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The Interview: David Keyte, Co-Founder, Director and Designer, Universal Works

Tom Bottomley
24 May 2022

David Keyte and his wife, Stephanie Porritt, launched the first Universal Works collection in 2009, with a focus on contemporary and stylish takes on tradition pieces, including workwear and military-inspired garments.

A lot of the original designs can still be found in some form in today’s collections, albeit with tweaks to silhouettes and the use of different fabrics, though introducing seasonal newness is also key.

With about 40 UK stockists and 300 globally, two stores in London, one in Nottingham and a shop in the Liquor Store in Birmingham, the brand opened its first store in Europe in 2021 with a retail partner in Berlin, partly to lay stronger foundations in Europe following the fallout from Brexit.

Keyte is open to the idea of more retail partnerships if he deems them in the right place with the right people. He discusses his career, design ethos, getting through the pandemic and future plans.

Universal Works SS22

How did you get involved in the menswear business in the first place?

I’ve spent most of my adult life in the wonderful world of gentlemen’s outfitting. I left school at 16 with no qualifications, but I needed a way to afford the clothing I wanted and the nights out, so I thought I’d better get a job. I did lots of things until I managed to persuade someone to give me a job in a clothes store in Derby called Knockabout, so I could get cheaper clothes and get paid. At the time that seemed like a double success to me. It was a relatively ordinary menswear store, but it gave me the chance to learn some of the retail trade, in the early ‘80s. It was also next to a store that I always had desires on called Limey’s. It sold brands like Stone Island, C.P. Company, Marc O’Polo, Paul Smith and Armani. The closest I could get was to work next door!

What followed?

One of the other places I pestered for a job was a certain store in Nottingham called Paul Smith. I probably spent more of my hard earned income in that store than anywhere else, and I’m convinced they just took pity after a while and gave me a job. That was in the mid ‘80s. There was also a Paul Smith shop at 44 Floral Street in London’s Covent Garden, and I remember Paul saying that they were going to close the store in Nottingham but, if I was any good, I could go and work in the store in London. That was exactly what I wanted to do but somehow, through naivety and massive enthusiasm, I managed to turn the store around in Nottingham and it started making money. So, they kept it open, and I stayed there.

Trying to further my career, I took on any jobs that needed doing at Paul Smith. I wanted to learn about how the wholesale business worked. Also, the factories were all in the Midlands and the North in those days, and everything was made in the UK, so if they needed someone to go and visit the shirt factory, or the knitter in Scotland, I would go. I was excited by garments and fashion, as well as how you made it and how you sold it.

Did Paul Smith encourage you?

I think Paul recognised my enthusiasm, so he put me under his wing and showed me things. He took me to his favourite shop in Milan, called Prada. That was when Prada just had the one shop next to the cathedral, selling some bags and shoes. Ten years later it was the biggest brand in the world. What was important for me is Paul would immerse me in his world and it was a real learning curve.

I’ve got no formal training in anything, I don’t do formal training, but if you immerse yourself in subjects, you become experts in them. You know all there is to know because you’ve done so much. However, you also have to remember that you don’t know it all, so you keep learning. I’m still excited every time I go to a factory and look at a new bit of kit. It’s the process of making that excites me.

What followed working for Paul Smith?

I got headhunted by a corporate high street company but decided that kind of retail world was not for me after a short period. It was far removed from the actual garments, which is what I loved. So, I did a bit of freelance consulting for the likes of Ozwald Boateng, Boden and a few other brands. I had built up a lot of contacts and sourcing was what I was good at.

I then ended up at Maharishi for about six chaotic years before leaving in 2008 to start putting my Universal Works plan together with my wife, Stephanie, who also used to work at Paul Smith. The first Universal Works collection was for autumn/winter 2009.

Was it always the plan to have your own brand?

It wasn’t really, but I was doing things for other people and was asked why I wasn’t doing it for myself. It also seemed like the right time for the kind of designs I wanted to put out there. There was a new interest in traditional garments, something with form and function. There was also a lot of interest in military clothing and workwear, as well as ‘50s and ‘60s Americana. Regular guys clothing but quite stylish, moving away from more avant-garde fashion. Our first collection was 55 pieces, and it’s probably continued to grow every season since, but those original pieces I could probably put in the collection now.

Universal Works SS22

Was the ever popular Universal Works Bakers Jacket in your first collection?

That jacket really came to being in the second season. It was there in the first season but I don’t think I’d made a very good cut of it, the pattern wasn’t right, so I changed it for season two and that was when it got its name. Aside from a bit of difference in proportion and silhouette, it’s pretty much the jacket we still do. My father was a baker, and it’s very loosely based on what he used to wear for work, hence the jacket’s name. We also have two trousers that were in the first collection that you can still buy now, the military chino, which is currently our most popular trouser, and a similar trouser but with a single pleat. The trouser we tend to do a lot more of now has a double pleat, which is about three seasons in. We do new things every season without doubt, but a lot of what we do can translate from year to year.

A lot of what you design looks smart, but also relaxed, is that a key design focus?

