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Colour Flash

ELLA ALEXANDER 03 September 2010 0 Comments

KNITWEAR label Huxley wants to revolutionise British knitwear by injecting it with a little colour. "The label was set up to basically answer two questions; namely, where had all the vibrant coloured knitwear gone? And why are we so quick to eschew British manufacturing?" says Benjamin Benton, Huxley's founder. "As such we set out to produce high quality, brightly coloured, British-made knitwear and accessories."

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The label, established in 2009, comprises a selection of crew neck and V-neck jumpers, cardigans and vests all made in Hawick, Scotland where Pringle also makes its famous knitted collections.

Benton worked in hedge funds before taking the plunge and moving into fashion.

"I was working in London in a city job that allowed me no creativity, and in which I felt I was wasting my life," he tells us. "As such I started to explore an idea I had at university, prior to the launch of stores like Uniqlo, which was for a clothing company specialising in brightly coloured, well-made and well-fitted, basic pieces."

Why does Benton believe the British are so good at making knitwear?

"We have a climate that demands we wrap up warm for large swathes of the year and we have a rich history of sheep farming for wool," he says. "We have developed both wools and practices that have, over the years, produced some of the world's best knitwear."

What is his favourite Huxley piece?

"I spend a lot of time in my coral V-neck and our new cardigans are a wonderful cut and look great in any of the colours dependent on what mood you're in," he says. "I am a huge fan of both our pink and yellow woven belts. It is amazing what a flash of colour can do."

Under the title "Helping Corporate Drones Live Their Dream", Time magazine this morning ran an interesting little article about the current trend for young entrepreneurs leaving their corporate jobs to run small-businesses. And the one man they felt the need to get a quote from? That's right, Mr Benjamin Benton, Founder of Huxley Colour Ltd! To quote from the article - "I wanted a return to premium British clothing," says Benton, 25, of his new venture. "I wanted to bring color back". Brilliant! To read the full article click here.

All this weekend Huxley will be a Polo in the Park at the Hurlingham Club in Putney, London. If you are in the vicinity or at the Polo, please do pop in and say hi. The weather is tipped to be off-the-chart, and our deck chairs do look mighty tempting!

Some of you may recognise this face. Well he is now being touted by GQ.com as potentially the best-dressed man in Britain. What is the secret to his success? Well the new Deep Purple Huxley cardigan (coming soon) and Raspberry Beret socks can't have harmed his cause! To ensure Marits is crowned the best dressed man in Britain please vote for him here. 

Last week, we were lucky enough to be invited down to the Saracens Rugby Club training ground to photograph some of England's brightest young rugby talent in some of England's brightest knitwear. I think Huxley's presence was a positive one - Saracens went out the following day and trounced rivals Harlequins at Wembley. Congratulations lads! Above are a couple of sneak preview shots of the day with more to follow in due course in our Summer catalogue.

The players in question are:

Luke Baldwin, Scrum Half - Very Green

Will Frazer, Flanker - Cobalt Blue

Jamie George, Hooker - The Coral

Richard Haughton, Wing - Sunny Delight

Alex Goode, Full Back - Deep Purple

Lucy Page, PR - The Coral

As we mentioned in this months newsletter, Huxley is now stocked in Murdock London. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Murdock, they are a group of Barber & Grooming Stores that combines men’s barbering services with a retail offering rooted in high-end male grooming. They currently have three barber shops in Mayfair, Shoreditch and Libertys, and they have built a very strong brand identity through their focus on old-school, British service and products. As such they are looking to expand this brand identity into fashion. In both the Shoreditch and Mayfair stores Murdock will be introducing some hand picked pieces from brands who share their ethos and aesthetic. All of which means that now you will be able to find Huxley, alongside some other great brands, in Murdocks barber shops. Why not pop in to your nearest Murdock barbershop and get that much needed wet shave, moustache trim or hair cut whilst stocking up on some handpicked items from Huxley and others!

As you will see below, since Christmas we have been tucked away in a dark room working on some new styles of jumper for Huxley. And here are the first sightings of the fruits of our labours. Will be introducing a lovely simple sleeveless sweater with the same slim cut as our current styles, as well as a neatly fitted cardigan. Both styles will be made in our traditional Merino wool, and maintain our subtle branding. Unfortunately these new styles will not be available in the online store until the Summer, but you can trust us when we say they are worth waiting for!

As many of you will know, there is a wonderful new store in Notting Hill that goes by the name of Wolf & Badger. This new store stocks only the brightest and best new design talent accross fashion, jewellery, art, etc. And the good news for us is...they also stock Huxley.

As you can see from the pictures above, the stores interior is wonderfully simple allowing each product to speak for itself. Huxley attended the launch of the store a week or so ago and was blown away by not only the store and the brands on offer, but also by the huge interest generated by the launch. In the week or so since the launch the likes of Esquire, The Times, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Candy, Dazed Digital, vanityfair.co.uk, Maire Claire and more have been writing up the store as the next big thing!

So pop into the store to see us. Not only will you be able to experience Huxley’s clothes, but you will discover great new brands such as Hentsch Man and Carreduker.

The nice people at Sheerluxe have quite rightly spotted that a Huxley jumper would make the perfect gift for someone special this Valentines day. We of course couldn't agree more!

As some of you may know, Huxley has had a pop-up shop in Kingly Court, London since before Christmas.

It has been wonderful! But alas, all good things must come to an end. As such we finish our tenure there on the 5th February. 

We would like to get rid of all our shop stock - it means it will be less of a hassle to pack up the shop.

To this end we have 20% off everything in store. This puts our British made 100% Merino wool jumpers at £55 and our British made cotton socks at £5.60.

We are almost giving them away!

Where is Kingly Court?

Good question!

