Made in England Bed Linens Are In Production

September 19, 2017

Bed linen will soon be added to the growing catalogue of products made from English Fine Cottons yarns.

Luxury linen maker Peter Reed has unveiled its Made in England range, which will be available in early 2018.

Bed linen fit for royalty

The prestigious brand, which holds a royal warrant for bed linen, has crafted bespoke bedding in Nelson, Lancashire, since 1861.

But since the decline of the cotton industry last century, all its cotton fabrics have been imported from Italy.

General manager of Peter Reed, Sean Clayton, said using cotton spun and woven in England ‘closes the circle’ for a British manufacturer.

He said: “A certain amount of the manufacturing has to be done in this country for a company to be able to say their product is made in the UK.

“We make up all of our bedding here, all of the embroidery is done here, so it’s always been true to say our bedding is British made.

“But in recent decades we haven’t been able to have cotton woven here because nobody was doing it – it just wasn’t possible.”

Sean comes from a long line of weavers and left a family weaving business in Yorkshire to take the job at Peter Reed in 2012. And finding a way to source cotton bedlinen fabrics woven in the UK has been his goal ever since.

“We were approached by Tracy Hawkins, of English Fine Cottons, who asked if we would like to work together, and the answer was ‘yes, of course’. It’s the last piece of the puzzle.”

Finding the missing link

The first challenge for Tracy and Sean was finding a weaver with looms big enough to manufacture bed sheets.  After scouring the country, a few manufacturers were found and the wheels were set in motion.

The first sample of truly ‘Made in England’ 450 thread count bed linen, 100% made from our Supima Star cotton, was showcased at the ‘Christmas with Peter Reed’ press launch at the Stafford Hotel, in London, last week.

Sean added: “We’re really excited about being able to provide something that’s entirely made in England.  We hope the project will continue to grow and that we can add to the collection over time.  There’s a buzz about British-made products, they’re what people want and we’re delighted to be able to offer them to our customers.”

Bringing back an industry

Tracy Hawkins said the Peter Reed launch is ‘one more success in our mission to restablish cotton manufacturing in Britain’.

She said: “Our customers want to buy cotton spun in the UK, because they are passionate about supporting British manufacturing.

“To make it worthwhile for them to buy our cotton, we have had to support them in finding ways to get the cotton woven or knitted in this country, too.

“A lot of people thought it wouldn’t be possible to get bedlinen woven in the UK, but we knew the skillset and machinery we needed was out there somewhere.

“We’re delighted that we’ve been able to accomplish this and work with a prestigious brand like Peter Reed.  And we’re all hoping that in the near future, even the Queen will be sleeping on bedlinens made from our cotton yarns.”