SPEAKER_03 0:00

Okay. Alright. Well, it's my great pleasure to introduce Iggy to the show. Iggy is the creative brain behind Workhouse England. How are we doing today, Iggy?

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Yeah, we're doing fine, thank you very much. Iggy. Alright, so whereabouts are you in the world? Um I am in a s in a in a market town called Barry St. Edmunds in Suffolk, in England.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Nice. Interesting. Yeah. Is Berry St. Edmonds famous for having the smallest pub in the world, or is that St. Ald?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Nutshell.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Nutshell. It's in Barry St. Edmonds, though, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

How do you know that?

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Uh I think I know my pubs more than I know my Barry St. Edmunds. So it's probably come up in a trivia question once or twice. But uh actually I think I've been there. It's a tiny little bar, it's just kind of like two in, two out almost.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, no, it I I have a great friend, and we have been there recently. We sat there together, and we met somebody who'd been going to that pub since he was 17 or something. So way back in the way back in the 60s, and he was still gang. And um, you know, it's it it it occasionally it has interesting people like that knocking around.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

Nice. Well, Iggy, please perhaps for the for the interest of our listeners, just give us a little thumbnail sketch of you, um, the brand and how it got off the ground, please.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Um okay, so I I was born in 1964 in Manchester, and my parents were both Pakistani, and um they they weren't married, so I would put up for adoption, and I was adopted by an English family at the age of six weeks old. Um and then we came down to Suffolk in the in the 70s, and um I grew up here in Suffolk, and then I suppose that was great fun because the 70s in Suffolk, rural England was great, and then then I went to the London College of Fashion, and then I finished that, came out, worked for some British menswear designers in um the East End, sort of Shoreditch area, um, then went to Paris to show with them. Well, I didn't show with them, they showed in Paris, and I tagged along at um a show called SEM back in the 80s, I suppose. Um, and then and then um anything else? Do you want me to carry on?

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Well, no, I'll I'll just jump in there if it's right. So how long were you in London for? What parts of London and what's the time period are you in London at that?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Yeah, so that was that was the 80s. Um I I I I mean I did the four years at college and then I left and I got various jobs. But um I mean I worked at French Connection for a bit, that was quite interesting. Um, because that pattern room was full of really amazing talented people, of which I still work with um the pattern cutter and a grader. Um, and I've been working with them, you know, it's good to have that continuity with people, and they are they are totally solid, so you know, because your patterns are so important to what you do.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Um and at the college you trained to be a c a pattern cutter.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

No, I that that's the question. Um so I think I I didn't really find myself, I didn't know what to do particularly. Um, you know, I was I guess in some respects I was I was torn between trying to be somebody or being made to be somebody I wasn't and then trying to find the person I was. Um I went to art school and and I and I panicked, I just I couldn't draw, so I found loads of people who were really brilliant at drawing, so I left sort of like by lunchtime. Um and I ended up sort of um getting another chance, and I and I got applied to the London College of Fashion to not to do a fashion design course but to do a what's called a clothing management course, which um and I sort of managed to get in there. I don't know, I think I was just keeping the numbers up for boys as opposed to boys and girls. So I they let me in, and but um I I was still kind of I I wasn't particularly in a very happy space because a lot of the people on the course hadn't they didn't even know who John Galliano was, and he was the biggest thing in London at the time, right? So they were they weren't not my sort of people, but instead of bailing, I just carried on, and I think I did meet people my uh myself, um, and made sure I did, but I finished the course, which was really important because I think you you can't kind of start something and not finish it.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

So and that's a four-year course, so that's yeah, that is quite the investment of time. So were you like a full-time student during those times, or were you working outside? No, no, no, I wasn't working. Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Well, I I worked I worked at at a place called Tea Time on Clapham Common in the afternoon, um, serving up sort of tea and coffee and and uh sandwiches, but uh was just a bit of a fun that was.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

And so from college though, you graduated and then you went straight into French Connection that way?

