Wednesday 23 November 2011

October and November at William Halstead

The months of October and November have been the busiest I can remember for a long time at William Halstead.
We have visited many countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Paris and Russia for various events and promotions of the company.
Korea
The first event was in association with a very special customer of ours in Korea. Cambridge Members hosted an event in Seoul Korea in support of the Campaign for Wool to which William Halstead were delighted to attend.
The event was held in Ambassador Uden’s residency in Seoul and attended by a select handful of British manufacturers and customers to promote British fabrics in Korea and especially help cement our relationship with the Cambridge Members team.
We were driven round the production plant the next day and got a real insight into the next stage of the production process and it was exciting to see where our cloth is delivered once it has left the mill in Bradford.
Over the entire trip was a huge success and we felt privileged to be included in such a prestigious event so a personal thank you to the Cambridge Members for this kind invitations.

Russia
The second event William Halstead attended was at Zhukoffka Plaza in Moscow’s Luxury Village.
 The event was set up to promote Italian designer Vincenzo Brandonisio who had a fabulous fashion show displaying his creations on the catwalk.
This was an excellent opportunity to meet with the store owner and by extension the general public who buy the finished garments made from our cloth which is always interesting.

As a new market for William Halstead we really got to understand the element of luxury desired by the Russian people, particularly our Cashmere by Joshua Ellis and Vicuna products by William Halstead were of great interest.

Dream Suit Event
The main reason for the trip to Russia was to launch our newest product to the market place which is 100% Worsted spun Vicuna.
We are offering this into Russia through our customer Dream Suit who will be selling the Vicuna on a made to order basis for each individual suit length. We can supply Black Navy and Natural colours, if a customer has a particular design they wish to create we can also work closely with the customer to create the desired design for the suit length. We can also personalize the selvedge with the customer and or tailors name and even design a pinstripe to state the customer’s name in the stripe. A surcharge will is applied for this service.  
The price is 2500 GBP per meter
Dream Suit hosted an evening with 60 of their top customers to present the William Halsted 100% worsted spun Vicuna to the public. This will feature in their new store which is launching this month in Moscow.
Also featuring in the event were our sister companies Joshua Ellis, Charles Clayton and John Foster.
There was great enthusiasm from the Russian press and Forbes magazine and Russian shopping guide are particularly keen to feature this project in the next issue of their magazines.
This event has really given the SIL group companies great exposure into Russia and over the coming months we expect our business to grow thanks to the help and support of the Dream Suit event.

Press









We were fortunate enough to be contacted through Twitter @WilliamHalstead by The Tweed Pig who has featured William Halstead in a small section on their blog.
It is so rewarding for us to feature on this blog as the “Masters of Mohair” A title we quite like the sound of.  
A special thank you to The Tweed Pig for including us in your blog
We have also had confirmation we will be featuring in Twist magazine - UK
Wish Magazine - Australia
Forbes Magazine - Russia
Russian Shopping Guide - Russia
Talking about our design your own cloth project and the 100% Worsted spun Vicuna

Coming Soon

For the next month we are preparing now to launch our fabrics with a personal friend of mine who has recently launched his own store in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire called 13 Nelson Street.
13 Nelson Street 
13 Nelson Street ran by Marlon Williams is to host a store launch in January where William Halstead fabrics will feature. Marlon will also be offering the design your own cloth to his wide range of customers as well as the stock supported bunches. More details of this event to follow shortly.

Monday 24 October 2011

Customer Designed 100% Bespoke Suit Lengths Made by William Halstead - Number 1




New Bespoke Fabrics - Made by William Halstead

I am delighted to inform you that J. H. Cutler is now offering new truly bespoke fabrics by William Halstead exclusivley in Australia designed to your specific requirements that you can order for your next bespoke suit.

You can personally design the fabric, with John's input if required, to feature any colour or combination of colours, any pattern and any weight.

We will then hand produce the fabric on a wooden 100-year-old sample loom at the Bradford mill in West Yorkshire, England.  A town that has been producing woollen fabrics since the 18th century. It’s the old style wooden loom that allows us to produce the relatively small quantity required for an individual suit.

Bespoke fabrics such as this have featured in Hollywood blockbusters, fashion catwalks and celebrity fashion shoots.

An esteemed client of John's for many years standing has already ordered William Halstead's first length of bespoke fabric that is currently awaiting delivery.

Each Suit length is limited edition and comes numbered with a certificate of authenticity and special woven label inside the presentation gift box. 

