John Smedley’s ethos has always had sustainable design and practices at its forefront and who better to celebrate this with than the original fashion pioneer Katharine Hamnett?
Together, they have crafted an exclusive capsule collection featuring the slogan ‘Choose Slow’, that is designed to ask consumers to assess where and from whom they buy their clothing from, shifting focus from fast to slow fashion.
Slow Fashion. British Style.
The Katharine Hamnett London x John Smedley collaboration is a celebration of sustainable style. As two classic British brands, we have endured and thrived by refusing to compromise over what we believe: sustainability, craftsmanship, quality and people. This collaboration is about championing these values and showing what they can do.
As brands we make tough decisions to put people and planet first – the UK Government needs to do the same. Inaction is easy, radical change is not, but it’s quite simple: to reach Net Zero, Fast Fashion has to go. It’s amazing that millions of people are already making this choice, but the Government must do the rest to hit its targets. Britain has a wonderful opportunity to embrace sustainable fashion, and to drive change globally through its supply chains.
Speaking about the collaboration Katharine stated
“I have worked with John Smedley off and on since the 1980s, I have always loved the quality of what they do. They are one of the few remaining mills that still produce a great, quintessentially British & traditional product at its best.”
John Smedley’s Brand Director Jess Mcguire-Dudley spoke about the new collection to say ‘Katharine has been a pioneer of ethical practices, challenging the status quo of the fashion industry and beyond for decades. She is a personal hero of mine and it’s a great privilege to have worked with her to design this collaborative collection. Our aims are to engage customers once again with slow fashion, urging them to understand and value British manufacturing, high quality, trace-able fibres and the real people behind our products’
The collection is priced from £55 – £220 and 20% of all profits from the collection sold at John Smedley stores will be donated to the UKFT https://www.ukft.org/ to further apprenticeships across the British manufacturing and fashion industries.