Item 2018.164.1 - Nigel Cabourn Aircraft Jacket with Harris Tweed Liner

Cricket Clothing Ltd 1971–88 Nigel Cabourn 1989–present
Nigel Cabourn (b. 1949) founded his first brand Cricket Clothing Ltd in 1971, during his final year of study at Newcastle College of Art and Industrial Design. Paul Smith became his agent in 1972, assisting him to get his designs into retail outlets across the UK. Nigel Cabourn collections were shown in Paris from 1973 to 1985. In 1980 the Nigel Cabourn name was licensed to the Japanese company Anglobal who continue to distribute the brand in Japan and elsewhere in the world. The company was financed from 1985 to 1988 by Peter Bertelsen’s Aguecheek firm, which also financed John Galliano, Richard James and Alistair Blair. In 2000, Ted Baker assumed commercial responsibility for the Nigel Cabourn menswear brand, including marketing, production and distribution. The label became known for its use of Cabourn’s personal archive collection of between 3,000 and 4,000 workwear and military garments. In 2002 they began to focus on special limited-edition collections, starting with their Everest collection ‘The Ascent of Nigel Cabourn’, released in 2003. Garments included the Antarctic Parka and the Cameraman Jacket. The company formed a three-year partnership with Debenhams in 2005 to create the Nigel Cabourn Utility collection. In 2014 the first Nigel Cabourn store, The Army Gym, opened at 28 Henrietta Street, London. By 2018, the company had expanded to four distinct lines: Nigel Cabourn Authentic, manufactured in the UK; Nigel Cabourn Mainline, manufactured in Japan; Lybro, a reimagined version of the British workwear brand founded in 1927; and Nigel Cabourn Army Gym. The label has collaborated with a variety of brands, including Gloverall, Eddie Bauer, Henri-Lloyd, Tretorn, Converse, Closed, Fred Perry, Karrimor,
Converse, Red Wing, Umbro and Filson.
Sources: heddels.com; redingote.fr; Retail Week; The Evening Chronicle; The Journal; WWD.

Ventile is a special woven cotton fabric that is trademark registered. It was developed by scientists at the Shirley Institute in Manchester in the late 1930s. Extra-long-staple cotton fibres are used to weave a tight density fabric which is weatherproof. During the Second World War it was used to make immersion suits for pilots. From 1943 until 2017 it was made by Talbot Weaving in Chorley, Manchester. It is now produced by Stotz & Co. AG a Swiss manufacturer.