightsbridge 175, as well as a limited edition bottle adorned in sparkling gold. Beauty lovers can experience a 175th anniversary make-up look and collection by Charlotte Tilbury, discover a worldwide exclusive scent by Maison Francis Kurkdjian and exceptional skincare by La Mer that pays homage to the Art Deco fresh market hall. Harrods’ historic façade has received a spectacular renovation ready for its 175th anniversary. As a reminder of its legacy for breaking new ground (after all, it was home to London’s first escalator in 1896), Harrods has installed a new exterior lighting system, which helps the store to be more sustainable, reducing its energy use by 80 per cent.
With 2024 marking a momentous anniversary, Harrods promises a celebration befitting a store that has presented extraordinary for 175 years.
FARFETCH is a leading global marketplace for the luxury fashion industry. FARFETCH connects customers in over 190 countries and territories, with items from more than 50 countries and over 1,400 of the world’s best brands, boutiques and department stores, delivering a truly unique shopping experience.
farfetch.com
Luxury Promise is the world’s first luxury resale platform to integrate live shopping as social commerce, with sustainability as one of its main foundations. With its groundbreaking approach to the luxury resale market, complete with unmissable live shopping shows, its global focus and community-driven approach is revolutionary.
luxurypromise.com
Founded in Piccadilly in 1707, Fortnum & Mason remains an essential London destination for anyone in search of extraordinary food and drink, joy-giving things and exceptional service. From the food halls and confectionary counters to the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon and Food & Drink Studio, Fortnum’s is a playground of delicious discovery.
fortnumandmason.com
A family of 12 luxury shopping destinations in Europe, China and the US, The Bicester Collection unites discerning guests with the world’s most renowned fashion and lifestyle brands, offering remarkable value across more than 1,300 boutiques. Defined by tailored hospitality, the Collection also boasts acclaimed restaurants, pop-ups and artistic showcases.
thebicestercollection.com
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Step into the world of timeless elegance and artistry with Araminta Campbell; every textile an ode to traditional weaving techniques and beautiful design. Nestled on the outskirts of Edinburgh sits the castle-atelier, a sanctuary of craftsmanship where every thread tells a story, each heirloom handcrafted to be enjoyed for decades.
aramintacampbell.co.uk
Dedicated to the highest level of craftsmanship and creativity, Harris Tweed Hebrides is the British heritage cloth with modern luxury standards, committed to social and environmental responsibility in its unique island community. The single country of origin cloth is created from premium 100 per cent British wool, handwoven in the Outer Hebrides.
harristweedhebrides.com
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Founded in 1962, A&K Travel Group is a global lifestyle and travel company that sets the standard for refined, personalised experiences through its brands including Abercrombie & Kent, Crystal, and Cox & Kings. A&K offers bespoke luxury holidays, unparalleled escorted tours and philanthropic efforts to protect the places it visits.
Black Tomato creates imaginative, immersive and deeply personal private travel experiences around the world for a discerning and global clientele. Founded in 2005, the team has grown to become one of the world’s most celebrated luxury travel and lifestyle brands, named by Forbes as “the world’s hottest luxury travel company”.
abercrombiekent.co.uk
Since their story began over 40 years ago, Carrier have set out to show that travel is more than crossing borders. Using their connections, creativity and expertise, their bespoke trips look beyond a destination to real-world interactions, the marvellous moments to be had, and the feelings of experiencing it all.
blacktomato.com
Since 1986, NoteWorthy has been creating exquisite travel experiences throughout the UK, Ireland and France for high-net-worth American leisure travellers. With unrivalled personal relationships and expert knowledge of those destinations, the company delivers memorable experiences that cannot be found on the internet or in the pages of a guidebook.
carrier.co.uk
noteworthy.co.uk
onefinestay, part of Accor, is a personal service for discerning guests who value exceptional quality homes and experiences in the most desirable destinations. From beachside estates to chic apartments and cosy ski chalets, the leading hospitality brand’s homes, villas and chalets are hand-picked for location, space, character and comfort.
onefinestay.com
Journeys designed to enrich your life story. Scott Dunn Private curates the best in experiential luxury travel, unlocking access to the world’s most extraordinary people, places and experiences for its global community of members. This is a luxury travel club for those in the know.
