European Houses

This is the oldest part of the list and the part Élise buys, on three trips a year — Florence and Biella in January, Paris in March, Copenhagen in August. It is also the part where the money is: outerwear and tailoring are the two things a boutique of this size can buy better than a department store, because a department store has to buy for a floor and we have to buy for a rail.

The Somerset name is Cawley, and it is on this list rather than its own because Élise refuses to make a category out of one house, however much she would like to.

What comes from where

Biella — the cloth

Not a designer at all. Four of our coats are cut from cloth woven in the same valley, which is why we can tell you the weight in grams and what the lining is made of.

Florence — tailoring

Two houses, both small, both making jackets that go together in a way nothing else on the rail does. The January trip exists for these two.

Paris — the middle of the rail

Seven names. Dresses, shirting, and the things that have to be right rather than remarkable. The least photogenic part of the buy and about a third of the turnover.

Copenhagen — knitwear

Four names, one of which will not repeat a colour that was popular the previous year. We buy less from them than we could sell and have stopped arguing about it.

Stockholm — the blocks

One large house, one short letter, and a wide-leg trouser block that has not changed since 2019. That is the entire reason it is on the list.

Somerset — the hands

Hand-smocking by six women who have done it for thirty years. Eleven hours a dress. Élise apologised to the founder for asking a question about margin and has not repeated it.

Buying from a big house

A large house is easier to buy and harder to keep honest. The letters get shorter as the workroom gets bigger — the Stockholm letter is four paragraphs and the Somerset one runs to two pages — and that difference is roughly the difference in how much anybody there can tell you about a specific garment.

So we buy narrowly from the big names. Four or five pieces, always the block rather than the season’s idea, and never the thing that is in the campaign. If a house is on this list and you cannot find its most recognisable product on our rail, that is not an oversight.