Welcome To Our New Site

We would like to know what you think about it and any extra features you would like to see.

Please drop us an email with your ideas and comments.

We can only make the site better for you if we know what you want to see.

Keep In Touch

Give us your email address below and we'll keep you in touch with new articles on the site.

Your details will never be passed on to other organisations.



Tell A Friend

Let a friend know about bespokeme.com - fill in the form and we'll send them an email from you.





 

A Study in Patience and Craft: Interview with Adam Atkinson of CHERCHBI

Friday 13 May 2011

Permalink

 

 
A while ago I highlighted Adam Atkinson and his range of British made bags comprising a unique cloth made from the wool of the ancient rare-breed Herdwick sheep. Patented as Herdwyck No.10, the cloth is the product of 3 years trial and error.

While Adam and his business are currently based up in Kendal (home of the mint cake), on his most recent visit to London I caught up with Adam to discuss his bags, business and Herdwyck No.10. It also offered me a chance to see the range of bags in the flesh.

Adam is a wonderfully approachable and down to earth guy, who two weeks after our meeting eloped with his fiancé to Gretna Green to wed and spent his honeymoon in a camper van driving around Scotland.

Having undertaken a fashion and marketing degree at Newcastle University the first years of Adam’s working life were spent in the marketing, sourcing and design departments of first Nike and then Puma.

It was his time at Nike that set him on his current path, albeit in a round about way. Much of his time was focused on production in China, and increasingly he despaired of inhabiting a world which was focused on making more and more petro-chemical based product faster and cheaper. He quit and returned to Kendal, England, determined to set up his own venture, although he knew not what.

CHERCHBI took some time to come to fruition, but that desire for something better, with an emphasis on nature and craft, has in my view resulted is a range of bags that is truly remarkable. They also have a natural beauty which encapsulates this most beautiful part of England’s green and pleasant land.

Many brands strive for the prefix luxury. Many more through clever marketing successfully bestow it upon themselves. In truth almost none deserve it. CHERCHBI is an exception. Whether we’re talking about the difficulty of producing the cloth, the use of locally sourced materials or the time taken to get the curve of shoulder straps just right, these bags are genuinely crafted and that makes them deserving of the prefix luxury.
 
 
Where does CHERCHBI come from?

Adam Atkinson: CHERCHBI was the name Kendal was recorded as in the Doomsday book, it means “by the church”. I tried to trademark Atkinson and failed because of Atkinson ties.

The thing that interests me is the fact you’ve gone to such trouble to make sure everything is made in Britain. Was that a conscious effort or merely and a feature of locality.

Adam Atkinson: Yes it was intentional. It was one of the first decisions I made that everything would be made in this country. From a point of view of having a particular interest in British manufacturing, my father worked at K Shoes for 40 years, my great-grandfather was a leather worker based in Kendal. Other members of the family from Coniston are sheep farmers, tailors, arts and crafts carpenters etc. There’s a history of small scale manufacturing and making things within the family. I wanted to learn more about local manufacturing – leather goods, textiles. I wanted to create a simple, high quality back-to-basics product – I love visiting the likes of antiques shops due to the high quality of the products they sell. I set my stake in the ground, it’s got to be British made and “CHERCHBI, British Made” appears on everything. There’s a lot of products I have available, for example, woven linens from Lancashire, silks from Macclesfield. The toggle on this bag I get made by Abbeyhorn in Lancashire, the same company that supplies Albam and has been running since 1749 through five different families. I don’t claim to be an environmentally sound brand, it just comes naturally and is ingrained in the business.

Is the environmental aspect quite important to you?

Adam Atkinson: Yeah it is important to me, it’s a complex area really. I’ve come from this background of making more and more products out of plastic. Why are we producing more and more products in a seasonal basis, you know 5 seasons in a year including the holidays for Nike and Puma, and the quality level reducing all the way along. I was just thinking this is all wrong. So I moved back to the Lake District for a bit of a break and started freelance design work. I read an article in the local paper about farmers burning Herdwick fleece.
That was going to be my next question, where exactly did the idea come from?

Adam Atkinson: Part of the reason for me moving back was to be closer to my family and go back to my roots. I was 37 when I moved back and thought this is an import junction in my life, I’ve got an opportunity to quit a job and not start a new one and just have a month or two to look around and see what direction I wanted to take. I read this report that mentioned Herdwick which I’d heard of but didn’t know much about.
 
Yes, I did wonder whether perhaps you were a disgruntled farmer with a shit load of wool you were trying to get rid of...

AA: (laugh...) No, no I’m not. I spent a lot of time in the Lake District as a kid, my Dad was a member and is the chairman of a local walking and mountaineering club, they have this beautiful old building at the top of the Borrowdale Valley and we used to have family holidays up there.

