Alfred Brown is 100

Alfred Brown - Establish 1915, Yorkshire, England

Alfred Brown (Worsted Mills), the Yorkshire cloth maker, celebrates its centenary this year. Come on, let's all blow a party horn in unison. After three. One, two, three...hoot.

Happy birthday, Alfred Brown.

Herbert Brown initially founded Brown & Sons in 1915 — in Bramley, Yorkshire (and they are still there) — to produce cloths for the military, police and fire services. So many British mills started this way — so many wars to fight, I suppose.

Though Alfred Brown still produce fabrics for uniforms, they tend to be for corporations nowadays. The core of the business is in suiting, with a traditional tailoring collection created each season. From a traditional tailoring perspective, they are perhaps best known for their blazering and cavalry twill fabrics — the cloths of the Englishman at his leisure.

The fourth-generation family business changed its name to Alfred Brown in 1955, and has become a celebrated mainstay of the English textile industry. Alfred Brown has kept ahead by constantly innovating — it was the first British mill to introduce a computer system — and never compromising on its reputation for supplying quality fabrics with that key Made in Britain label.

Alfred Brown is involved in each aspect of the textile production process, from design to finishing using the 'soft water from the surrounding hills in West Yorkshire, which has characterised for centuries cloth finished in Yorkshire'. The mill weaves on 30 looms, which are able to produce 30, 000 metres of cloth a week. The fabrics range from suiting and tailoring cloths in summer and winter weights — tropicals at 7.5 ounces, and winter woollens at 12 ounces.

As they say: 'Fabric with the selvedge "Woven in England by Alfred Brown" is the mark of quality and prestige and is sought after by retailers, cloth merchants and tailors worldwide.'

Alfred Brown 'Panama' for Summer

Looking to wear something lighter this summer? Alfred Brown's 'Panama' fabrics are designed for freshness in the heat. They are a lightweight suiting cloth in a fine, plain weave. The cloth is woven in a variety of shades — as seen below — in wool or wool with a dash of mohair to give sheen and a dry handle in.