SPEAKER_00 5:49

No, no, no, no. French Connection was only a like a year out, so that was a work experience, but that room, that that experience in that room, because they were working on Nicole Fari, they were cutting all the time, and they were um the samples were coming in, and there were a lot of quite a few famous people who come through there. John Flett, John Galliano's friend. That room was busy. That was that room had like 10 cutters, and they were at it all day, every day. And um yeah, I got the buzz in there. Um, because you were making you because you were seeing samples being made, and uh production was coming through as well, so it was a good space to be. Um so no now. When I came out of college, I ended up working for Roger Dak, um, who made suits that probably you would you would look you would think they would be made for um oh that two of Dax? No, no, no. That's something Roger was wasn't that. Okay. No, Roger's suits were very formal looking. Um I'm thinking of the two artists who live in in Brook Lane, who who I've forgotten their names now.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

So they'll they'll come back. I'm I'm just trying to get a feel for when you when you like the period between the college your work and then like leading up to what your brainchild is now, which is uh workhouse England. Um were you thinking were you always thinking of setting up your own brand during those times? Yeah, always something from day one, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah, day one. I it it it was always a case of like gathering knowledge, information about how I was gonna do it. I knew immediately that I started in fashion that I wanted to have my own brand.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

And when did you release it? When did you launch it?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Um well after working for Roger, and I only worked for Tim Wallinger at Science back in the 80s, and they were I was excited working with Tim because they were making sheepskins, they were making t-shirt prints, they were making linen, they were printing in the studio in Old Street, they were selling it to Italy, they were selling to Japan big time. Um when I and then and then the 80s crash came, and then everybody just found it really difficult. So I got an opportunity to work for Nigel Hall, and Nigel had a market store at Camden, and he said, Why don't you run it and you can you can sell some of my things and you can make your own? So, like that that was early 90s, and I I was there, and I I I'd left London because I just got really adulted didn't really enjoy living in Brixton, and it was such a yeah, I don't know. I just I just felt really depressed in there. So I came back to Suffolk and started a business from my dad's garage. Um and I would trade at Camden Market every weekend, so I'd go on Saturday morning, come back Sunday night, or wow.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

And was your dad in the garage as well, like helping out and kind of pitching?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I'd get a knock on the door, and Mum said your lunch is ready.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

But but I mean, if it's in my dad always loved to hang around in the garage, he spent more time in the garage than he did the main house. And so I was just wondering if it's kind of like a mum, uh, like a he he he left me alone.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

He he's he's a he's a he's been my accountant ever since I started in business, and he's 90 now, and he's still he's still doing the books.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Oh bless. Oh, it's I bet it's great to have that kind of shorthand though with your accountant.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because you know, though he doesn't get he doesn't get too involved in telling me what to do, he you know, um yeah, he's let me he's always let me do what I do. Um but uh yes, I think yeah, go on.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

So I was no, I was just gonna say, but look, people that are listening to this can't actually see the great space behind you where you're sitting right now. Um it it looks kind of very authentic, vintage. You've got some patterns hanging from the wall, yeah. Large clock, you know, the the walls are painted white. I'm just wondering, is this the garage or is this an office? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

No, the garage, the garage still exists, um they're still alive. I I came into town and I found a studio across town, and it it was up in a loft with no heating, and I stayed there um for quite a long time, and we were selling to Japan at that stage. We were we had shown in London at interseason, then 40 degrees, then we'd gone to Paris. We showed it um uh the shows in Paris that were good. Um, and we got lots of orders from Japan, and I was going to Japan a lot.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

What time period were we talking here, Iggy?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I think 90. No, no, no, no, that was 2000, I think. Yeah, so we'd gone through the 90s. And is this with Workhouse England, the current workhouse England didn't occur hadn't happened then, so it was under the name Iggy. Uh-huh. Okay, all right. Which was genius. Um I never felt comfortable about calling the brand that. Um but it it just you know it just did. So um, and the great thing was we I had two we I I met two people, one of them I met at Camden, and that was that was Kevin Talon. And Kevin had lived in Geneva, and he was at St. Martin's, and he he was kind of into skate stuff. So he was knocking around Camden one day, we met, connected, and he came and we worked together on Iggy, and then uh he had his own brand Michael Keller as well, which we would we would produce as well, and and then a friend called Shukri Joel, who I met at 40 degrees. Now he was from South Africa and his father was a tailor. And he had great he's very he's a he's just he's got a lot of style. And he came and so there were three of us, and we all we worked together for a while.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Uh-huh. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

And then moving moving on from that and those those kind of early iterations, you're you're now you're now thinking about forging something outside of Iggy or moving Iggy on. Is this is what we have now just like a a further development of what was going on then?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

No. Okay. Not really. No, it it it no, it wasn't. So so like we we all grew up together, and I think we I'm I'm trying to think of the day we all separated, but I could I it doesn't feel like there was a day that we all said goodbye, but we did. Yeah, no, it's I don't know, yeah, I can't even remember that. It must have happened because were you all living together at any point?

