Type Private Products Clothing Founder Thomas Hill | Industry Fashion Website www.sunspel.com Founded 1860 | |
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Owners Nicholas Brooke and Dominic Hazlehurst | ||
Sunspel ceo how to make a heritage brand relevant to young people
Sunspel is a British clothing company, founded in 1860. Sunspel introduced the first t-shirt style tops and boxer shorts to the British market. It was owned by the Hill family until 2005, when it was sold to Nicholas Brooke and Dominic Hazlehurst. The company had a menswear line only, until 2011 when Sunspel produced its first womenswear line.
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History
Sunspel was begun in 1860 as a clothing manufacturer and West Indian cotton importer by Thomas Hill, and claims to have been the first fashion retailer to produce a T-shirt style clothing top, pre-dating the US Navy’s development of the T-shirt in 1913. The company took on the official name of Sunspel in 1937. In 1947, Sunspel was also the first company to develop the boxer short undergarment in the UK. In 1985, Sunspel was featured in a controversial advertisement for Levi’s, in which actor Nick Kamen stripped down to reveal his Sunspel boxers underneath. The company was sold to Nicholas Brooke and Dominic Hazlehurst in 2005 by Peter Hill, a descendant of the company’s founder, whose family had retained ownership of the company over the years. In the 2000s, Sunspel clothing was used to outfit the fictional film character James Bond in the Bond movies Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Then in 2011, Sunspel released its first womenswear line.
Clothing
Sunspel’s T-shirts are made of either Egyptian or Sea Island cotton, and the company also designs hooded sweatshirts, knits, vests, underwear, polo shirts, and pants. Sunspel designs are sold through Sunspel retail outlets, with locations in Europe and Australia. Its first store dedicated entirely to womenswear was opened in 2014, and its first store in Japan is set to open in 2016 through a partnership with retailer Anglobal. The company has a manufacturing plant in Nottinghamshire.
Executives and designers
Nicholas Brooke serves as the company’s current CEO and Dominic Hazlehurst is a non-executive director. The company’s creative director was designer Jonathan Anderson. As a manufacturer, Sunspel has worked with designers including Margaret Howell, Richard James, Thom Browne, and Kris Van Asche. Sunspel has also collaborated with Paul Smith, Fred Perry, Dr Martens, and Nicole Farhi.