Press

There was more press on our site, but we lost it when we made the change-over to a shop as well. We are trying to find it, when we do it will be from....
The Observer, The Times, Vanity Fair, more from the Standard, Country Life, The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and more.

 

Read more in Wall Street Journal
This article – by Jonathan Futrell – first appeared in the Financial Times

“A tweed jacket is the most useful garment in the world,” says William (Bill) Hornets, who reckons the third, and newest, of his small Hornets chain of vintage clothing stores in Kensington is the tweediest shop in London.

 

“You can wear it with a pair of smart trousers and a tie and go for cocktails, or you can dress is down with a pair of jeans.”

 

A tweed jacket, whether modern lightweight or traditional bruiser, is like a pair of Levi’s; it requires breaking in to genuinely radiate. And it’s why increasing numbers of men are turning vintage. Pre-worn tweed contains all the colour, durability and masculinity – with character and comfort already “lived in”. At any given time Hornets’ range offers around 250 tweed jackets (from £69), from 1 to 40 years old.

 

As Etro says, it takes confidence to wear tweed. Whether it’s lovat green, dogtooth, herringbone or overchecked with crimson, blue or orange, the colours and patterns are almost irrelevant.

 

“They all sell,” says Bill Hornets. “It doesn’t matter about the colour."

 

This from The Sunday Times Style magazine…

This article – by Richard Godwin – first appeared in the London Evening Standard

An invitation arrives in the post. Hornets, the gentlemen’s attire shop in Kensington, is having a party. In attendance will be Steve Cossey, the last apprenticed hatter working in the UK, a man who “knows everything about making a hat”.

 

The reality of this party was even better than the invitation suggested. A small crowd of regulars squeezed into the little store to drink champagne, politely pass up the sandwiches and inspect the new arrivals. Mr Cossey, true to his claims, did indeed know everything about making a hat, having spent seven years learning how as long as it takes to become a junior doctor.

 

Hornets’ stock, a mixture of second-hand and specialist, comes with stories attached, not just the hats. It has an incredible range of tweed and worsted. If I were to need a cummerbund, this is the place I would come to.

 

Yet more remarkable is the charming obliviousness of the staff in all three branches to the vulgarities of the high street. You are treated with courtesy and respect, whatever your budget.

 

Only in Kensington do you find its exact combination and commuting here from north-east London each day, I have grown to love the contrast. While Hackney’s population is essentially transient, Kensington has been secure in its wealth and poshness for decades. It is insulated from too much change; there are people living comfortable lives here who you would only otherwise expect to find in an episode of Poirot.

 

Naturally, if some of Hornets’ tweeds were for sale in Hoxton, they would probably be going for twice the price.

 

As in Timeout

"Vintage menswear from Hornets, the ‘oldest gentlemen’s vintage clothier in England’. The people living in Ezra Pound’s former house opposite leave cushions on the walls for visitors to sit on. Who said Londoners weren’t welcoming?"

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