Driven by a passion to transform people’s perspective on the world, Pelorus creates bespoke travel, yachting and aviation experiences for those seeking something different.
scottdunn.com/scott-dunn-private
pelorusx.com
As a team of passionate, global travellers with deep expertise of specialist destinations, True Travel believes that no two people are the same, and neither should travel experiences be. Sharing its unique perspective, experience and craft, it prides itself on curating exceptional travel itineraries around the world truly inspired by the individual.
true.travel
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Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain’s oldest wine and spirit merchant, having traded from the same shop since 1698. Over three centuries later, with two royal warrants, three Masters of Wine and award-winning spirits, the family business continues to flourish, exploring the world to discover the finest and rarest of life's pleasures.
bbr.com
Chivas Brothers is the Pernod Ricard business dedicated to Scotch whisky. Its award-winning portfolio features some of the world’s finest single malt and blended Scotch whiskies including Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s, Royal Salute and The Glenlivet. Chivas Brothers upholds its rich heritage while shaping the future of Scotch through environmental and product innovations and experiences.
chivas.com
Chapel Down is England’s leading wine producer with an awardwinning range of sparkling and still wines. Based in Kent, in the heart of the garden of England, Chapel Down wines are served in some of the finest bars and restaurants across the country.
chapeldown.com
Eight Lands produces exceptional, award-winning organic spirits, distilled and bottled at the family-owned Glenrinnes Distillery in Speyside, Scotland. Its gin and vodka are made with only organic ingredients and the spring water that flows past its door at the foot of the Ben Rinnes mountain. The spirits are naturally gluten-free, vegan and delicious.
eight-lands.com
For over 125 years and through four generations of family ownership, Gordon & MacPhail has been driven by a simple mission: to create single malt Scotch whisky of exceptional quality. Its unique depth and breadth of experience enables Gordon & MacPhail to combine oak, spirit and time to create a portfolio of iconic whiskies found nowhere else in the world.
gordonandmacphail.com
Since 1812, Laurent-Perrier has been defined by its pioneering role in innovating champagne throughout history. Internationally recognised as one of the foremost names in champagne, headed by the late Bernard de Nonancourt, now led by his daughters. Its success can be attributed to challenging conventional techniques, while honouring traditional values.
laurent-perrier.com
In 2004, when the first vines were planted, Gusbourne Estate had a clear vision and a single goal: to create vintage English sparkling wines that would stand up alongside the very finest offerings from across the globe. Gusbourne has had its sights set on perfection ever since.
gusbourne.com
The Ramsbury estate is based in the Kennet Valley, stretching over 19,000 acres of land. The distillery creates award-winning single estate gin and vodka with an imitable British taste, combining exceptional quality ingredients that are almost entirely grown on the estate, living by the motto ‘grow everything, waste nothing’.
ramsbury.com
One of the world’s most exceptional richly sherried single malts
glendronachdistillery.com
For almost 200 years, The Glendronach distillery has stood proudly in the Scottish Highlands, nestled and protected by its namesake, the ‘Valley of Brambles’ in Scots Gaelic. James Allardice, the brand’s founder, introduced this whisky to the world in 1826, and since then generations of artisans have remained dedicated to time-honoured methods, relying on their intuition and senses to raise expectations
of what is possible in whisky.
The Glendronach’s robust Highland spirit is slowly matured in the finest Pedro Ximénez and oloroso sherry casks sourced from Andalucia in Spain. This brings together a unique duality of robust Highland spirit and Spanish elegance that rewards the palate with richness, flamboyance and flair – a true revelation in flavour.
Savour Each Journey
longmorn.com
At the Longmorn Distillery, in the verdant heart of Scotland’s most notable whisky-making region, Longmorn has dedicated 130 years to perfecting the art of the Speyside single malt. Over that time, its unwavering faith in its process has remained uniquely constant and unrelenting.
The result is exceptional expressions drawing from the quintessential Speyside style. A highly anticipated 18-year-old and further matured 22-year-old, both newly released in single batch and at cask strength, each the culmination of lifetimes of refinement, have been aged in the classic warmth of American oak for a signature creamy toffee profile and exceptionally nuanced finish. Unmatched in their heightened complexity and sophistication, Longmorn whiskies represent the very pinnacle of this iconic regional style with unequivocal authenticity and integrity.
Longmorn has waited patiently for its time to come. For generations its master distillers have remained loyal to the original principles of its ambitious founder, John Duff, the railway he built to reach new horizons, the pioneering designs for his distillery, and the inspired vision of what Longmorn would become in time.
Longmorn understands that the world moves fast. But its enduring commitment to patience – to nurture, refine and to perfect – now brings the richest rewards to those who also afford themselves the luxury of time.
The brand’s exemplary whisky expressions are the result of a journey. Not of origin or final destination, but of sublime transformation. The evolution that takes place between start and lingering, elegant finish.
Because Longmorn knows the purest, most timeless pleasures come to those who wait.
