I was most surprised today to find a new item of clothing that has acutally been Made in England. I came across a beautiful pure merino wool jumper for £2.50 in a local charity shop. Two things caught my eye - 1) it still had its original labels attached, and 2) it bore the legend Made in England. I just knew that if something is being manufactured in England in the 21st century it must be an item of clothing of extremely high quality. Sure enough when I got home I checked out the John Smedley website and found that their jumpers retail at around the £130 mark. Nice!!
It is so sad that we have pretty much destroyed our manufacturing industry in this country - especially the textile industry - and all for the sake of cheap, disposable fashion. Pretty much any clothing I find that is vintage always has a label saying 'Made in England' or 'Made in Great Britain,' occasionally for woolen items it will say 'Made in Scotland.' I well remember Marks & Spencer having a huge sign in their window that boasted '90% of our goods are British made.' Not any more they're not. Anything new or new-ish from the past 20 years seems to have been made in Morocco, Turkey, Romania or Bangladesh (at least that's what a quick poll of the labels on my clothes say.) I only have one item that was made in China (thank goodness) and that was a charity shop buy so I'm telling myself it doesn't really count.
I've been watching Mary Portas and her attempts to bring a tiny bit of textile manufacturing back to the UK with her 100% British knickers. It has been a fascinating programme - in some ways very very uplifting and in others immensely sad. I do hope she can keep her little factory ticking over and that her 'Kinky Knickers' keep on selling.
This post could have been written about Australia too, right down to the local making knickers!
I refuse to buy any food made in China (it's getting harder each time I shop to do this) but as for clothes, there is nothing made in Australia any more in my budget.
Posted by: Briget | 04/02/2012 at 09:55 PM
I'm from Derbyshire and went to the John Smedley factory shop back in the 90's. I've just looked on their website and it looks like their factory is still in the same place. Good to see the brand has survived and prospered.
I found a John Smedley jumper in a charity shop once, but it wasn't a new one. What a good find you have got!
Posted by: nellie dean | 04/02/2012 at 10:49 PM
It's the same here, if not worse--almost nothing is USA-made. I LOVE the color of that sweater! Did you buy it?
Posted by: Grace | 04/03/2012 at 06:00 PM