Made in Britain vs. British Heritage

These are not the same thing. They are not even close to the same thing. But many in the fashion industry have spent a considerable amount of energy making sure you cannot easily tell them apart.

British heritage is a story. It is luscious mood boards and oozing marketing copy and delicious photographs taken on misty hillsides. It is the invocation of Savile Row, of Scottish mills, of generations of craftspeople. It costs a lot to put on the show, but with that done, a brand can have a shopfront in Mayfair, source its fabrics from Italy, and make everything in Portugal — and still present itself, with a straight face, as a champion of British craftsmanship.

Made in Britain is something you either do or you don't do. It means that the garment in your hands was cut, sewn and finished on these islands, by people paid to do so here, in workshops and ateliers that exist here. It is either true or it is not.

The problem is that marketing blurs the line between the two. Brands can reference British heritage, British fabrics, British inspiration, and British founders without a single stitch having been made in Britain. Some brands make a portion of their range here — their signature piece, their flagship product, the one that appears in every press photograph — and manufacture the rest elsewhere. And yet they "champion British makers."

Championing British makers does not mean cherry-picking. It does not mean making your tweed blazer here and your knitwear in Turkey. It does not mean sourcing your cloth from an Italian mill and then sending it to Portugal to be cut and sewn. It does not mean referencing a W1 postcode as a proxy for British craftsmanship when the actual making happens somewhere else entirely. These are not small distinctions. They are the difference between supporting British manufacturing and trading on its reputation.

At EdNerat, everything is made here. Everything. Our coats are cut and made entirely by hand in London. Our labels are embroidered in London. Our care labels are woven in Neath. Our packaging is made in Woolwich. Our belts are made in Herefordshire. Our stationery is printed in Cornwall. We have gone to considerable lengths to do everything we possibly can within the British Isles — not because it makes for good marketing copy, though maybe it does, but because we believe it is worth it. We believe local livelihoods matter and we believe that skills should survive.

When you buy an EdNerat coat, British pattern cutters and tailors, pressers and finishers, weavers, embroiderers are involved — the people whose skills we are trying to sustain and whose livelihoods depend on there being people like us willing to use them. Skills that are not practised are lost. Workshops that close do not re-open. The British textile industry is not a heritage attraction. It is a living thing that requires living customers.

So when you are choosing where to spend your money, it is worth asking the question that the industry would rather you didn't: not where was this designed, not where was the fabric woven, not where does the founder live — but where was this fabric and garment actually made?

The answer, for EdNerat, is here.