New & Lingwood: Heritage Clothing That Lifts You Out Of The Mundane
By
11 months ago
New & Lingwood is a Great British Brand 2024
New & Lingwood is an entry in our Great British Brands 2024 book.
New & Lingwood: Great British Brand 2024
‘In 2023, we focused on rolling out our updated brand strategy. We launched our sustainability initiative, Re:New, with a pop up on Savile Row, started selling online in China – which was a big moment – and welcomed new people to our team. In 2024, we’re looking to consolidate our creative direction and accelerate on what we launched in 2023, but there are also a few new projects in the pipeline including relaunching our refurbished Chiltern Street store and some exciting collaborations.
As a heritage brand, we always focus on sympathetically evolving our styles to fit modern life rather than pursuing a relentless drive for newness – we want to be a constant in people’s lives. Over the past few seasons, we’ve introduced more relaxed fits to our tailoring, focused our cloths on softness and texture and added new styles that suit our goal to make our customers feel at home, anywhere.
In 2024, we’ll be turning our focus towards our footwear collection with that aim in mind. Because of our size, we don’t see the same benefits from leveraging AI tools that larger brands do when it comes to data analytics but I’m very much in the camp that sees it as a friend rather than a foe – as something that should be embraced in the appropriate settings and with the right controls. People will always love the idea they’re buying something handmade by a human. As a form of art, fashion remains inherently valuable, so I don’t see AI as a threat in that regard.
However, I do think it’s important we don’t get too wrapped up in the importance of using new technology at the expense of what we’re really good at: connecting with people to create amazing customer experiences and create clothing that transforms people’s day and banishes the mundane.’
Freddie Briance, CEO
Five Proudest Moments
- Celebrating 150 years in 2015 – the brand was founded in 1865 and is still going strong today.
- Launching in America in 2018 to bring New & Lingwood to the New York City market.
- Introducing our boutique/ neighbourhood store concept in Chiltern Street in 2021 to spotlight our elevated loungewear and a modern interpretation of our brand.
- Bringing back Made on Jermyn Street in 2022 – we now make over 50 percent of our dressing gowns at our Jermyn Street location, along with many of our accessories.
- Launching our sustainability concept Re:New in 2023 to explore circularity and how our business needs to evolve to achieve our Net Positive goal.
What I’ve Learnt
- A heritage brand is a constant in people’s lives.
- Avoid the temptation to revolutionise your brand – gently evolve it so it’s still relevant in 150 years’ time.
- Never lose sight of what you set out to do.
NEW & LINGWOOD
53 Jermyn Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 6LX
+44 (0)8000 835102