Royal Salute is an exceptionally crafted and aged blended Scotch whisky. Created to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the 21-gun salute that honoured her, the brand is steeped in tradition and proud of its royal lineage, while firmly engaged in the modern world by seamlessly blending tradition and modernity.
royalsalute.com
Simpsons’ Wine Estate creates award-winning, estate-grown English wines, which reflect the exquisite characteristics of the iconic chalk terroir in the North Downs of Kent. The estate was founded in 2012 by Ruth and Charles Simpson, who have been producing highly acclaimed wines at their French domaine since 2002.
simpsonswine.com
Silent Pool Gin is handcrafted and distilled in the Surrey Hills. Inspired by its rural home, this classic gin features 24 botanicals including lavender, rose and chamomile. Full-bodied and fresh, rich and juniper-driven, it has depth, clarity and, above all else, flavour.
silentpooldistillers.com
The Dalmore was founded in 1839 on the banks of the Cromarty Firth in the Scottish Highlands. It has been making masterpieces of whisky for over 180 years, led by an unbroken chain of visionary whisky-makers. Its rare releases are highly sought-after by spirits enthusiasts and collectors.
thedalmore.com
By hand and heart since 1763
theglenturret.com
Founded by Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre, The Glenturret is Scotland’s oldest working distillery. Its extraordinary provenance is second to none in Scottish whisky and hospitality with origins tracing back to 1763. Nestled on the outskirts of the historic town of Crieff, Perthshire, the distillery is surrounded by rolling hills and overlooks the River Turret, the distillery’s water source.
The Glenturret embraces the ethos of slow-batch production and traditional craftsmanship. Whisky Maker Bob Dalgarno elegantly brings together the distillery’s vast range of casks, each unique in flavour profile. The Glenturret Single Malt range is constantly evolving, every year carrying different strengths and characteristics that showcase each expression at its best.
The Glenturret also has a two-Michelinstarred restaurant in the distillery, the first of its kind in the world. The menu
celebrates premium ingredients and reflects Executive Chef Mark Donald’s playful yet balanced approach. Tartans adorn the restaurant’s ancient walls, illuminated by Lalique ChampsÉlysées chandeliers.
The Glenturret site also features a meticulously restored 19th-century Dower house, The Aberturret Estate House, available to hire for exclusive use. With six bedrooms accommodating up to 12 guests, this luxurious retreat seamlessly combines rustic charm and refined sophistication.
For those seeking to immerse themselves in The Glenturret’s rich heritage and unparalleled hospitality, a variety of bespoke distillery experiences await.
To discover more about The Glenturret or to book a special distillery experience, visit the website or contact: enquiries@theglenturret.com
A design-led whisky-maker, The Lakes Distillery encourages the discovery of new and exceptional flavours. Experts in sherry wood and conducting the interplay between spirit, oak and air through the art of élevage, the brand is building a reputation for bold and complex, multilayered single malt whiskies with a distinctive indulgent finish.
lakesdistillery.com
William Grant & Sons is an independent family-owned distiller founded by William Grant in 1887. The luxury spirits company is run by the fifth generation of the family and distils some of the world’s most sought-after spirits including Glenfiddich – the world’s most awarded single malt Scotch whisky, The Balvenie, Hendrick’s and Silent Pool.
williamgrant.com
The Last Drop is a creator and curator of the world’s most remarkable spirits. Its mission is to create exceptional spirits to share with customers and friends. When the team finds something so unique and special that they are entranced, these are the spirits that make their way into The Last Drop bottle.
lastdropdistillers.com
Members, Partners & Friends
Walpole Book of British Luxury 2024/2025
How does the future inform the past, and the past inform the future? Coinciding with the 190th birthday of William Morris, the British entrepreneur who founded the globally influential Arts & Crafts movement, the Walpole Book of British Luxury 2024/2025 looks at the progressive ideas and time-honoured expertise that will shape our country’s luxury industry and culture far into the future. With articles penned by a roster of exceptional journalistic talent including Ben Pentreath, Michelle Ogundehin, Aleks Cvetkovic and Katy Wickremesinghe, our annual publication spotlights the most engaging stories, innovative brands and homegrown makers you need to know, resulting in an indispensable guide to the British luxury sector.
Walpole is the UK’s only sector body for luxury brands, representing more than 250 of Britain’s finest high-end marques from Burberry to Wedgwood. Walpole promotes, protects and develops the British luxury sector and celebrates the extraordinary creativity, innovation and talent that makes it a global calling card for Britain.
Walpole thewalpole.co.uk
Credits
Cover illustration Sunflowers by William Morris anderson.sandersondesigngroup.com
Design & art direction by Nous nous.partners
Paper by G. F Smith gfsmith.com
Printed by Paragon Leycol paragon-leycol.co.uk
info@paragon-leycol.co.uk
£30.00