The name Herdwick comes from old Norse meaning “sheep place”. Going back there’s evidence of sheep farms in the Lake District in the 8th and 9th century, so it’s an ancient breed, one of the oldest British sheep breeds. People were starting to offer it in restaurants on menus. The Queen’s a fan of our meat. Within foodie circles it’s famous and has become more so over recent years, it’s a great meat. But it’s [the wool] got the lowest price on the British Wool Marketing Board price scale. Farmers have burnt it in front of the BWMB just to prove a point.

What is it about the wool that means no one else wants to use it?

AA: Well it’s got a short staple length (the length of the fibre) which is bad for weaving. The best Egyptian cotton has a long staple length which is great for weaving so you can spin it round itself and create a fine thread. This [Herdwick] is the opposite, it’s very wiry and abrasive so you can’t really use it for garments, everything is wrong with it. But it has a great texture and natural colour. You have this white fibre which is dead thread (kemp fibres) and snaps easily. The kemp fibres drop off during any sort of spinning and weaving which makes a mess of the machinery. Spinners and weavers don’t really like to work with the fleece.
 
So presumably when you tried to weave it into a cloth you had to overcome a huge amount of resistance?

AA: Yeah, I’ve gone through 9 different trials over 3 years. There were three different weaving/spinning companies and then different trials within those three to get the spinning technique, the weaving technique and also to find the right spinning and weaving partners prepared to pursue the project and make a finished cloth. We put extra picks in the looms meaning we have extra warp and weft threads in the yarn so it creates a denser cloth, this slows everything down. The other thing we do is get more twist in the yarn. Because it has a short staple length you have to twist them around each other more to get a stronger yarn and that means slowing the machine down to achieve that. Because the fibre has lots of bits sticking out all over the place they twist on top of each other during weaving which is not a good thing. So we wax them, running every yarn over small tea lights to lubricate it as it’s going into the cloth. And a lot of other tricks as well. This is why at the end of it all I thought “gosh that was three and half years of my life”. I was freelancing at the time but putting a lot of other things on hold, putting my life on hold really. I moved back to the Lakes, into the family home, all my freelance money was being ploughed into the new cloth and developing the product. I was single at the time so living a monk’s existence, but thoroughly enjoying it.

AA: So that’s the finished cloth, we take it and back it with a natural rubber and then the cotton backer, so that’s an impermeable layer which water will not pass through. It will hit the wool but won’t get though to the cotton backer, protecting what’s in the bag, which is a great feature. It also stabilises the cloth, which has been tested for abrasion pulling and it passes for apparel and upholstery. It’s a tough old cloth and when you put the backing on it, it becomes even tougher and you end up with something really robust.

AA: After the 3 and a half years and 9 weave trials I thought the cloth deserved a name of its own, so I’ve named it Herdwyck No. 10. It’s a licensed cloth and registered brand. There is a bit of interest from other company’s to do something with it. At the moment they see the bags we’ve got in the collection and they want to do something with it but I’m not really prepared to do that right now.

Do you do all the designing yourself?

AA: Yes I do. Essentially, the business is just me right now. My partner is a hair stylist but she’s worked in fashion before, she has a knowledge of design which puts me to shame and has a taste level which suits what I’m doing. I’m very lucky to have her influence and eye to detail.

And design influences? Obviously you’re based in Kendal in the fabulous Lake District, are you going back through old mountaineering catalogues...?

AA: Although I’m inspired by certain pieces in different areas and certain vintage pieces, it’s all new and designed with a contemporary function in mind. For example, this backpack is based on a mountaineering pack. There are elements that are shamelessly old fashioned, the full leather strap without padding, but they mould and give over time and are very comfortable. The stitched strap on top is pretty standard military bag construction, tried and tested, but I designed it with the Gothic arch. It has a full leather base because I made the decision early on not to cut corners.
 
You’ve been picked up by Mr Porter and you previewed at Pitti Uomo, what’s next?

AA: We’re going to continue doing Pitti, that was a good show for us. It’s been a hard four years with no money, but now I feel I can enjoy the rewards, it’s great. I’m not sure the visitors to Pitti really got the whole story, but the first thing to attract anyone’s attention is the quality, the visual impact, the quality has to shine through. That’s the critical point. The price is an issue for a lot of people, but the prices are what they are. It’s authentic rather than fake and you know where it’s been made.
 
 
 

Posted by Stealth

Comments

There are no comments on this article yet.  Click here to be the first to make a comment.

Comments Already Made

There are no comments.

Make A Comment

Comment moderation is on. Any comment will have to be approved before being published.

