A.P.C. and William Lockie jumpers

When I first heard about the collaboration between A.P.C. and William Lockie, I started looking for some more information on internet, and apart an interesting interview of Louis Wong (The designer in charge of the menswear at A.P.C.), I’ve been unable to find any article with more than 4 lines on the subject. Lots of blogger and online magazine writers seems to only copy the press releases and it’s a shame ! There are lots of things to say about William Lockie for example, which is one of these century old Scottish knitwear factories. Since then, A.P.C. also started a collaboration with John Smedley, another British knitwear factory, this time located in Derbyshire and specialised in cotton knit.

A.P.C. and John Smedley Sea Island Cotton jumper

If  like me, you are the kind of person spending way too much time in menswear area of the French store le Bon Marché, you might know William Lockie, as the brand has a little hidden corner in LVMH’s store. This corner is just next to another famous name of scottish knitwear : Glenmac. I’ve discovered Glenmac last year, at a flea market where I came across a very nice lambswool jumper with the label « Burberrys by Glenmac ». Considering its age (the final –s of Burberrys has been dropped in 99, which gives a rough idea), this jumper was in a very good condition, withtout any pilling nor general shape alteration.

The label of the Burberrys jumper made by Glenmac

Knitwear is something quite complex, and it is often difficult for an amateur to recognise a garment of good quality. It’s even something we become quite suspicious about, as everyone already spent a premium on a jumper that soon revealed itself to be bad. For a given brand, to display the name of the maker, the factory that actually produced the jumpers, is then a good way to legitimise its offer.

My example with Burberrys shows that this is not a new idea, and today Band of Outsider is making the same by working with the Scottish maker to create a range of knitwear. Also, former Parisian shop Old England’s range of knitwear was as well produced by Glenmac.

Détail d’un pull Old England en laine d’agneau, réalisé par Glenmac

The issue with products of these makers’ brands is that sometimes the styles are quite old-fashionned. If some of us specifically look for that, a typical client might get scared by the length of the jumpers and of the shoulder seams that goes 3 centimeters too far.

It’s therefore another advantage of these collaborations : It allows to use the maker’s know-how to create fine knitwear that is adapted to today’s fashion. It’s for example what happens with the FrenchTrotters merino jumpers. It’s no secret that they are being made at a famous traditional sailor knitwear factory, in French Brittany.

Pull en laine mérinos FrenchTrotters, réalisé par Le Minor

To get back to William Lockie, the company exists since 1874 and has always paid a lot of attention to the quality of its cashmere. Benefiting from the same know-how, their jumpers made of lambswool and camelhair are also good investments : the little Scottish factory is the maker for prestigious clients : Norton & Sons, Present, Kilgour … If you want to know more, you should take a look at this Esquire’s video. It shows Patrick Grant (who received the “Menswear designer of the year 2010″ in UK) visiting the William Lockie factory, which is the maker of its brands’ (E.Tautz and Norton and Sons) cashmeres.

Below you will find polaroids of the Glenmac factories taken by the team of Band of Outsiders, which seems to definitely like this format.

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