Three years ago we saw horrific events unfold at the Rana Plaza, Bangladesh as this sweat shop factory collapsed in on itself killing many of its workers, men, women, old and young and the ugly side of fashion has raised its head again. This time we see, Beyonce’s new Ivy Park range being hit with accusations that the workers who produce it on being paid as little as 63 cents an hour.
Labels are happy to spend vast sums of money on celebrity endorsements and social media selfies, but are far less keen to say how and where their clothing is made. Behind the scenes cost savings and aggressive margin targets are regularly applied. This is like building a skyscraper and skimping on the foundations to afford a nicer façade. Unfortunately customers are kept in the dark until the next scandal unfolds.
British label Drake & Hutch believes change is long overdue and plans to save the world one pair of pants at a time!
They have broken away from the traditional closed door retail model and instead offer full transparency in production. A simple idea, from cotton grower to garment maker, every stage of production is advised for each luxury pair of pants they make. They compare their product to
being much like bespoke suiting, quality and attention to detail is at the heart of everything they produce.
Founder Pete McGuinness, built the brand on the philosophy that to create simple everyday clothing consisting of outstanding quality and attention to detail. As let’s face it underwear is the first thing you put on and the last you take off. As he himself says, “We offer a fantastic product that our customers love and the brand itself has a strong British feel and sense humor which allows it to stand out form the crowd.”
Drake & Hutch was 3 years in the making and it took two years to perfect the block on which their underwear is made and dreamt up while McGuiness was developing mens formal wear for, Jermyn St tailors, Charles Tyrwhitt. He thought it would be great idea to take some of the patterns and prints found in mens formal wear, ties, jacket linings, hankies and play around with them applying them to mens underwear.
He spent these three years working with factories all over the world looking for a supplier who could produce the outstanding quality I was looking for, was willing to work with me to develop the fit and feel of the fabric and also work in very limited quantities. While travelling it became clear to him those factories with the happiest staff, who are treated them well and paid fair wages, produced the best quality clothing.
“I never set out looking to be the next big thing, I simply started Drake & Hutch out of a passion for cool, British themed clothing that is beautifully made. An enormous amount of my own personality has gone into the brand and I have loved every second of it, the incredible feedback we receive from customers really is the icing on the cake.”
Now as Father’s Day approaches we’ve worked with Drake & Hutch to offer all you good readers 20% discount from now until midnight (GMT-0) on 19th June by using the exclusive discount code CMTM2016
