This piece is what I like to call the "family coat". It's a half-wrap coat that you can wear like a dressing coat, or button up for a more structured look. I refer to it as such because the whole family can wear it - it suits my daughter, who is shorter than me, and looks just as good on my wife, who is taller than me (which I hate to admit). It's totally androgynous.
It's made of a lovely cashmere mix that's super-soft and makes it just as cosy as a duffle coat, only more stylish. We've added certain design details for a bit of fun, such as a military stripe down the back of the coat and on the inside.
It is made from our unique fabric woven in the UK to our specification. Whenever I start to design a product, I begin by selecting the fibres, looking at where they come from. Then we look into the composition and twist of the yarn, followed by the construction of the cloth. It's truly a sheep-to-shop process. Being in control of the whole thing is good fun; it's like being a baker, you start in a field looking at wheat. For me, my wife is a shepherdess and so I often start in a field looking at sheep.
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This coat is in a cashmere mix; we frequently use wool from my own sheep in the garments. People often call me out on it, but it's not just a line I use – I say to them, "That's it. You're coming to Wales with me and you're going to have to trudge through a field." Our cloth is woven in British mills, where we have often supported the owners in restoring the Victorian looms there. Everything is then made in our factory in Manchester, which has been making clothes for 100 years.
(Image credit: Phil Melia)
There's a particular loom that, instead of weaving on a warp and weft, uses a Victorian hook system – like knitting, but on a roll. Because of this, I found out that the Victorians used to wear quite casual clothing, similar to the cashmere cardigan blazers people wear nowadays. The reason we didn't know this was because they always used to be photographed in their best stuff – you never see images of them dressed casually.
I work with archives the whole time and I can't find any knitwear before World War I. They must have had it but it's all gone, so we have no idea of how casual the Victorians actually were. I had no idea before I discovered this loom.
In a way, our comfortable family coat is a contemporary nod to that style of dressing.
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Nick Ashley is the creative director of Private White VC, and previewed the brand's latest designs for AW17-18 at London Fashion Week Men's this month. privatewhitevc.com