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Were you all competent?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah, we were yeah, because I live in Suffolk, and Shukri and Kevin were in London, so they would come up and stay at the house. Right. Then I guess we we all have met girls and you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Yeah, that's say often starts with someone getting into a relationship or someone just moving to the other end of the country, someone else has uh has a kid, and then it's like right, okay, no one's available anymore.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

That's right, no one's available anymore. And Kevin win ended up working for the design lab at St. Martin's, which was a business attached to St. Martin's, and they had a client in China, and he ended up living in China for 20 years. And Shukris ended up in Tokyo, and he's there, and I saw him this year, and we hadn't really hung out since then. So he's married and he's got a beautiful boy, and um it's just to have that friendship that's it's lasted for that long, and it's like we just picked we just picked it up straight away.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Yeah, it it's just joyous to be back in Tokyo talking to him and hanging out with him, you know, at that his home, and just well, fast forwarding Iggy, to where we are now, and just yeah, yeah, I want to kind of get the idea of what what the the theme of the brand is if you had to explain it to someone that can't see the clothes, can't see the website. You know, what how's it come from your brain into uh into being, as it were?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah, I mean that that is that is very uh uh is an interesting twist, it's got some interesting twists along the way. So I had another studio and I got I got swindled out of my studio by two so-called friends, and I left that building and I went back to the house and I operated from a garden shed.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

You've been demoted from the garage to the shed?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

It wasn't even my dad's shed, it was my shed. But it was it it just I just had to do something because otherwise I would stop and I wasn't gonna stop. But um the shed I made the shed look good. It was called the Hutch, I think, at one point. And I remember I had a client from Tokyo come all the way over and I picked him up at the train station. I took him to the shed in the garage. A shed in the garage.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

Now there's a that is a concept store.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

I took into the I took him to the to the shed, and he didn't he didn't batter an eyelid. I mean, and it was look it looked grey. I mean, I'm not I'm not gonna do something that looks bad, but um so anyway, so after after a while I got the ins I got the feeling that I just wanted to own my own studio and never get involved with anyone about losing that space. So I phoned up a friend and he knew everybody in town, like the old boy network. And he said, I've he said he said, I found I found you a space, it's an old Victorian slaughterhouse. Um and Norton's got it. Do you want to look at it? So me and me and my wife, we went down to look at it, and it was it was it was in a right state, but it was 70 grand. And I just said to him, R buy it. And we bought it, we owned it in two weeks later, and and I spent I spent about 18 months taking the roof off, taking the floor up, getting new doors and windows built, um putting heating in here, and I was trying to do a bit of clothes at the same time, but I I literally I literally did it with did did it with did it myself with a with the help of a great friend who who taught me how to do it. And it was a nice break.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Sorry to cut how are you funding yourself at this point though? So like you're saying you're doing a bit of clothes, but how are you keeping the lights on?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Well I had some money. I guess I guess dad helped me out one day. He came to the studio once with a 25 grand check, and I I knew I was working my arse off, and he just came with his check one day, and I was like, bloody hell, you know, that's great. Um, and I was very frugal. I I didn't really like spend money on lots of holidays, I kept the money and I I was very proud that I didn't waste it.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Um and Ryoko had some money that her father gave to her for a wedding, so a wedding present. So we had the cash to do it. Um so yeah, so when it was finished, somehow or other, it was two things really. Somehow or rather, I found some photographs of historical stuff. Um pictures of basically the ones I really loved were the kind of like kids on the street wearing formal tailoring but worn informally, looking like they've fallen down a chimney, you know, and that kind of that kind of swagger, that kind of that smile, that they always look so damn good because the older guys who had money they always look really corpulent and very uncool. It's the kids that look the coolest. So that was the spirit that I was channeling in the end. And Ryoko, being Japanese, said to me, You what you need to do is you need to create something that the Japanese can't copy. It's got it's got Providence, it's it's it's real, and it's like English. So it's I don't know why, but Japan was always, I guess, sort of lurking in the background, you know. Um and it's not just Japan, but Japan is the most interesting country in my mind for for fashion brands to work with because they take everything so seriously, you know. Um, they it's it's another level because back in the 80s, I think there was loads of brands selling to Japan, and they would hoover it all up, but nowadays it's very different. Um, the product has to be seriously well made, you know. Although they are obsessed with the quality of manufacturing, perfection isn't that interesting, but they are into perfection, like they will check their sample we sent recently with a magnifying glass to see you know if any stitches were broken. Wow, it's just bonkers. Yeah, um, and I I need to write them a letter saying, Well, the factories in England don't really produce to perfection, it's not Japanese manufacturers, English manufacturer, and it things might be slightly wonky, and that's the vibe.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

