London Fashion Week

Derby Hill was started by mere chance. We were looking for some replacement machinery for our textile mill and came across a sock knitting machine for sale. We went to have a look at it and put a bid in and won…. That is where the hard part started! We had infinite knowledge of yarn and weaving but hadn’t ever knitted, not to be deterred we found someone who could.

After trying several knits and styles we settled on what we found to be the best and most durable style and sent the samples off to various people for feedback. The orders started to slowly roll in and then in January I got a call from London stylist Benjamin K Schofield to ask if we would like to do a collaboration for  Daniel W Fletchers Autumn/Winter 2022 collection entitled, ‘Before The Morning comes’. After taking it all in (we couldn’t quite believe it at first) we sent over colour samples of yarn. He then chose 3 to compliment the collection. This was all on a really short turnaround and luckily made the deadline for the show.

We were invited to the decadent One Marylebone to see the show where we were presented with cocktails courtesy of Courvoisier. Everyone took their seats, you could feel the excitement and anticipation in the room. The models emerged to the beats of Depeche Mode and The Rolling Stones. The collection was amazing, Daniel is well known for his statement pieces and this collection dedicated to his late father was no exception. Leather trousers, leather jackets, striped shorts, football-themed shirts and scarves all paid homage to memories of his dad. Tom Daley had hand-knitted the red and white chunky scarves in a tribute to Daniels’ father’s love of Manchester United.

Of course, the socks featured heavily as quite a few of the models wore shorts and my favourite image is of William Franklyn Miller wearing the cool cream ribbed sock with a cream suede Grenson loafer- pictures are below.

We can’t thank Ben, Daniel and the team enough for this amazing opportunity and the creativity and talent of all the people involved.