Once I was rising up, the ‘Duffer’ of St George meant hoodies. You noticed them on folks like Jamie Oliver and David Beckham, and ripped off in each road market. It gave the impression to be the definition of an empty hype model.
However that was the tail finish of the Duffer story – the sluggish decline that noticed founders step by step go away and the corporate offered after which offered once more. Within the early years it was extremely modern, each by way of the manufacturers it labored with and the kinds it began.
From a basic menswear standpoint, it introduced manufacturers like John Smedley, Lavenham and Waterproof coat to prominence. It made Tricker’s cool, and Brady baggage. They even had their very own tailoring store on Savile Row.
On the workwear facet Duffer was the primary to import Crimson Wing and Woolrich. It popularised Carhartt and Evisu. Classic trainers weren’t a factor till they began shopping for up outdated Nike and Adidas.
Arguably in addition they got here up with the now-ubiquitous look of puffas and trainers. Again within the late 80s nobody wore puffa jackets – they had been offered in locations like ski retailers, very similar to Waterproof coat was seen as driving gear. Duffer made all these into gadgets of style, of fashion.
I’d learnt a little bit of this through the years, however an opportunity encounter introduced me into the guts of it.
Ready for my practice to Gatwick final month, on the way in which to Pitti, there was just one different particular person on the platform. He was sporting a sheepskin coat and white denims – a uncommon prevalence at 6am in East Dulwich, and I suspected he could be on his option to Florence too.
Once I acquired to the airport, I bumped into Billy and Nick from the model Horatio, and this sheepskin-clad gentleman was with them. Turned out he was Eddie Prendergast, one of many founders of Duffer and later of the store Current (under). He was additionally Billy’s Dad (each Billy and Nick labored in Current when it was open) and he lived not far away.
Quite a lot of tales had been swapped on the aircraft, just a few extra exterior The Fiddler’s Elbow in Florence, and again in East Dulwich, Eddie and I met up for a drink to undergo the entire historical past of Duffer from begin to end.
Eddie is a stand-up man, and he does have a lot of tales. Again when Duffer began within the mid-eighties, they had been promoting classic from a stall in Camden Market. Jeremy Hackett and Crimson or Lifeless began doing it across the similar time.
Quite a lot of Duffer’s inventory again then got here from Military surplus shops. “There was this one known as Chequers close to the Ford manufacturing facility in Dagenham,” Eddie says. “Ford didn’t provide clothes to their staff, so everybody needed to go subsequent door to purchase their overalls and chore jackets.
“We went the primary time and noticed this line of massive cubicles, every crammed up with a unique dimension of Levi’s. When the agent got here to fill them up, he simply dumped the brand new inventory on high of the outdated, so the outdated stuff was buried on the backside – and everybody needed the brand new ones anyway.” Eddie and the crew purchased the underside of each stack, a whole bunch of pairs, going proper again to the Nineteen Fifties.
The crew travelled to the US too, initially searching for classic and later for brand spanking new inventory. “We purchased these Schott puffa jackets and nylon coach jackets on Canal Avenue, and all the fellows had been laughing at us – silly limeys! – as a result of nobody needed to put on it.
“However we purchased them for 5 {dollars} and offered them for 50 again within the UK. Nobody right here had seen these kinds earlier than – this was earlier than the web. They knew the 50s look, baseball jackets and Converse, however this and [Adidas] shell toes had been fully new.”
The identical factor occurred in a store in Boston, the place they found a whole bunch of Nike waffle trainers languishing within the basement. At one level Duffer even approached Nike to remake classic kinds, as a result of they had been so in style. Nike stated they weren’t , they had been about innovation, and so the long run. How instances have modified.
One factor I discover attention-grabbing about this story is the way in which Duffer might make issues cool – as a result of they had been cool, and since there have been nice menswear retailers across the nation.
The coolness got here from cultural touchstones – they had been lauded by The Face journal and had been intently related to the music scene, operating their very own membership nights. And there was a community of shops to promote it.
“There was no web, no on-line procuring, so each native menswear retailer managed what guys purchased, what they wore to the golf equipment,” Billy says. “And so they needed Duffer, as a result of that was what was cool in London – it gave them actual management.”