All fields are required, the email address will not be made public. HTML code is not allowed.

BespokeMe Ratings

British

Apparel

Independent

Craftsmanship

Ettinger of London

click on any link above to see more items that match that type or try our Advanced Search

Bookmark This Article

del.icio.us
digg
facebook
reddit
StumbleUpon

Our Favourites

Online Sources: Classic Specs, Beaumont Sunglasses

A nifty little American independent for great classic sunglasses.

Maintenance: Fifth Avenue Shoe Repairers, London

A great shoe repairer and retailer. One you can't afford not to know about.

Jermyn Street As It Should Be: Harvie & Hudson

A proper Jermyn Street Shirt for under £50 isn't bad if you ask me. H&H are a classic gents outfitter offering classic English kit. Prices are fair and the service is good, particularly from the old boys.

Made to Measure Suiting at Stephan Shirts: Part 4

Our four part review of made-to-measure suiting at Stephan Shirts concludes with the finished suit.

A Study in Patience and Craft: Interview with Adam Atkinson of CHERCHBI

We catch up with the man behind up and coming British leathergoods and accessories brand CHERCHBI.

Rock 'N' Roll: Archer Adams, Marylebone

A wonderful new independent label providing original high qaulity clothes for those with an independent spirit.

Online Sources: Loveiwear, Shoreditch

When London based Lee Yule contacted me to introduce his website Loveiwear, I kinda new this would be my cup of tea.

Ettinger of London

Despite the fact that they are one of the last hand crafted leather goods makers left in England, you still may not have heard of Ettinger. And that, curiously, is also what makes them so special. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Robert Ettinger to discuss his company and its future plans

Like Father Like Son: Herring Shoes

A great online source. High quality Northamptonshire shoes at resonable prices. Check out Herring's own exceptional value ranges.

Under New Management: Stephan Haroutunian Shirts

I'm more than pleased to report that this business remains in the family, and has been placed into the very best of hands. I cannot speak highly enough of this shop, and I'm pleased to say can continue to do so for some time to come. Indeed, this time I can even show you pictures.

In The Know: Stephan Haroutunian Shirts

Quite simply this is a proper old fashioned shirt maker providing a good quality product and charging a reasonable price for it. £69 for an Egyptian, two-fold cotton, made-to-measure shirt, no minimum order, and beautifully made to boot.

A Rare Vintage: Emporium, Greenwich

Emporium is one of those shops that has the imprint of its owners' personalities all over it. Step over the threshold and the first thing you notice are the soulful beats and jazz tunes playing in the background.

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery

A Look at London based Ormonde Jayne perfumery. Specialising in rare oils and unusual ingredients for something unique and individual.

Family, Flair and Finesse: Nino's

Lots of people claim to offer something original, but the reality is few do. Not so with Nino's. While they produce elegant shirts in plain colours suitable for the office, the majority of the shirts are something a bit special. The sheer variety on offer beggars description.

The Italian Job: Volpe

An independent men's outfitter offering a complete wardrobe of understated, luxury clothing at affordable prices, under its own label. A European influence means rich colours, beautiful Italian fabrics and manufacturing, as well as an immaculate attention to detail. The guys here take real pride in what they do, which shows in both the warmth of the service and quality of the product. The coffee is excellent.

The Dog's Undercarriage: Adam of London

Before trotting through the door of Adam's take a look down to your left. You'll see the following sign, "All clothing for sale on these premises are exclusive to us in Great Britain. If you want to be exclusive and look the dogs bo**ocks please come in. However if you want to look like a bag of sh*t then we suggest that you go to the shops in the high streets around the country".

Old School: Lloyd Miller, Bespoke Tailor and Alterations

Mr Lloyd Miller is an alterations tailor. He's also a little more than that, being a full bespoke tailor -not to mention a proper gentleman.

Affable and Affordable Bespoke Tailors: Apsley of London

I've always tried to remember that a thing is never so intimidating as when it is done for the first time.

How to: Fold a Pocket Square

You either get pocket handkerchiefs or you don't. Personally, I love em. Few men in my age group wear them, so I make a point of doing so; separates the cads from the boys. Suffice to say this is the most straightforward (lots of diagrams) guide I've yet found, published or online, on how to fold all the variants for the pocket handkerchief.

How To: Pick A Scent That Lasts

Do you know an Aftershave from an Eau de Parfum? You will do by the time you read this.

How To: Get A Dimple

An easy way to get a dimple in your tie.

The Archive

November 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
November 2008
October 2008
August 2008
June 2008
April 2008
March 2008
January 2008
December 2007

Get Our Widget!

Related Posts with Thumbnails