Our address is as follows:

Unit 1.10, Kingly Court

London, W1B 5PW

Google our postcode for a map - it is basically just off Carnaby Street, which is very near both Regent Street and Oxford Street. We are on the first floor.

I must apologise for the photos, but the news is good enough to excuse some grainy photos. Huxley has opened its first store! We will be in Unit 1.10, Kingly Court, London everyday up until Christmas and even for the January sales afterwards. If you are in the vicinity then please do come in and say hi. It would be great to meet and chat with some of our customers. I hope everyone is starting to feel festive and getting their Christmas shopping done. See you all soon!

We just finished our second photoshoot which was designed to get some great new press photos in the run up to Christmas. Here are some of the shots that we got. There are plenty more where that came from and they will be appearing in the press and online in good time. Thought people might appreciate a sneak peak though! Enjoy. 

The Huxley PR machine has been in full swing in the lead up to Christmas and despite our diminutive size and relative youth, people are starting to take notice. Above are a couple of pieces from Venue Magazine in Bristol and Country & Town House magazine. Both extolling the virtue of Huxley as a great buy for Christmas. We couldn't agree more!

The gospel according to Huxley is starting to spread! We were recently the subject of a great article on the wonderful site Sheerluxe.com. The feature in it's entirety can be seen below:

"As the husbands/other halves of us SheerLuxers will attest, we’re a lot more likely to experiment with new brands than they are. When it comes to clothing, the men in our lives would much rather stick to the shops they know and trust – Ralph Lauren, Crew Clothing, and Pink, namely.

So when a new brand actually makes it into their wardrobes (which is harder than passing through airport security), we know it’s a keeper.

Their latest allowance? Huxley – new purveyors of the brightest and best jumpers, in the softest merino wool.

In the sea of grey, dull navy and brown that seems to dominate menswear departments, Huxley’s rainbow coloured jumpers (we love Cobalt Blue and The Coral) are a welcome change, and are just the thing for pairing with snappy shirts, cords and loafers, whether he’s      18 or 80.

The folks at Huxley are all about high-quality, British-made knitwear, so you can be sure that your chosen jumper will arrive in tip top condition, having been made in Scotland by a manufacturer who has been churning out great knits since 1874. What’s more, there’s no blatant branding – just a little embroidered ‘H’ on the left sleeve.

Our judges are tougher than Simon Cowell and they approve...

Visit www.HuxleyClothing.co.uk

1. What do you do?

I started my own clothing company, Huxley clothing, in Febuary 2009. Huxley Colour Ltd is a men’s clothing company that specializes in brightly coloured knitwear and socks. We can be found at www.huxleyclothing.co.uk where you can explore our garments and shop to your hearts content (gratuitous plug!)

2. What did you do before this project?

I worked for a Hedge Fund in London. I had done this ever since leaving University in August 2007.

3. How long have you dreamt of doing what you are doing?

Running my own business is something I have dreamt of for as long as I can remember. It was however something that I assumed needed lots of capital and lots of experience, and as such had assumed I would have to work to the age of 35-40 before I could even think of doing it. I then came up with the idea for Huxley in my last year at University about 2 years ago. I started doing the sums and creating some fantasy accounts for the sort of company I wanted to launch on holiday roughly a year ago. It was then that I realized that by keeping things simple and by keeping costs tight I could realize my dream without bundles of money or years of experience. The only hurdle then was having the balls to leave my job and start the long and lonely road to launching my own company.

4. From a practical perspective, how did you plan for it?

As mentioned above I started doing research and working out some of the numbers behind the business about a year before I actually left my job. Once I was happy that I had a viable business model in theory, I then set out to discover if there were people in the UK who could produce the sort of clothing I was going to want to produce. This was simply a case of Googling and calling people with my hypothetical proposition. Once I was sure that my theoretical business would be executable, I sat sown and wrote the first draft of what would become Huxley Colour Ltd’s business plan. This was all finished before I completely decided to resign from my job. This meant that once I did leave my job in the city, I was in a position to press straight on and get all the nuts and bolts in place as I had laid out in my business plan.

5. How are you funding it?

I had sketched out the funding requirements of launching Huxley long before I did actually try and launch Huxley. This meant that I had worked out that; 1) I didn’t need a huge amount of start up capital; and 2) the exact amount of money I was going to need to launch Huxley. As I had this figure in my head, I was able to call upon my most immediate potential investors  – my friends and family – with the offer of small and manageable investments. Due to the fact that I had a business plan and could answer all their queries and concerns my initial requests for investment were successful and I was able to raise all the necessary start up capital from family and friends. In terms of funding my own living costs in the initial start up phases of the company (it is amazing how reluctant one becomes to take any money out of their business once it has launched) I started putting aside large chunks of my paypacket each month whilst I was still working but had decided to leave my job. This gave me a buffer of money to live off whilst the company was all coming together.

6. What was the hardest thing about making this happen?

The hardest thing about making this all happen was having the belief and confidence in my idea and my ability to leave my job and take the plunge into the unknown.  There will always be people with rational and sensible reasons why you shouldn’t do what you are planning on doing. The toughest thing is to ignore these sane, intelligent people and trust your instinct that you are onto a winner!

7. What has been the best thing about having made this happen?

The best thing by far has been the response from people to the company, our website and catalogue and most importantly to our products.

8. What advice would you give to other people who want to do something similar?

If your instinct is telling you to do it. Do it.

9. What resources (books, websites, articles, events etc) did you find really useful?

You can’t underestimate the usefulness of www.businesslink.gov.uk for all the nuts and bolts of setting up a company.

Sites such as www.smarta.com and www.enterprisenation.com are helpful to read about how other people launched small businesses.

Other than that I find that www.facebook.com and www.bbc.co.uk are good for keeping in touch with your friends and the outside world when you can’t leave the office!