Musings on the first lockdown, creativity and the future of public space.  It’s now almost 40 years since we started our design business and perceptions of the creative industries have changed hugely over that time. I grew up in a household where my mum and my nan were always making clothes and my pop was […]

Disposable fashion is an awful concept. By the time you read this the UK will have been under lockdown for roughly one week, and our lives as we know them have been drastically changed. We don’t know how long it will last before these restrictions start to ease off, but it has me wondering whether […]

A blog about how affordable rents helped us get started and how through the markets we curate we are, in a small way, helping start-ups “have a go” by providing low cost opportunities.  I grew up in modest background to the sound of whirring sewing machines and with a mum and a nan who always […]

Returning to an old chestnut – secondhand clothing and the circular economy. I love fashion (well I would with my background). I love looking at each new seasons mens and womenswear collections. But I stick with looking and very very rarely buy any new clothes (except undies and socks). I have a wardrobe (or 6) full […]

A bit of our secondhand and circular economy history re-visited in 2015. It was the turn of the 80s and Gerardine (my girlfriend and future wife) and I were new to London from Lancashire. We were having fun – records, clothes, nightclubs – and we just fell into our business all thanks to a market. […]

The story of the creation of the Festival of Thrift which turns 10 years old in 2022  In 2011 Gerardine and I were introduced to a chap called John Orchard. He was part of a group of investors who had taken on the enormous, 2 million square foot, Paton & Baldwin’s knitting yarn factory in […]

Our first brand Red or Dead was nothing if not purposeful, and we have continued to be a voice for ethical fashion. Last week I attended a screening of the new documentary True Cost and took part in a Guardian Live post-screening panel, chaired by journalist Lucy Siegle, who is one of the film’s executive producers. […]