It wasn’t simply regional shops both. Ultimately Duffer had been in Selfridge’s and Harrod’s, had one then two retailers in Covent Backyard, and had been offered internationally.
From a mode standpoint, essentially the most important factor might be the way in which Duffer blended genres – in a lot the identical approach as Ivy fashion had finished. The Duffer guys beloved conventional English clothes but additionally American sportswear, they usually pioneered each New Period caps and selvedge denim.
“Again then Tricker’s had been for pig breeders, Smedley was underwear and Brady baggage had been for fishermen – it was what you stored your maggots in,” says Eddie. “We blended all of it collectively. At one level the search for us was a covert coat with denims and Crimson Wings. And even leather-based trousers.
“Some Japanese guys had been doing this, they usually had been all the time the quickest to catch on,” he says. “However nobody else was within the US, the UK, actually Europe. We had been disruptors.”
The closest equal in recent times has in all probability been Drake’s or Aimé Leon Dore. Not simply within the mixing of genres however the playfulness with which it was all finished.
That look of a covert coat with denims and leather-based footwear was one thing Joseph Pollard of August Particular introduced up in our latest interview. Joseph began at Duffer, and he’s solely one in all a number of influential those that did.
Brett Roddis, senior designer at North Face for a few years, was a recent of Pollard’s and moved to the US on the similar time. Fraser Moss, founding father of YMC, was one other, whereas Charlie Younger of Palace was at each Duffer and Current. Duffer was additionally influential for the founding father of Supreme, James Jebbia, who imported it into the US. Oh, and Orlando Bloom labored there.
All through its historical past, Duffer took a number of sharp turns. “When everybody began doing the city look, we closed down for just a few months and opened up once more with a very new one,” says Eddie. “We hated everybody sporting our stuff – we had been snobs principally, all the time had been.”
However at varied levels there have been disagreements on path and founding members left. Clifford Bowen left in 1989 and tried to sue the others for future earnings. A majority stake was offered to German Thomas Hiedecker in 1994 and the next 12 months Barrie Sharpe left.
This was when Duffer grew to become mainstream: “Jamie Oliver was sporting it, David Beckham, Mrs Beckham, even little Brooklyn Beckham,” says Eddie. Just a few years later they licensed the title to Debenhams (not a really high-end retailer, for these exterior the UK). In 2008 the corporate went into administration and was purchased by JD Sports activities.
Eddie arrange Current at that time, and the one different founder left, Marco Cairns, nonetheless runs the Japanese arm, owned by conglomerate Itochu (under).
The bizarre factor in the present day is that searches for Duffer of St George principally deliver up photographs from these latest years, and solely the occasional shot from the previous. It is the issue with being pre-internet.
There was a revival of curiosity in Duffer in 2014, when a brief movie was made about their historical past, however articles from that point are principally what survive. There’s little else round. (Under is a shot of Eddie from a movie on The Face web site about Adidas Superstars.)
It appears extraordinary that so many English manufacturers we all know had been introduced into the sunshine by Duffer, and so many American manufacturers had been imported for the primary time. Reminiscences are quick, and it’s straightforward to suppose these manufacturers have all the time been right here, all the time been related. It’s additionally a reminder that with out good consumers and shoppers, conventional makers might simply slip into obscurity once more.
OK, another story. So at one level, the Duffer guys needed to promote Hawaiian shirts. Nobody else appeared to, or not nicely. They despatched an intern to the American embassy in London, as a result of it had a cellphone ebook for each state within the US.
“They had been informed to undergo the cellphone ebook, and write down each firm that had ‘shirt’ within the title,” says Billy. “Then the fellows faxed every one and requested for a pattern. In a while they ended up going to Hawaii, and relaunching a few outdated manufacturers.
“However within the days earlier than the web, when you needed to supply an uncommon producer, you needed to suppose exterior the field.”
One of many different issues the Duffer guys launched was the Yogi fashion of moccasin boot (above). They grew to become in style within the late nineties and are once more now, however Duffer did them within the early nineties, as evidenced by these boots within the Victoria & Albert Museum – one in all 4 Duffer items the museum holds – from 1993.