And do you mind me asking where the clothes are manufactured in in England and and how you got that relationship? And I guess that might be something that you've had over time, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yeah, it's over time, it's over time because uh back in the days of Iggy, we were making in Portugal, and that that sort of became um that got out of hand, that did, because we made we worked with too many factories making too many different products, and uh they would only make our we would give them the delivery say in September or October, and they would only start making them in January, and we'd have to del deliver them in end of January. So the I the thing I learned about making in Portugal was um it was that was it was it wasn't right for our business, and they would they would give us so much extra stock, which we hadn't ordered, right? Yet they wanted us to pay for it. So we would send them faxes like things like are you taking the piss?

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Good old fax, straight to the point.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

And and uh you know, they didn't give it monkeys really. So um I went I went around London, I think at a few trade shows, you know, like fabric shows or you know and I and I found people, Bangladeshi people, and they had little factories in the East End, and you know I suppose because I've got brown skin and I look Bangladeshi or Pakistani, they all sort of I was one of their I was part of the gang, you know.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

So they they treated me really well. Um and they do, they they do treat me well. They I now I have a factory and they've been supporting me. You know, they like the design as well. They like what how I they they like the designs I w I do. So that's really important because if they if they didn't like designs, they wouldn't really get behind me.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

So they share the the vision and the passion and they like and it makes it easier for them as well. And uh yeah, okay. So I mean I've I've just heard that manufacturing in the UK, even though it it's on our soil, so to speak, it's more expensive than going somewhere else than say like Portugal. So do you kind of is that true now? I mean, I don't know what's what's happened since like Covid, what's happened? Well, you know, Trump.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

I've been to Portugal, I've been to Portugal on holiday about four or five times, and I haven't really sort of because my one of my oldest friends from school lives there, and I haven't had the energy and inspiration to go and visit any of the factories we've worked for. There's one shirt factory probably I'd like to go to. I would like the shirts to be made in a really good shirt factory. And I and I've come across a factory in Hong Kong that has sort of a customer came in and I was making an outfit for her because she was going to a wedding, and I was she wanted to be dressed in workhouse clothes, in workhouse England clothes, and we do menswear, we don't do women's wear, but she loved the the look and we created something really good great for her. And she came in wearing her shirt, wearing a shirt, and I was like, That's a great shirt, where's that from? And she she showed me the label, it was this really amazing label from Hong Kong, you know, sort of shirt maker label. All this right machinery was being used to make the shirt because you need special machinery, especially around the armhole for doing the the sort of um uh the lapseam and the and the and the chain stitch. Uh and and those sort of details excite me. I don't think many people um now people are getting to know about it, but would you know about that that machine?

SPEAKER_03 24:14

Uh I'm I wouldn't, I'm afraid, no. But uh look, I I like my shirt. I've got some bespoke shirts, I've got a very faithful shirt maker in Power Mow that I go to, so I do have it sounds a little bit hoity-toity, but that's just that's I'm in I'm into um I'm into the detail, I'm into for me. It primarily comes from James Bond, so I know Yeah, me too. You might know by the poster behind me, but the lady that made the shirts for Roger Moore, some oh my gosh Connery, Dalton.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

This is oh my gosh, now you're now you're like we've got we've got shared passion.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Now now we'll have to do another half an hour, but yeah, so because my dad lived in Jamaica in the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Oh really?

