Labour and Wait ensures survival of Old Town workwear with exclusive new partnership

Labour and Wait, the London store offering an evolving range of timeless, functional products from homeware to clothing, has partnered with Old Town to ensure the continuation of the UK workwear company.

After stocking Old Town since 2010, Labour and Wait will now work directly with Old Town founders Marie Willey and Will Brown to manufacture and develop the brand in the UK, in what is described as “a long-standing relationship, now formalised.”

In celebration of the new partnership, Labour and Wait will host a special two-day event at its store at 12 Dryden Street in Covent Garden over the weekend of 21 and 22 March, where three limited-edition unisex pieces - a jacket, shirt and trousers - will launch exclusively.

They now manufacture the workwear in London, having secured a new factory to partner with after considering winding down the company following the retirement of several long-term machinists. The Labour and Wait partnership has given them a reason to continue, albeit in a less “all-consuming” way, now that they are both in their late sixties.

Willey and Brown will both be in attendance at the Labour and Wait store event over the weekend, bringing with them a display of original mail-order catalogues and other printed ephemera from the past 34 years of the Old Town brand.

In a joint statement, Willey and Brown said: “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 was founded in 2000 by Rachel Wythe-Moran and Simon Watkins, both designers with menswear backgrounds who grew frustrated with having to redesign products and ranges every season. They set out to “celebrate future classics for everyday life” and share the same ethos of sustainability and “avoiding waste” as Old Town’s founders.

Simon Watkins said: “We are delighted to be working more closely with our friends Will and Marie, to help ensure the future for Old Town clothing; a brand which we much admire, and which resonates with our customers at Labour and Wait.”

Fittingly, given Labour and Wait’s old-school hardware store aesthetic, the Dryden Street store is located in a mid-19th-century building that has previously served as a chapel, warehouse and seed merchant.

It is Labour and Wait’s third and newest London store, having opened in November 2025 to mark the company’s 25th anniversary.

That added to the retailer’s store at 85 Redchurch Street in East London – set in an old Truman Brewery pub called The Dolphin, which opened in 2010. Retaining the pub’s original Victorian façade, it signalled a move to larger premises in East London from Labour and Wait’s original store on Cheshire Street, which opened in 2000. A second store was added at 48 Dorset Street in Marylebone in June 2021.