WILL BEES BESPOKE
I’m pretty sure the first time I met Will was around the table football table in the back bar of the Fortescue Inn in Salcombe. Or maybe it was in the beer garden at the Ferry Inn. Or possibly the front bar of the Kings Arms. It was 26 years ago though, so my memory is a bit hazy on it all. Though almost certainly it was in one of the many pubs in Salcombe (there was another one back then – the Shipwrights Arms opposite our store on Fore Street). We did quite a lot of boozing in those days, doing our bit for the local economy. But whichever of the fine hostelries it was in, it’s almost certain Will was wearing one of his very distinctive sailcloth jackets.
He says this is not true, but I credit Will with inventing the sailcloth jacket. And if he didn’t invent it, he certainly massively popularised it with his fantastic Quba Sails brand which launched around the same time Rob and I were getting Jack Wills off the ground.
We became good friends, beating the Salcombe clothing entrepreneur drum, even some years, sharing a Christmas Party. All of about six of us. I seem to remember Rob and I turned up in black tie. Fun times.
Wind the clock forward, and Will is still an iconic feature of Salcombe. His involvement with Quba Sails is no more, just as my involvement in Jack Wills ended many moons ago. But for the past ten years, Will has been beavering away on Island Street in Salcombe, leveraging all the bespoke craftmanship skills accumulated while making his distinctive Sailcloth jackets.
This time around, it’s primarily leather goods and small handbags. And the whole experience is really rather exquisite. In Will’s old boat shed down on Island Street is the worldwide headquarters of Will Bees Bespoke. And it is literally in this building that all the action happens. Cutting, stitching, embossing all takes
place here. If needed, while you wait. It is the ultimate antidotal experience for a world obsessed with immediate gratification and fast fashion.
The other thing that’s changed this time around is work life balance. In his words, his wife has a ‘proper job’ which allows him to do the school run and more vitally, go out sailing when the conditions are right. Salcombe is the perfect place to do this. It’s a work hard play hard kind of town with beaches and wind foiling
spots a plenty within a short distance.
Will has now teamed up with Emma Mawston, former Head of Design at Liberty Art Fabrics, together they have created a really unique collection of designs, all
inspired by flora and bees. Each product is unique and bears the marks and character of the person who made it. And they may well have made it right in front of you. True craftsmanship. True slow fashion.
Although working with sailcloth is a thing of the past, the concept of recycling and reusing is most definitely not. And in the window of the treasure trove store is a rack of brightly coloured holdalls. All made from the old curtain wall sides of lorries. Battered and worn from decades hammering up and down the M1. Then repurposed to make distinctive and unique holdalls. I was having a look for evidence of Eddie Stobart when I was there but sadly to no avail….
Take a look at Will Bees products here
