Shopping

I hesitated before posting about this because one of the reasons it's so delightful is because it's small scale and non-industrial, but, you know, I'm a sucker for blabbing, so here we go. Today saw what I think of as my pilgrimage to lovely Fournier Street in London's Spitalfields for the annual visit here by Norfolk workwear makers Old Town.

Usually based in a tiny shop and workroom in the tiny but exquisite Georgian market town of Holt (yes, it's miles from anywhere and you will likely never have heard of it), Old Town makes great clothes. Being a Norfolk boy I've visited Holt many times, of course, but Old Town is most generous in descending to London from time to time.

They produce nothing that is vulgar or ostentatious; their goods are all subdued and under-stated, using traditional English fabrics -- in fact the sign over the main shop window proudly lists "cotton drill, fustian, linen, serge, tweed".

The styling is utterly delightful: traditional English workwear, taking styling cues from the late nineteenth century through to the Second World War.

The colour palette is defiantly Austerity Britain: tans and Navys, blacks and greys, enlivened by an occasional sage green or pale blue. The silk ties (woven in Suffolk but that's good enough for me) provide the only real splashes of colour in the menswear:

The designer is a chap called Will Brown -- you can hear him here as well as watching an evocative slide show -- while the face of Old Town is the indomitable Miss Willey (I'm not joking), a flame-haired Geordie lass.

Can I say how much I love this traditional design of pull-on, collarless shirt?:

The trouser range includes what is, so far as I am aware, the only style of drop-flap trousers still manufactured in England (and delightfully named "The Dreadnought"):

As someone who despises The Fashion Industry, I am a huge, huge fan of Old Town's clothes: who needs vulgar changing displays of ostentation when you can wear magnificent Overall Coats like the blue number seen at the front of this rack (oh, alright, I confess: I am the proud owner of one of those):

I ordered another Overall Coat, in tan this time, and a collarless shirt of the most wonderful cream cotton. Now I have to wait five or six weeks for them to be made. It will be like Christmas when the big day arrives.