Our background is in garment manufacturing and, over the years, we have helped numerous brands bring their creations to life.
Things were going pretty well. Then arrived Covid!
Business ground to a halt but we wanted to keep our local factories afloat...somehow.
We already had Wear London as an Instagram page. It was set up to share a little bit of our 'behind the scenes' activity working with the factories, mills and various customers/brands.
A lot of people would message us asking how they could get their hands on the items we were producing and sharing on social media.
Our response was "We are not a brand and the jackets are not for sale..."
That got us thinking!
What if we turned Wear London into brand of its own?
- There is quite a bit of interest already out there.
- We spend our lives manufacturing for others, so we know what we are doing.
- The factories need work!
Decision made and the next day, we decided we were going to bring our new brand to life.
Covid permitting, during summer 2020, we headed to the factory to see what fabrics we had available in stock from our Italian mill. There were 3 options adding up to about 180 metres. That gave us around 90 jackets, split into 3 colours/designs...(I remember that clearly as one of them was a bright red check!!)
The jackets (or shackets as we like to call them!) were ready a couple of weeks later and we were now in possession of 90 of them.
"What do we do with them now..?!" was my question.
"I suppose we had better try and sell them" was Matt's reply
With zero photography skills, zero modelling skills and very little tech knowledge we set about creating a basic website & photographing the items.
The first version of our website went live on the 1st September 2020.
Whilst that was going on in the background, we had a friend in the business who was regularly running pop-up stores.
He very kindly allowed us to put a rail in one of his shops to sell our new Wear London shackets, on the understanding that we would share the takings. Perfect!
We were very pleased to see that they had a great response and we now had an idea growing in our mind that we should open a pop-up store of our very own.
Along with our friend & partner Jim Bender, we set our sights on Broadway Market and managed to secure a 3-week position there for December 2020.
We loved every minute of it and the reaction from customers proved to us that we needed to do it again. This time, we headed towards Shoreditch...an area in which we have been present ever since and definitely the place we call home.
Our regular customers will know that we have moved around that area a little bit until we settled in our current locations on Brushfield Street and Hanbury Street. We have also added Soho to our list of stores, with the doors or Berwick Street opening on the 19th October 2023.
Our latest addition, East Street in the seaside town of Brighton, has been open since the 26th September 2024 and we have since built a strong following in the local area.
Wear London was born as an idea in 2017, but really came to life in 2020, meaning we only have a few years of retail experience under our belt and, whilst we are learning and trying to improve every day, we are proud of what we have achieved so far!
Join us on our journey, from some of our favourite fabric mills in the UK, Italy and further afield to the cutting table & sewing machines inside our selected factories, in London, where the majority of our products are crafted.
We are always open online, but you can also visit us in one of our five stores in London & Brighton!
Two are based in Spitalfields; one on Hanbury Street and the other on Brushfield Street, right alongside Spitalfields Market. The third London store is in Soho, the heart of London on Berwick Street. Last, but certainly not least, is our Brighton store on East Street, which is the the most recent addition to our brand (and hopefully not our last!)
Come in and say hello! We'd love to get your feedback on what we are doing....