– | about weskit | –
the work of many
Weskit was conjured out of a desire for well-made, well-fitting waistcoats made in beautiful textiles and made possible by happenstance and persuasion.
Weskit's parent, EdNerat makes coats here out of British textiles. As EdNerat set about its business, it quickly became evident that the wonderful tailors behind its coats would, on occasion, end up with a short-ends – insufficiently long for ladies' coats, but sufficiently long for, say, mens' waistcoats.
It was also abundantly clear that EdNerat's wonderful tailors had the skills and appetite to make waistcoats, however it took skilled persuasive powers to convince EdNerat to release the lengths ... and whole a lot more time (and quite a lot of sampling) to refine the cuts, collars and sizing to progress to a debut.
The short-ends from EdNerat were the starting point, but Weskit was born for more. Sticking to the "well made' and "woven here" principle of our parent, we set out to source an interesting range of tweeds, flannels and linens from a host of makers around the British Isles, expanding EdNerat's already healthy range in the process.
Our flannels are sourced from the redoubtable Fox Brothers in Somerset and from AW Hainsworth in Yorkshire. Our Harris Tweed hails from Carloway Mill (of course on Lewis), and our other mainstay for tweed is the lovely Lovat in Harwick. We have linens from Country Antrim and wools from Huddersfield. More will come in due course – never for the sake of it, but when the quality delights and the addition helps to fill a hole.
Between the conception of Weskit and its debut, we had our share disappointments and set-backs. Some of the makers we had in mind were acquired and their production moved offshore; others were closed down; a third set purported to be weaving here, but weren't. The more we learnt, the more urgent it became to source from British makers – and only British makers.
Parents are as tricky as parenting, and EdNerat and Weskit will doubtless enjoy all the tensions, joys and difficulties they involve. But for now it's all upside. Being born of EdNerat gave Weskit a wonderful standing start – not only with those short ends – but having done all the heavy-lifting, unearthing makers from right across the British Isles, with an introduction to the the best of makers.
Our makers are Musa Apparel in East London. It is thanks to the skilled hands and practiced eyes of Musa's makers, their well-oiled machines and sharpened shears, that our cuts are brought to life and your waistcoats come to you.
The construction of our waistcoats is intricate and their making requires careful handling and meticulous attention to detail. Our patterns are complex with two cuts in a broad size range; five collar and two pocket styles. We offer choice in both buttons and linings – as well as in our extensive array of outer cloths. The cloths are woven in varying widths, and have different patterning, weights and handles. Each waistcoat is cut individually, the pattern lay-out designed around it, the weighting altered; each customer's choices, customisations and size alterations carried through.
Working with Musa enables us to make our coats exactly the way our customers want them, minimising wastage. It also allows us to offer repair and alteration services, giving fresh life to customers' coats when they need it. And last, but by no means least, it provides opportunities for skilled workers, here – preserving skills and sustaining livelihoods.
A host of other makers are key to making our waistcoats – and in our being able to ship them to you.
Firstly our labels; our Weskit labels are embroidered in London in a small independent workshop adjoining our tailors. We order them in small batches, and when we start to run short, a holler over a staircase is sufficient to procure more.
Secondly, our care labels – made specially for us in Neath, Pembrokeshire. Each combination of inner and outer requires its own particular care label. Kindly accommodating our requests for very small runs on high quality cotton, the wonderful National Weaving regularly makes us up small quantities of whichever labels we need.
The benefits of doing our labels like this is severalfold. Making work here and avoiding customs duties, shipping delays and costly freight charges being the most obvious. As importantly it gives us huge flexibility in sourcing and combining textiles and means we can make the most beautiful labels without having to shred and scrap what we don't need – an all-too-common industry practice.
The wonderful Courtney & Co make our buttons in Gloucestershire. As happy to ship a handful of buttons as a cartload, they have given us and education in buttons, sizing and materials and provide us with the very best of coloured Cordelite, Corozo and Horn buttons. Reviving button-making in the UK by combining traditional techniques and new technology, they use natural and environmentally-friendly materials and heritage patterns. Courtney couldn't have been more helpful, right from the start.
The same goes for our box and cover makers –respectively MacCarthy & Sons of Woolwich and Concept Covers of Lye in the West Midlands.
Both MacCarthy & Concept Covers nurtured us from a state of total ignorance. They respectively took care to ensure our boxes would always be big enough and our covers long enough (no matter which mistaken measurements we sent them) and both produce the very best in what they do. Family-owned firms both of them, they make the whole process such a delight and their products so magnificent, we are always tempted to order more!
By sourcing and making in the British Isles, it was our hope that we would be able to collaborate closely with our suppliers and makers at every stage of production, from design and development through to fabrication. We hoped it would help us ensure that the quality of the materials and craftsmanship never faltered, and that our coats and waistcoats would be produced without any hidden costs, whether environmental or ethical. What we had never imagined was that was doing this would turn out to be the privilege of a lifetime – meeting and working with the very finest of British makers – highly skilled tailors, pattern-makers, cutters, weavers, embroiderers, seamsters and finishers; box makers, button makers, cover makers, labellers and more.
By going the extra mile to do everything we can in the British Isles, we hope we can play a part – however small – in showcasing the fabulous fabrics that are made here and artistry that survives here, helping to sustain skills and to support the livings that depend on them. We know that we must do so now if current livelihoods are to survive and future generations are able to train with and succeed them. The cost of us not using them is bigger than we might imagine.
We trust that you will also feel proud to support these wonderful, talented people and the many small and family-owned businesses that we work with, while understanding that the cost of proximate production must also be reflected in price.
In bringing Weskit to life, our ambition is to make our customers look elegant and feel wonderful in much-loved waistcoats, for our garments to last for years to come, our suppliers to enjoy collaborating with us and to do all this leaving the smallest environmental footprint possible. We pay fairly and waste as little as possible, make to order and – of course – find every possible use for our left-over fabric pieces.
We aim to do what we do well and to do more of it but, first and foremost, we are intent on making exquisite waistcoats.
We hope you will enjoy wearing our waistcoats as much we have enjoyed making them.