SPEAKER_00 24:59

So I yeah, so I used to go there. And uh, you know, Ian Fleming and the way he lived his life, having his bald eggs and then going for a swim. That's right, yeah. You know, at at Goldeneye. That was just I wanted I wanted to be there.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Yeah, I know it's it's it's a great place. It's it's it's quite expansive now, Goldeneye. I mean, it just used to be his villa, right? But now they made all these lagoons and yeah, yeah, yeah. They're expanding it still, but it's still yeah, still a magical place to go. But yeah, so just going back, I kind of through through James Bond, I I got into I got into shirts and then I got into Lapidus cuffs, I then got into double back cuffs and pointy collars. So I've I've uh but I kind of draw the line at stitching, I think, when it comes to chain stitching and what's going on under the arm fits.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Um the great thing, the great thing about life is that you will learn new things every single day if you're that sort of person and you get yourself, you know, you go and see somebody. Um, I went to see somebody yesterday. I they bought something off me and I wanted to personally deliver it. And the next minute we were talking for about an hour, um, because we did a photo photo shoot all around Suffolk and we ended up up in the Waveny Valley, and and we were talking about the historical um festivals that happened in the well, they started in the 60s, then they went 70s, 80s, and um there was this whole conversation about what these festivals were doing, you know, what they were all about, and they were connecting to the land and connecting people, and and it's really interesting because we're we're we're sort of in we're in East Anglia now, we're doing the same thing again, it's all about connection.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Well, listen, Iggy. Um I I've been really interested in your backstory, learning about you and the brand. Um thank you for all those stories and your and your candor, and especially your time as well. Next time you're in London, give me a shout and uh I'll take you to Skirtmaker. She's still rocking, so she's still so. If you're interested, uh I can facilitate an intro and have a look around the studio. Um, but the where can people find you and more importantly, the the shop, and if they want to have a look on the website, etc.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Yeah. I mean the the the um this you're very welcome to come to the studio because it's really lovely space because um we've created it in such a way that you can get to try on everything, which is in Barry St. Edmunds, and the website is Workhouse England. Um and you can buy online. We've been running the shop since 2015, so it's um it's it's we're good at this. And Ryoko's been helping me being Japanese, but it's very meticulous about the packaging and the you know, we check everything, make sure everything goes out correctly, um, which is I'm very proud of because when you possibly when you first start business, you nobody particularly wants to do the so-called boring things, and nobody wants to design. So we're we we do both now, you know. I go to sleep and I'm really proud of what we put out.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Just curious, how do what's the best way of getting to Barry St Edmunds from London, say?

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Um where you can drive, which is basically you go you go to somewhere like Ray Bridge. Down the A14. No, yeah, you're on the you're on the M4 the M you're on the M11 first. M11 first, then A14. Go on the M11 out of London, then you go on the A11 towards Cambridge, and then you go on the A14.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Ah, okay. You end up on the A14, I knew you'd be there somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, or you can take the train from Liverpool Street and you can go to Ipswich, yeah. And or you can go from King's Cross to Cambridge, yeah. You know, you can sit on the train before you know it, you're in Barrest Edmonds, and we're like five minutes from this train station.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

And how far are you away from the nutshell? Five minutes. There we go, right? So it's a day out, but you could do it all within an hour.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

You can do it all within an hour, and you can have lunch here because you know, people come to this town for the weekend and they put themselves into the restaurant on Friday night, say like 1921 or peas porridge on a Saturday then at Bellotta, uh Sunday having lunch at the Angela Hotel, and there's a market town, it's a market there, so old-fashioned, old school market. So all the stalls are outside sort of places like Marks and Spencer's and HSBC, and you know, it's it's good fun.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Yeah, no, I haven't been for a while. I know I have been, but it's it's been a minute, so I'm gonna have to put something in the diary. Listen, Iggy, thanks again. Uh really enjoyed talking to you, and hopefully, hopefully we can catch up soon either here or at your place. Yeah, yeah. And uh we'll leave all the links in the show notes for people to find you. And uh, I encourage people to have a look at the website, especially, because the photos are great, the clothes are honest, uh, lots of great, interesting designs that you wouldn't have seen before or anywhere else. So take a look. Um okay, great. Enjoy your weekend, indeed.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

You've been listening to the Menswear Style podcast. Be sure to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk for more menswear content and email for info at menswearstyle.co.uk if you would like to be a future guest on the show. Finally, please help support the show by leaving a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening to this podcast. Until next time.