Yorkshire Tweed Initiative Announced
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society will have a stylish new look with the announcement that a wool tweed has been produced which will be made up into men’s jackets and feature on the catwalk at the Great Yorkshire Show.
NB: Images available to download at the bottom of release.
The Society’s colours – green and gold – form the check in the soft fabric which has been woven by Abraham Moon and Sons at Guiseley. There will be a limited number produced, only 300, plus matching wool scarves as accessories.
Charles Mills, Show Director of the Great Yorkshire Show said: “I’m sure this will be a real winner - with our members, with show visitors and indeed anyone who loves Yorkshire and the countryside. Plans are underway to register this as the Great Yorkshire tweed, though I should stress that our stewards at the show will still be wearing dark suits and bowler hats!”
The idea came out of discussions with Keighley-based tailors Brook Taverner. Their elegant and high quality men’s clothing has been an integral part of the popular Great Yorkshire fashion shows for many years, and the company also supports the event as a sponsor.
Roger Meeke, Retail Sales Director commented: “We very much value our relationship with the Society and the Great Yorkshire Show and are delighted to work with Moons on this project. It brings together all the elements for which Brook Taverner is renowned – quality, value and attention to detail.”
The jacket will have a number of special features including the words “Yorkshire Born and Bred” woven under the collar, a white rose of Yorkshire lapel pin and the Society’s crest and white rose is included in the label. The jackets will be available to buy at the Great Yorkshire Show, and the scarves will be on sale in the Society’s award winning shop and café, Fodder. Dates for the show, are Tuesday 12 – Thursday 14 July when more than 130,000 visitors are expected through the gates. This will Charles’s first as Show Director.
“This really is the perfect combination – three Yorkshire organisations coming together to create a great idea,” said Charles. “There are so many similarities between the three, a commitment to quality, a passion for the innovative and a love of Yorkshire.”
The Society shares its founding year – 1837 - with Moon, which is England’s only remaining fully vertical woollen mill meaning the entire production process from wool dyeing through to the cloth coming off the loom is undertaken at the one site. Customers include fashion royalty including Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Paul Smith and Ralph Lauren.
The jackets will be ready to buy in June and cost approximately £250 each, with a special discount for Society members. The scarves are expected to cost around £20. Details of how to register interest with a view to ordering will be announced next month.
ENDS
6 February 2016
Media contact: Judy Thompson, PR Manager, Yorkshire Agricultural Society 01423 546215 or email judyt@yas.co.uk
EDITORS NOTES
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society, Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, N. Yorkshire
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society was established in 1837 with the primary purpose of holding an agricultural show and for the furtherance and support of farming in the region. This ethos continues today, through its flagship events, the Great Yorkshire Show (Tues 12 – Thurs 14 July 2016) and Countryside Live, (Sat 22 and Sun 23 October 2016).
Year round it has an active programme of events and activities supporting the farming and rural communities, particularly in the North of England. These include its Future Farmers of Yorkshire group, the Farmer-Scientist Network, the Yorkshire Rural Support Network and an extensive range of education activities aimed at increasing young people’s knowledge of the important role British farmers play in producing our food and managing the landscape.
In 2009, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society established Fodder, the award winning regional food shop and café and the Society’s commercial activities are carried out through the Yorkshire Event Centre and Pavilions of Harrogate which run a broad range of events from the Great Yorkshire Showground. For more information see www.yas.co.uk
Abraham Moon & Sons, Guiseley, Leeds
Established in 1837 by Abraham Moon in Guiseley near Leeds, the company has been owned by the Walsh family since 1920. The Current MD is John Walsh the fourth generation of Walsh’s to run the company First Mill built at the same site the mill now stands in 1868. Abraham Moon & Sons is the only fully vertical woollen mill left in England and one of very few left in the UK as a whole employing approx. 250 staff. Fully vertical means every process to turn raw wool into finished luxury fabric is undertaken at the mill including Wool Dyeing, Blending, Carding, Spinning of the yarn, Design of the cloth, Weaving and Finishing of the cloth.
Abraham Moon manufactures wool cloth for 3 markets – garment/fashion, domestic and contract furnishings and gift/retail with their Bronte by Moon products. Abraham Moon & Sons has been exporting wool cloth since 1890. Today cloth is exported all over the world with major markets in North America, Japan, China and Northern Europe. Moon has long held huge esteem in the world of fashion. The company has its roots in apparel fabrics and has a customer base of the “who’s who?” in the fashion world, including Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Lacoste, Paul Smith to name a few
Some 10 years ago, Moon brought their design, innovation and heritage to the world of interiors. Designers from the fashion world merged their ideas with those from interiors at the launch of their first collection won the first of many design awards.We are licenced for the Woolmark company and all fabrics carry the internationally recognised Woolmark logo we are also long-time supporters of the Campaign for Wool and promote the benefits of using wool over man-made fibres.Our in-house design team still use our many archive books for inspiration. We hold Archive books dating back to the early 1900s where fabrics for WW1 jackets and shirting slowly give way to fashion fabrics.
Brook Taverner, Keighley, West Yorkshire
Brook Taverner blends over 100 years’ heritage with innovation and progress to bring to the market leading corporate and retail clothing.The business remains a privately owned family concern.The business started by supplying tailoring fabrics to manufacturers and tailors.
This business still continues today, supplying many tailors including on Saville Row in London.
The corporate wear division is Europe’s leading supplier of stock supported tailoring, counting major “blue chip “companies as customers. Brook Taverner carries over 400,000 garments in a 180,000 square foot warehouse based in Keighley, West Yorkshire. The telesales team regularly receive in excess of 3000 customer calls per week. The warehouse has over six miles of hanging garment rails, holding over 12,000 separate SKUs in stock. The company’s retail division has over 1,000 wholesale customers throughout the UK and Ireland. The concession division operates over 40 concessions manned and unmanned and two standalone Brook Taverner stores in Scotland. The rapidly expanding mail order division distributes over 1.5 million brochures a year to existing and potential new retail customers.
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