Who Makes Our T-Shirts & Trousers

As I have watched the tide turning to less formal but not necessarily less elegant dressing, our young cutters and seamstresses have trained to apply the same attention to detail and beautiful stitching to polos, t-shirts and casual linen trousers. As you began adding to your shirt orders with these new designs, and as repeat orders began, we felt confident that our patterns, construction and beautiful Swiss and Italian fabrics had come together well.

I was at our Gloucester atelier on Monday and watched Lizzie Willett, 29, who joined us at 19 straight from college and is one of our many exceptional seamstresses, making a t-shirt. She spoke with such passion about her love of sewing and the new challenges our additional accessories have given her, which she is also teaching to others in the sewing rooms.

I also visited Jen Priestley who has become our linen trouser specialist, another meticulous young seamstress, and she again said how much she enjoyed learning to make new designs. Our lead button/button holer Maureen, who has been working on shirts all her life and with me for 15 years, as well as running the training,  is also enjoying the new world: 'It used to be just shirts and now we don’t know what’s coming next!'

With Lizzie’s permission, I filmed her, as I would love people to see how happy this sort of work is for young people, at a time when so many struggle mentally. The teamwork and creative endeavour are so good for healthy minds.

A factory like ours in every major city of our country, employing many more young people to create clothes with the Made in England label, which is so valued worldwide still, is my life’s dream.

Thank you for your support, which enables all of our rewarding work and from the team at Emma Willis in Gloucester and London, we wish you a very happy weekend.

Best wishes,