Blackshore's coming home – to Southwold

We're incredibly excited, and also just a little sad, to tell you about the next stage of the Blackshore journey! We're coming home.. to Southwold.

Our workshop in an old fishing net factory on Whapload Road, Lowestoft gave us a wonderful start. We moved in there in June 2019: such a short time ago, but somehow it seems much, much longer.

In an extraordinary old building that is so full of history, and in a town and community that made us feel so welcome, we began to make our clothes. 

We imagined, when we started out in Lowestoft, that we would stay longer, building the business online. But our experience – of trading as well as making – quickly showed us that our clothes come to life best when folk can see them in the cloth, so to speak, and when people can handle them and try them on.

To make that happen, and in order to ensure that we can make our young enterprise stable and successful, we have to get ourselves in front of customers.

So we knew that we had to open our own shop, sooner rather than later. More than a shop in fact: we knew we had to combine a retail space with our workshop, so that people can see clothes actually being made, by real crafts-people (a very unusual opportunity nowadays).

Happily, a lovely location became available on the busy High Street in Southwold. Number 37 High Street to be precise.

With a super shop area at the front of the building, and with just enough space for our sewing and cutting rooms behind, it was just right for the next part of our adventure.

The photograph shows our designer's impression of what it will look like. By the time you get to see it, the design might have developed... but you get the idea!

Blackshore was conceived in Southwold: dreamt up on the harbour (the Blackshore) itself. So it's fitting that we are coming back to this fantastic little town.

The most important thing of all is that we are making beautiful clothes, just as we intended from the start. Making clothes not only in Britain, but in Suffolk. Clothes which are designed and made to last for decades. Clothes which are largely made from British-woven cloth. Clothes which are crafted, not mass produced. Clothes with quality, longevity, sustainability, and ethics, built in.

We're sad to say bye-bye to Lowestoft for now, but so looking forward to becoming part of the community of Southwold. We do hope you will come and see us in our our new workshop.

You're always welcome at No.37. We open on Saturday October 26th!