For Spring Summer 16, Jigsaw has re-invented their linen collection by collaborating with specialist European fabric mills including the finest producer of Irish linen: the renowned Baird McNutt.
Linen is back. For more than a year, the Jigsaw design and buying teams have been working with specialist European fabric mills including Baird McNutt, the finest producer of world-renowned Irish linen, to reinvent one of the oldest fabrics in the world with a slick, contemporary edge for Spring Summer 16.
“Linen is part of the brand DNA of Jigsaw,” says buying and merchandising director Shailina Parti. “It is a beautiful natural material that gives that relaxed look our customers appreciate, while being literally cool to wear. It is the most breathable fabric and feels so good against the skin.”
Yet despite all those attributes, linen was virtually absent from Jigsaw’s Spring Summer offer last year, with womenswear having just one basic dress in the range. Unsurprisingly, this solitary garment was a seasonal bestseller. So why the lack of linen in 2015?
“Linen has become very popular, especially in womenswear, and lots of people on the high street sell it now,” says Parti. “But the quality of the fabric is variable, and more worryingly, a lot of what’s out there is very basic, generic, even mumsy. Internally, over a year ago we thought what we were doing had become a bit tired.”
That was a bold admission and the Jigsaw remedy, according to Sally Graveling, head of women’s woven products, was to reinvent and refresh the entire approach to linen to produce “a lovely, contemporary concept”.
This step change is a useful reminder that too much is taken at face value in fashion. What were until recently uncommon and luxurious fibres and fabrics – cashmere in the winter and linen in the summer – have been seized upon by low-cost operators on the high street. They pass off their middle-of-the-road or downmarket versions as the ultimate quality, but with natural products, inevitably, you do get what you pay for. If something seems cheap, it’s probably because it is.
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