Lavenham X Le Minor

A meeting of two factories from across the water.

This August, for the first time, like-minded factory brands Le Minor and Lavenham have come together to create a capsule that celebrates the heritage of both brands.

Shop the Capsule

Collaboration Origins

A meeting of two factories, the collaboration between Le Minor and Lavenham came about after a mutual friend at Monocle Magazine casually observed the many similarities between the two brands.

Two brands, on opposite sides of the Channel, each still operating out of their own respective factories. Each still making clothing in a traditional way. Honouring heritages deeply rooted in the 20th Century yet simultaneously remaining relevant to the contemporary wardrobe.

And so, an introduction was arranged, and in a small office above Le Minor’s Parisian shop, the collaboration came to be.

Perhaps because of the oppressive heat of that city that June afternoon, it was quickly settled that the capsule would centre around Le Minor’s speciality cotton Breton with finishings and final touches provided by Lavenham. The resulting pieces are symbolic of the traditional craftmanship that both brands preserve, but they are also simply great jersey essentials designed to fit into summer wardrobes year after year.

Le Minor

Le Minor's story begins earlier than Lavenham's, in the France of the 1920s and 30s. In 1922, Berthe Ethui founded a knitwear workshop in Lorient, producing the dense, tightly-worked sweaters worn by Breton fishermen - jumpers knitted so closely they were, in effect, weatherproof. Fourteen years later, in 1936, Marie-Anne Le Minor established her own atelier in Pont-l'Abbé, gathering together the embroiderers of the Bigouden region to keep a fading decorative tradition alive. What started as folk costume and traditional dress soon grew into womenswear and ready-to-wear proper.

It was Le Minor who, in the late 1940s, revived and modernised the kabig, the heavy hooded wool coat once worn by Brittany's seaweed gatherers, working the low-tide shoreline in all weather. Reworked with the help of ethnologist and designer René-Yves Creston, the kabig became a genuine symbol of Breton dress, standing alongside the marinière as shorthand for the region itself.

The two houses merged in 1982, settling permanently at the factory in Guidel, where Le Minor still makes everything today. The cotton is spun, dyed, knitted and made up on-site, from raw yarn to finished garment. Like Lavenham, Le Minor weathered its share of difficulty, and it was Japan that kept the brand alive as a viable made-in-France name through the leaner years, developing a devoted following for the authentic marinière that has never really faded. In 2023, Le Minor's know-how was formally recognised with France's Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label, awarded for craft of national significance, a fitting marker for a house now approaching its ninetieth year, still working from the same corner of Brittany where it began.

Lavenham

Lavenham's history, while younger, was built on the same instinct: solve a real problem properly, and let the reputation follow. In 1969, Mrs Elliot -working from the Suffolk village that would give the brand its name- grew frustrated with traditional horse rugs. Made from wool or jute, they were heavy, slow to dry, and prone to holding onto damp and odour. Her solution was a quilted nylon horse rug, hardwearing and quick-drying in a way nothing else on the market was. It was, by most accounts, the first of its kind in the world.

The quilting technique that solved the horse rug problem soon found its way onto gilets and jackets, originally cut for riding wear. Their quality and understated construction meant they didn't stay confined to the stable for long, and Lavenham's 2” diamond-quilted outerwear gradually left the yard and entered the wardrobe - first the countryside, then the town, then well beyond Suffolk altogether. More than fifty years on, Lavenham still makes every piece in Suffolk, in a factory just a few miles from the original, using much the same quilting expertise that built the brand's name. It's a rare position for a British outerwear maker to hold onto, one of only a handful of remaining single-factory production brands left in the UK.

The Capsule

The capsule itself comprises of 5 pieces across menswear and womenswear and can be described as Le Minor's specialist cotton Breton finished with touches of Lavenham. A splicing of both brands house codes rather than a reinvention, and traditional craftmanship rendered as wearable jersey staples, made in France to a standard that both brands recognise.