Labour and Wait secures Old Town workwear’s survival through exclusive partnership

Labour and Wait has stocked Old Town since 2010 and has now formalised an exclusive partnership with the UK workwear brand, with TheIndustry.fashion reporting it has secured a new London factory and "now manufacture[s] the workwear in London." The joint statement from Old Town founders Marie Willey and Will Brown says a selection of their designs will be "now available exclusively from Labour and Wait."

Old Town arrives in the conversation with 34 years of mail-order heritage: The Guardian documents a made-to-measure model built in Norfolk, where Willey, Brown and a team of 10 seamstresses produced garments in cotton drill, canvas, linen or cord and posted finished pieces to customers a few weeks after taking measurements. The brand’s Unity jacket and trousers have been described by The Guardian as "loose, comfortable, with a draw-cord waist and the look of a boiler suit" and a "unisex hit" that is "contemporary, practical and hard-wearing." Notable early customers included Monty Don, and the Unity silhouette even became staff uniform at hip restaurant Brat.

The move follows a fraught moment for the label. The Guardian reported that Old Town "announced they are not taking any further orders and is winding down the main business," a decision that TheIndustry.fashion links to the retirement of several long-term machinists and the founders being in their late sixties. TheIndustry.fashion frames the Labour and Wait tie-up as a lifeline that "has given them a reason to continue, albeit in a less 'all-consuming' way."

Partnership specifics land in firm, branded language. TheIndustry.fashion says Labour and Wait will work directly with Marie Willey and Will Brown "to manufacture and develop the brand in the UK," calling the arrangement "a long-standing relationship, now formalised." Willey and Brown’s joint statement reads: "We are very pleased to be able to build on our long association with Labour and Wait. Finding an exceptional London factory has been a game changer. It means we are able to continue supplying customers old and new with a selection of our designs – now available exclusively from Labour and Wait."

Labour and Wait will stage a special two-day launch at its Covent Garden store at 12 Dryden Street over the weekend of 21 and 22 March, where three limited-edition unisex pieces — a jacket, a shirt and trousers — will launch exclusively, and Willey and Brown will attend with original mail-order catalogues and printed ephemera spanning the past 34 years, TheIndustry.fashion reports. The Guardian adds that Labour and Wait will continue to sell the Unity trouser and jacket, "with a view to finding a factory to produce them under licence," reflecting a slightly different emphasis on future production arrangements.

Willey’s personal tether to the craft remains unmistakable: "I cannot imagine wearing anything else … wherever we are, Will will always have a sewing machine," she told The Guardian. For now, the curated exclusivity at Labour and Wait and the claimed move to London manufacturing are the practical measures keeping Old Town’s Unity silhouette in circulation and giving Willey and Brown a controlled path to carry the business forward.