The Truth About British Made Clothing in 2024

What does Made in Britain actually mean in 20 24? There’s a pretty big disconnect between what brands are saying on their marketing teams and what’s actually going on behind the scenes. Over the last decade I’ve watched British manufacturing claims change from shameless lies to woven-basket-of-snakes half-truths that would make a DUP MP blush.

Brands are putting more union flags on more products than ever before, but the term “Made in Britain” is being stretched toBreaking NewsBreaking News hide Want the latest GQ breaking news first? Sign up here for our @breakingnews newsletterFrom John Lewis gloves to Hobbs skirts. But what does that mean?

Is my jumper knitted in Yorkshire? Are my boots stitched up in Warrington?

Has my boxers even visited Britain?

I spent 2015 rumbling around a factory in Leicester that was finishing garments for a famously British brand. Knitted abroad, their men’s sweater range came into this “British” factory on a carriageouselooking thing so the team could sew on buttons and apply the brand’s label. When I asked the factory manager why they didn’t just knit the sweaters in-house he laughed and replied: “It’s British enough for the labels, isn’t it?” It certainly was British enough for the labels sewn into each sweater.

I’m not saying every brand claiming to be made in Britain is lying to you. There are loads of great British manufacturers making fantastic products from start to finish. But it’s getting harder for consumers – even savvy ones like yourself – to differentiate between the real stuff and the “technically true but kinda not actually” stuff.

So I’m gonna drill right down into what “Made in Britain” looks like these days… Where do we stand legally? The UK left the EU’s fairly robust rules of origin when we left the EU and adopted a new system that is significantly more relaxed. At the moment, for a product to legally sport a “Made in Britain” label all it needs to have is its “last substantial transformation” done in the UK.

That “last substantial transformation” is really open to interpretation. Buttons on a jacket? Substantial.

Sewing on a label? Substantial enough. Adding a zip?

You get where I’m going with this. It’s an enormous grey area that brands are increasingly taking advantage of. I once tried to get a British-made standard from a department store’s compliance manager.

I asked her, “What constitutes British-made enough for you to label something as made in Britain?” After 15 minutes of her going round and round on the subject, she sighed and said: “It’s basically if we can justify it if someone challenges us.” Lovely. High-end. Design & cut in Britain.

Made in Britain. Where possible. For luxury products at least, you can usually trust where a brand claims something as made.

Case in point: Almost everything Private White V.C makes is designed and manufactured in Manchester. Crockett & Jones manufacture all of their footwear in Northampton. Sunspel make plenty of clothes and underwear in Long Eaton.

These brands are all proud of their British manufacturing and will happily explain their process if you ask. The downside? They are all really really expensive.

You’re looking at £200+ prices for t-shirts and £400+ for shoes because British labour, fabric and overheads are expensive. It’s worth visiting any of these factories if you get the chance. Private White V.C.’s factory is down an industrial estate in Manchester.

When I visited in 20 they had their entire raincoat collection passing through eleven different people before getting bundled into boxes ready for shipping. The machinists were all on above living wage, with pension contributions, indoor heating and cooled desks in summer. “We could probably sew a Made in Britain label on at the end and fool everyone,” owner James Eden told me. “But then what’s the point? The reason we’re doing this is so we can do it properly.” Mid-market.

More complicated This is where things get shady. When retailers price themselves out of the high street but don’t want to go full luxury they start doing what I like to call “manufacturing twixing”. Essentially this means they keep key parts of the process in Britain but cut corners elsewhere.

You see a lot of “Designed in London, Made in Britain” on jacket labels that cost you £250-400. Yarn will have come from Italy or China, fabric was probably woven in Portugal or Turkey, cutting and main assembly will have been done in Eastern Europe or North Africa, but the final stages of construction; buttonholes, linings, adding the brand’s label etc. will have happened in Britain. They’re not doing anything illegal, but it’s a long way from the tailored-suited Brits handcrafting your entire jacket in their workshop that their adverts would have you believe.

I’ve had some incredibly honest conversations with mid-market brand owners about this. Over drinks, one owner told me: “If we made everything in Britain we’d go bust tomorrow. British manufacturing is part of who we are but it can’t be 100% of the process.” Another said bluntly: “Everyone wants Made in Britain but nobody wants Made in Britain prices.

This is the compromise.” High street (“Designed by our team in Britain”) Don’t get me started on high street “British” manufacturing. Department stores cottoned onto the power of the union flag years ago, and now every high street brand has a “British Cotton” or “UK Workshop” or “Heritage Craft” collection that you can pretty much guarantee isn’t made in Britain. Let’s use a very specific example.

A £35 sweater that says “British wool” from your nearest chain store. What that actually means is one of three things: 1.The wool was shorn from British sheep but then shipped abroad for every other stage of production. 2.The garment was designed in the UK but made abroad.

3.There was some part of the process, sometimes as small as final pressing and packaging, that happened in Britain. I contacted one of the high street’s biggest names about one of their “Proudly Made in Britain” shirts. They couldn’t tell me where it was made until I pestered them with more emails than I care to admit.

Once I finally got a clear answer, I discovered the cotton was grown in Africa, spun and woven in Asia, cut and sewn in North Africa then shipped to a facility in the UK where it was pressed, tagged and put into the packaging you see in-store. If they can get away with calling that “Made in Britain” then so can everybody else… Where does that leave fabrics? Here’s the thing about “British Fabrics”, they rarely refer to cotton T-shirts or denim jeans.

