Last week Peter Hill, great-grandson of the company’s founder, came back to the Sunspel factory for the first time since he sold it.
Mr Hill is now 85 and a wonderful fund of stories about the company and its clothes dating all the way back to before the war. (He remembers, for example, how clothing for the Far East market was decorated with complicated embroidery which set it apart from the competition.)
We gave him lunch in the showroom and showed him our new collection for autumn/winter 2011. Luckily he loved it. (We love it too and we’re excited about the new directions we’re going in. But more about that in future.)
We then took Mr Hill round the factory, where he spoke to many of the ladies who had worked for him for many years.
He also brought in a ‘minute book’ of Thomas A Hill & Co – full of wonderful details from way back at the beginning of the 20th century. We’re fascinated by the stuff we’ve read and we’ll be giving a glimpse of what’s inside in a future piece here on the site.
It was great pleasure to welcome back Peter Hill and very pleasing indeed that we have his blessing on the direction Sunspel is going in.