Our Story

Hello and thank you for showing some interest in Archie Foal. 

Lustrous Utility

We are often asked what our brand ethos of “Lustrous Utility’ means? The short answer is that we aim to make good looking, luxurious, high quality clothes that are useful.  
 
To us, luxury unfolds over time: our clothes are designed to get better with wear not worse. There are no shortcuts to real quality and we take that seriously. We use the finest yarns and fabrics, and wherever possible, we make in Great Britain - currently 90% of our clothes are made here, invariably by craftsmen who’ve honed their skills over generations.

I set up Archie Foal with my friend, now business partner, Tessa in 2010, and for the first two years we just made socks, then cashmere sweaters, which we sold from pop ups, fairs and market stalls. We quickly gained a reputation for quality and being the most expensive market stall in Great Britain. We are smiling, but the picture below was taken at an outside market in temperatures below freezing (it also employs a flattering filter).

Help us spread the word

Your interest and custom is important to us as our ‘marketing’ has been by word of mouth. Some luxury brands' marketing budgets account for up to 60% of the garments cost, but as we’ve never quite managed to have a marketing budget, all of our costs go into the clothes to maintain the quality.  We would love - and also need - you to spread the word.

We now have a shop and a website, and we’ve also recently begun to supply shops as far as Japan. Many of our heritage clothes have stories to tell: the men's sweater Brody is knitted in Derbyshire by a factory that previously made medical bandages. We have employed the same knitting stitch but this time with specially sourced, tightly twisted Italian merino wool, to create a sweater that is warm yet breathable, and fitted yet flexible. It looks the business either in town or in the country. 

Our friends

The ‘... and friends’ section refers to the companies we’ve been lucky enough to find who a have a similar outlook to our own. We love them because they are all about the product. Companies like Pendleton who make blankets and homewares of such incomparable quality that they become heirlooms and collector's items. We also feature Haeckels, who have developed a range of unique skincare and fragrances of such inspiring and considered beauty in Margate, and also the brand Saint James, who have made uncompromising high quality garments since they first supplied the French navy in 1889. 

We hope to see you here again soon, if you are happy with anything you have bought from us please tell your friends, and if you’re not, please tell us and we’ll do our best to do it better.

Julian

Archie Foal Founders