The values they’ve retained mean that their shirts have remained largely unchanged since their inception,
in terms of quality and finishing. “All of our shirts have loose lined collars, rather than the fused linings that
you would find on many other shirts,” Quin says. “This is not only more difficult to produce but also gives the
shirt a more comfortable feel when worn. The stitching is executed with a single needle with 16-18 stitches per
inch, and all of our buttons are made from a mother of pearl shell and sewn on with a fused wrap so the buttons will
never come off. A Turnbull & Asser shirt has its own personality that can only be appreciated once worn. They
are simply the best.”
All of Turnbull & Asser’s shirts are hand-made in England, an increasingly rare achievement. It is
made possible by the brand’s Gloucester factory and the skilled workers who inhabit it, many of whom have proudly
worked there for decades. The factory operation is impressive: it has the capacity to produce 70,000 shirts per
year. Yet it feels far from industrial, which can perhaps be explained by the amount of handiwork that each shirt
requires and the absence of noisy, overpowering machinery. Light streams in through the multiple car-length windows,
and workers are passionate and revel in their craft, which likely explains why many of them remain so loyal.
Bette Elton and Kathleen Cope are twins who have worked together at the Gloucester factory for 53 years;
today they are factory floor manager and senior supervisor respectively, and it’s fair to say they’ve seen it all.
Bette tells The Rake how shirt styles have transformed over the decades: “In the sixties the collars were
exceedingly bigger, or even roll-necks were popular. The most recent changes have been to the body shapes. We now do
a range of different fits, or different collars, cuff or pocket designs, and the range and quality of fabrics has
increased greatly.” It’s not just the shirts that have altered, either. Bette says: “The sewing machinery has
changed over the years, from a very basic Singer, to today, where they have automatic thread trimming [for accurate
cutting of thread at the end of a sewing cycle], foot controls, and the needle will automatically stay down to give
a good turning point. All products are sewn using single-needle machines. However, we do now pre-press some
components for speed and accuracy, such as the side gussets, sleeve gauntlets and front plackets.”
Turnbull & Asser do more than make shirts, though, and their expansive ready-to-wear collection is
thriving under the helm of their Head of Design, Dean Gomilsek-Cole. Playing on the eccentric roots
of the brand, Dean’s seasonal collections often take inspiration from a specific era related to T&A’s past, yet
every detail is updated and made relevant for the man of today in what is perhaps the ideal fusion of past and
present. When starting work on a new season’s collection, Dean more often than not begins in the brand’s shirt
archives. “It is an important starting point, as we often look at a specific decade as inspiration, so I can dip
into the patterns and colours we were using at that time,” he tells The Rake. “The important factor is to
make sure we don’t just plagiarise the previous designs, but improve them with new techniques and contemporary yarn
innovations to make them relevant to the 21st century customer, while still maintaining a bloodline to the
traditional one.”
The ready-to-wear collections span items as varied as silk dressing gowns, velvet smoking jackets,
silk-patterned braces, umbrellas and more, yet despite this diversity, the shirt will remain at the core of the
brand. Dean says: “Our 130-year heritage is a foundation for the future of the brand, and, just like the foundation
of a building, it must be maintained or everything that is built upon it could collapse. We create some amazing
products within our collections, but every piece is designed around our core of shirts, and outfits are built from
this starting point. I remember, during my first weeks with the brand, being reminded that, ‘the suit is a frame, it
is the shirt that is the artwork’.”
The shirt is an often-overlooked aspect of the modern man’s wardrobe, yet its importance is equal to if
not greater than the suit that so often masks it. Turnbull & Asser has endured through two world wars, six
British monarchs, and now Brexit, precisely because it has never lost sight of this fact, which displays a kind of
brand integrity that is becoming increasingly rare in the saturated landscape of the luxury menswear market.
Originally published in Issue 52, June 2017. Click here to subscribe for more.