Our textile industry still does wonderful things with wool, producing world class tweeds, woollens and even technical fabrics. But we import pretty much all of our cotton and almost all of our polyester. That means “British-made” shirts and jeans are probably using foreign fabrics.

There’s nothing wrong with that – global supply chains exist for a reason. But “100% British” starts to become a weeeeeeee bit misleading if the fabric comes from Italy or China. Take a look at Abraham Moon & Sons in Yorkshire.

Amazing wool fabrics that go from sheep fleece all the way to finished cloth. Beautiful stuff. But their fabrics sell for hundreds of pounds per metre.

You won’t see “British Fabric” listed on the label of your £150 jacket… A side note: Brands vs British-made Brands Look at the oldest, most famous British brands you can think of. How much of their stuff is actually made in Britain? Chances are, not a lot.

Brand heritage has always been weaponised by British retailers. They’ll spend years crafting the perfect-origin-story to talk up their “Deep British Roots” while manufacturing almost entirely overseas. I won’t mention any names but plenty of legendary British outerwear brands now make next to nothing in Britain, yet their marketing would have you believe they’re 100% domestic.

When called out they’ll often fall back on “designed in Britain”. News flash. If your trousers were cut and sewn in India you drive past them on the way to the airport.

Designing something in Britain doesn’t make it British made. Shoes. Ah, shoes.

Where to start? Northamptonshire is still full of British footwear manufacturers that go from raw materials to finished boots without stepping outside of the country. Crockett & Jones, Tricker’s, Drake’s and Cheaney to name a few.

That being said, not all “British” shoes are made equally British… Lots of British shoe brands now have their “upper” made abroad before being shipped to England for finishing. Lots of brands will make “standard” ranges overseas but keep small batches or special editions in Britain. None of these brands advertise these things, so you’ll have to ask specific questions about specific products.

I once asked a shop assistant at a premium British boot brand whether their £395 Chelsea boots were manufactured in Britain. “Oh yeah,” he said. “We’ve been making boots in Britain since 18SI.” I asked whether that model was made in their factory. “Oh yeah.” Half an hour and several awkward chuckles later he sheepishly admitted they were made in Asia. Ask if their “heritage” collection is made in Britain and he’ll proudly show you their £795 range also made abroad. So where does that leave us as consumers?

Ask questions If you’re actually looking for British made stuff then you need to dig deeper. Vague terms like “British design”, “British heritage” and “British style” are complete nonsense when trying to work out where something’s made. Some helpful tips: The price should tell you everything you need to know.

A real British-made dress shirt isn’t going to cost you less than £120-150. A 100% wool British jacket won’t be cheaper than £500. Authentic British stuff exists, but someone’s gotta pay British wages and cover British overheads so it won’t be cheap.

Look for specifics. Brands that are proud of their British supply chain will often advertise exact locations, factories and processes on their website or label. If it just says “Made in Britain” you’re entering grey area territory.

Ask the brand. “Is this 100% made in Britain? If so, can you tell me where and what factory?” is probably the easiest question you can ask. A lot of brands are more honest in emails than their marketing teams.

Do your research. Brands that own their own factories (Hiut Denim & Private White V.C.) or have long-standing relationships with certain British manufacturers are easier to trust than faceless brands with no visible production credentials. Some honourable mentions: A new-ish brand I really rate is Community Clothing.

Patrick Grant’s brilliantly transparent social enterprise is actually in Britain at pretty much every stage of their supply chain. They’re also staggeringly affordable! How?

By cutting out markups and operating on wafer thin margins. Hiut Denim in Wales make their jeans completely in Britain. Each pair is signed by the person who made it.

Blackhorse Lane Ateliers make authentic London-made denim in their Walthamstow factory. Then there’s the specialists. Fox Umbrellas still make their canes and foldups by hand in Surrey.

Corgi produce knitwear in Wales. Chapman make their bags in Cumbria. These brands often focus on one style or product rather than an entire catalogue, but they do what they do wonderfully.

Don’t get me wrong, there are loads of fantastic brands that are genuinely basing the majority (if not all) of their production in Britain. You’ll just have to do a bit of digging to find them. The truth is, British manufacturing still exists in 20 24.

It’s nowhere near as prevalent as it once was, but that’s not because our manufacturers can’t produce world class goods. It happened because, for decades, we as consumers said we wanted cheap shit over nice things that were made in Britain. Factories closed, skills were lost and rebuilding our domestic manufacturing isn’t something that can be done overnight (or for a fraction of the price it once was).

We’re coming out of that now, which is great.

Problem is there’s also a lot of greenwashing and “Britwashing” happening at the moment that muddies the water. As consumers we have to decide what matters to us.

If buying British is important to you then it’s time we start asking more questions, paying more money and yes, owning less stuff. I’m not saying go out and buy a wardrobe full of British-made clothes. I’m wearing jeans from Japan and a shirt from America as I write this.

But if you’re going to spend extra on “British” clothes then you deserve to know where they’ve come from. If the brand you’re buying from can’t tell you, maybe you should spend your money somewhere else that will. Honestly 90% of brands don’t manufacture a single item in Britain.

The brands that do tend to not shout about it as loudly as others. Find them. Support them.