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Bellstaff Brand 1924–33 Belstaff 1933–present
The company Bellstaff Brand was founded by Eli Belovitch (1876– 1943) and his son-in-law, Harry Grosberg (1902–92), near Stoke-on- Trent, Staffordshire. They produced waterproof garments for both men and women, with an emphasis on motorcyclists who participated in a thriving popular sport. They were the first company in the world to use wax cotton in the production of breathable waterproof clothing. The Bellstaff Brand trademark was registered in 1927, and the company began offering a bespoke service for race car drivers and aviators, producing clothing for Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson and T.E. Lawrence.

In 1933 the company name changed to Belstaff, and they opened a factory in Longton, Staffordshire. In 1940 Belstaff began working as a contractor for the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry, producing a variety of items for the war effort, including flying and survival suits, as well as parachutes. Following Eli Belovitch’s death, the company became a subsidiary of James Halstead in 1948, a flooring company specializing in producing rubberized fabric and flooring based in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester.

In 1948 Belstaff introduced the Trialmaster jacket, a short, belted waxed jacket with a mandarin collar, four bellowed pockets on the front and a waterproof lining. The jacket would become an iconic staple for the company, worn by Che Guevara, Steve McQueen and Will Smith. This was followed in 1950 by the Black Prince, a two-piece motorcycle suit initially made in a material called Ironhyde, which was Belstaff’s name for its waterproof PVC rubberized fabric. Belstaff reversed the waterproofing process invented by Macintosh by sandwiching the cloth between layers of rubber instead of the other way around. It featured a wrap-over closure with poppers to fasten and two pockets to the lower front. The continued rise in popularity of motorcycling saw demand for the Black Prince soar, leading to an additional factory opening in 1953 in Silverdale, Staffordshire, to cope with demand.

By 1990 over 1.6 million jackets had been sold by Belstaff. Belstaff introduced detachable linings in 1960 with the Belstaff Trojan jacket, a feature that the Trophy jacket and Brooklands blouson jacket retain to this day. In 1981 the company introduced the Roadmaster jacket, named after the Scottish Six Days Motorcycle Trial. It was a slimmer version of the Trialmaster jacket, with a double-ended zip and one of its four front pockets placed at an angle. The Longton and Silverdale factories closed in the early 1990s, and the jackets were manufactured in Vienna. In 2004 James Halstead sold Belstaff to Franco Malenotti of Sponsor SA Italy; flagship stores were opened in Manchester and Rome in 2007, followed by Milan and Madrid in 2008.

In 2011, the company was acquired by the Labelux Group. In 2011 Martin Cooper was appointed as Chief Creative Officer and Belstaff repositioned itself as a luxury fashion brand, with 80 per cent of its production now taking place in Italy and its headquarters moving to Milan. Belstaff launched their first Autumn Winter men’s and women’s collection during London Fashion Week in February 2012. The company also launched the Beckham for Belstaff line in 2013 to appeal to a celebrity-focused customer. From June 2012 they showed menswear collections at London Collections Men, and later at London Fashion Week Men’s until June 2019, and womenswear collections at London Fashion Week until June 2017. In 2013, a 25,000-square-foot flagship store on London’s New Bond Street opened, and in 2014 two stores opened in Seoul, Korea. In 2017 Belstaff was bought by the INEOS Group. Martin Cooper stepped down in 2014 and was succeeded by Frederik Dyhr as vice president of men’s design and Delphine Ninous as vice president of women’s design. Ninous took over as collection creative director following Dyhr’s departure in 2016, overseeing both men’s and women’s collections. Delphine Ninous stepped down as creative director of Belstaff in 2018, and Sean Lehnhardt-Moore was appointed in her place.
Sources: Belstaff: A History of Speed & Style (London: Belstaff, 2016); Drapers; WWD.

Vexed Generation was founded in 1994 by Joe Hunter (b. 1967) and Adam Thorpe (b. 1969) in response to the British government’s proposed Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. In 1995 they opened a retail store at 12 Newburgh Street, Soho, London. The initial store installation created an unsettling retail environment, with whited-out windows, gravel white marble chippings as flooring, CCTV cameras and no visible staff. Clothing was hung within a large glass box, accessible only through hand-sized holes similar to those found in incubation chambers. The walls featured statistics such as ‘Asthma kills 2,000 children and adults a year in the UK’. In December 1996 they relocated to the first floor of 3 Berwick Street, London. The new shop featured a yellow sun filter on the windows, a blue-tinted light box mounted on the ceiling and bright green walls. The garments were suspended from the walls via ‘breathing lungs’, which were inflatables inserted into the garments to give them shape.

Vexed Generation were early adopters of the internet as a platform for disseminating their work and challenging ideas about fashion communication and marketing; for example, if visitors did not first read the designer’s manifesto before viewing the garments, their website automatically locked them out for twenty-four hours. In 1994 the company introduced the Vexed one-strap bag which was later produced under licence by the American bag company Yak Pak. In 1998 Vexed Generation launched a second label, Crusader 21, that was focused on performance utility-wear. The name was inspired by the British Army, which pioneered a three-layer uniform system capable of withstanding extreme weather and environmental conditions. They launched VexeDenim in 1998 and were among the first fashion brands to use DuPont Teflon fabric protector on denim. Vexed Generation partnered with PUMA in 2003 to design two clothing ranges drawing on their technical and functional aesthetic. Vexed Generation was voluntarily wound up in 2007, and Vexed Design was founded later that year to carry on the designers’ socially responsive ethos through collaboration and consultation with several household names. In 2018, in conjunction with Byronesque and online retailer FARFETCH, the label reissued eleven designs from their past collections.
Sources: Business Wire; Design Week; Drapers; Independent on Sunday; Menswear; Sydney Morning Herald; The Guardian; The Independent; WWD.