It’s been almost two years since my field trip to the Dr. Martens factory. Here’s a little revisit to that post made a little bit more fun and interactive with the use of ThingLink.com. Rollover the image below for more content.

Thanks to Dr. Martens for showing me around.

Stockport, Cheshire, is a town in England that lies about 6 miles south east of Manchester City centre. As part of the Industrial Revolution, many towns in this area of the nation were involved in the production of fabrics and clothing. Stockport was never a single-industry town, with factories producing accoutrements and materials such as hats and felts. However one of Stockport’s chief exports was cotton.

Like his father before him, Samuel Frederick Perry was a cotton spinner in Stockport, before pursuing a career in politics for the local Labour Co-operative. Later, Samuel Perry raised his son in west London and Fred Perry went on to become a world class tennis player, co-inventor of the sweatband and of course, the name behind the long standing menswear label.

Given this background of cotton spinning and labour interests, it seems somewhat appropriate that the latest clothing collection from Fred Perry references styles and fabrics of classic British factory and workshop wear of the 1930’s and 40’s. I think it’s unlikely that these garments are still made in the UK but the heritage seems true.

According to the press release, “the collection sees rich wool flannel jackets sit alongside heavy down coats; layered over textured knits and tri-colour marl sweats. Taking inspiration from both the factory floor and the working men’s club, the collection features refined but hardwearing pieces alongside traditional tartan and Oxford shirting, tipped and plain pique jerseys and fine gauge merino knits.”

It’s worth bearing in mind that the items in this range are not cheap. As it’s a Fred Perry ‘Laurel Wreath’ collection, this clobber is premium and the price reflects this. If you want to save a little cash, a good tip is to keep your eyes on http://www.fredsthreads.co.uk/ over the next few months, where end-of-line items are sold off at a reduced price.

Check out some of the highlights from the collection below…

You can find all of these items over at the Fred Perry site right here.

Thanks to SpinningTheWeb for an excellent history of the cotton industry in Stockport and the image at the top of this post. (source: R. Mc Neil an d M. Nevell (2000) AIA Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Manchester)

Thanks to Fred Perry for the images.

Very early this morning, around 2:30am (UK time) Andy Murray, the twenty five year old Scottish tennis player, won his first Grand Slam title; the US Open. This win brings to a close a summer of amazing sporting success for the UK.

Murray is the first male from our nation to win a major singles title since Fred Perry in 1936. There’s a perfect symmetry between these events as Murray won his title exactly 76 years to the day after Perry triumphed at the US competition.

Fred Perry is perhaps best known today as a clothing label - one that we’re a big fan of here at Good Clobber. Until late in 2010 Murray was signed to Fred Perry and had his own tennis clothing range - some items from which you can see here in this post. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like these garments are still available from Fred Perry.

Murray is now signed to Adidas and played a prominent part in their marketing materials around the London 2012 Olympic games.

Well done to Murray for the win. I can’t claim to be a big tennis fan, so I won’t try and offer any insightful comment. I can only imagine how hard he’s worked for it over the last decade or so - good show sir. A smashing end to a great summer of sport.

Thanks to Fred Perry and The Wall Street Journal for the images.