We will keep you informed on progress, but if you would like more details on this exciting development exclusively from John H Cutler in Australia please call John on 02 9232 7122. Or for the rest of the world contact Sales@WilliamHalstead.co.uk

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Sister companies featured together in fashion look book

William Halstead (right) and Joshua Ellis (left) fabrics stand together in a fashion look book for 2011


William Hlastead boating stripe cloth was featured in this 2011 look book for a customer in New York. The suit worn on the far left, is that of sister company Joshua Ellis,

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Milano Unica - Ideabiella September 2011


Milano Unica is the biggest show of the year for William Halstead and we are proud to exhibit at Ideabiella in February and September. This season we were particularly busy at the show seeing roughly 60 top customers from around the globe.

We share our stand with our sister company Joshua Ellis http://www.joshuaellis.co.uk/

The collection was well received and in particular our Winter Mohair flannels, Coatings and new stock service all Wool “British Classic” bunch to add to our range, and our vintage looks in the suiting collection. All of which can be viewed at our website http://www.williamhalstead.co.uk/

We were happy to see new customers from Russia and China and happy as always to see our existing customers that come back to see us time and time again. The quality of customers at the show is particularly appealing to William Halstead and this is why we feel that this show is better for us to exhibit at rather than Premier Vision in Paris.

We are now busy getting our priority selections out to customers and look forward to our agents in Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong/China  showing this seasons collections around the marketplace.

Munich Fabric Start September 2011

Munich Fabric Start in Germany was the first show for William Halstead this season. Our representative Jane Cook attended the show with our German contact Matthias.

William Halstead are pleased to announce that we have have officially appointed a new agent in Germany named Ivo Voehringer who will also be looking after Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland for us. His details will appear on our website http://www.williamhalstead.co.uk/ in the near future.

We saw many customers from all corners of Europe and our presence at the show is going from strength to strength and is helping build solid relationships with new and old customers.
With the launch of our new stock service bunch "British Classic" later this month and our brand new Travel suit range coming in November this was an exciting prospect to deliver at the show. For more information visit our website http://www.williamhalstead.co.uk/

Although Munich Start is not as popular as Premier Vision Paris or Milano Unica for William Halstead it is an important show as we can meet many customers from smaller markets in Europe who don't travel to the bigger shows in Italy or Paris. This is our third year at Munich start and we hope to continue to grow our business and presence in Europe continuing to exhibit at this show.

We are busy now preparing our selections to send out to the customers and are eager for Ivo to start showing the collection around market.

Thursday 22 September 2011

The Campaign For Wool

HRH Prince Charles visited Bradford in November 2010 in support of the Campaign For Wool (to which William Halstead are brand supporters) to meet industry workers, and William Halstead were invited to a special gathering at the Town Hall in Bradford.

HRH gracefully met with Iain Milligan and Philip Seal from William Halstead and spoke for a few minutes about the Mill and the history behind the company. He was particularly interested in the archive book on display that shows designs from every cloth we have ever made from 1875 to present day. He then met with other representatives from local companies in the industry and proceeded to Haworth Scouring for a tour of their production plant.

The Campaigns website is http://www.campaignforwool.org/ and is doing magnificent work to raise the awareness of this magnificent fiber


William Halstead first blog


Hi There and welcome

Our first blog will be a little introduction into who we are and what we do.

So our Company has been running since the year 1875 ina small town in the North of England called Bradford. We are the world's finest weavers of super mohairs and fine worsteds. Our company name is William Halstead and our website is http://www.williamhalstead.co.uk/

We make cloth for mens suitings and we are very good at it. Our customers are worldwide and we have one of the best reputations in the industry for producing the highest qulaity products. These cloths grace the catwalks of Paris, Milan and New York every season for the world's leading fashion houses. We are owned by a textile group named SIL Holdings http://www.silholdings.co.uk/ also based in Bradford which like William Halstead is a family run business.

Some other companies in our group are Chalres Clayton http://www.charlescayton.co.uk/ Joshua Ellis http://www.joshuaellis.co.uk/ Roberts Dyers and Finishers http://www.robertsdyers.co.uk/ Abbotsford 2010 http://www.abbotsford2010.co.uk/ and finally John Foster http://www.john-foster.co.uk/

Twice a year we show a collection at the fabric shows Munich Fabric Start in Germany and Ideabiella in Italy where we meet the most prestigous brands in the world and they make selctions of our collection.
We also run stock supported bunches all year round available direct form the mill in British Mohair and British Super 120's. We also have a new bunch which will be available at the end of September called Explorer.

We have excellent loyal customers who come and see us at these shows and without their support we would not be here today. Our biggest market would be South Korea and we are known as the biggest mill in this market.
Other good markets for us are Italy, Japan and increasingly in the USA.

Using technology and social networking websites we can also be found on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ and our username is @WilliamHalstead.
We also have a Facebook page which is www.Facebook.com/WilliamHalstead

Please sign up to this blog and we shall keep you posted on our world of textiles and the generations that we are weaving together.