My love of that looser silhouette partly derives from working with more street and sports looks from my days at Maharishi. I was never going to do tight fitting suits, I was always going to do something way more relaxed. I want to be able to go to a fancy bar in it if I’m invited, but I want to be able to wear the same clothing skateboarding down the street. I like things to be functional and I don’t want to have to dry clean them. It’s that adage of ‘consider what you wear first thing in the morning and then forget about it’.

Universal Works is also well known for its Ikat fabrics, how did that come about?

One of the factories I’d worked with for a number of brands was in India, and for summer I would source lightweight Madras cotton and Ikat fabrics. Ikat refers to the dyeing technique whereby bundles of yarns are tightly wrapped before resist dyeing sections of the yarns in a particular pattern. The weaving of them is so incredible. Traditionally a lot of it is using indigo dyes, which I love, and I was amazed that nobody was using Ikat fabrics for menswear. It really took off and we’ve done a lot of business with Ikat shirts in the summer seasons ever since. It’s bold enough to be a visible pattern, but discreet enough to be worn easily.

Our popular Road Shirt in Ikat fabrics just keeps going. It’s loose enough to be comfortable on everyone, and it’s got that ‘50s loop-collar look with quite a boxy fit. That sort of bowling shirt styling, slightly looser and square cut with a single piece camp collar, is something I’ll keep doing because it’s one of my favourite things.

Are you still designing your SS23 collection?

Yes, but I should have finished and be putting my feet up waiting for the next one to start! We’re currently selling a mid-season collection which we add each winter and summer. It’s another little injection which is for a lot of our bigger retailers such as MR PORTER and End. They need to have to some newness coming through before the next season. At a wholesale level we’re out showing our customers that right now. That will go in to stores in October/November, so it’s a high winter collection. Then in mid-June we will start to sell SS23. I’m doing lots of Road Shirts in Ikat fabrics again. For me, the important thing is we have a collection that you don’t have to change your entire wardrobe to fit in, though I need to make it innovative and exciting enough to get buyers to come along to look.

It’s rarely about wholesale change, it’s usually subtle changes in terms of silhouette. We don’t really have a massive theme for a season, like ‘this season I’ve gone to Guatemala and I’m doing Gaucho pants’. That’s not our style, though we do get design inspiration from travel and the way people put things together in different cultures and places.

How did the pandemic affect what you do, especially not being able to travel?

Every part of what we do was affected, but I was still working every day and we still had collections to put out, a website to sell from and wholesale customers buying things from us. The efficiency of production was massively hit, including in Portugal where we produce a lot of our collections, and we were late with lots of deliveries. Not being able to travel and visit a lot of the sourcing areas for both fabrics and manufacturing was difficult, but I had to find a new way of working with those people and a way of finding things.

There’s only so long you can look at images on a website and get inspired by them. You need to immerse yourself in those things. I felt it was hard to maintain the same level of design interest aesthetically. I know that I get an awful lot from travel and meeting and seeing people, as well being able to go to a museum or an art gallery and seeing a different shape or colour. You can’t do that when everywhere is closed, so I ordered a lot of books! I was searching for those same things that maybe I find on a trip somewhere. It definitely had an impact, and I was certainly at a point of worrying that if I couldn’t start to go and see those people and get some of those new experiences again, then the design process would suffer. Hopefully it hasn’t, and hopefully I’ve been aware of it in time, but I guess that’s for others to judge more than me.

In terms of inflation and the rising costs of living, are you now having to put your prices up?

Our prices have definitely risen because raw materials have gone up and the cost of shipping is hugely affected. We try very hard to give really good value, so we fight hard with our margins and with our sourcing to try to get the right quality and the right price. But the basic components of our industry, the cottons and wools, have just risen in price and are continuing to rise in price. That’s going to affect our industry and our business for sure. We consider ourselves to be good value, but obviously we’re way more expensive than classic high street prices. I’m guessing that everyone is going to be impacted.

Universal Works SS22

Did you see a big increase in online sales when you were forced to close your two London stores and Nottingham store during the lockdowns?

We certainly saw a big increase in online sales, but we were seeing that kind of growth for the five years prior to the pandemic anyway. Now we’ve got the stores open again people are delighted to go shopping, but you’ve got to give someone a great experience in the store.

Why go shopping if you’re not going to have a great time? So, you’ve got to have really great product and service, and have interesting stores and staff with knowledge. We actively tell our staff that they are not there to sell anything, they are just there to allow people to come and see the product and be nice to them. If you’re nice to them, they will come back, and if they come back, eventually they will buy something.

What is your best performing store?

Currently it’s Berwick Street in Soho, which is having some really good days right now. Maybe that’s to do with more people coming back to their offices in Central London. Soho is always going to be attractive because it’s got such history, great stores and a fantastic selection of places to eat.

What happened to the Lambs Conduit Street store?

We closed our Lambs Conduit Street in April 2021 during the pandemic, after being there for nine years. That was our first store, which was run by our good friend and store manager, David Holden. But he had moved from London to Folkestone to pursue other adventures, and though he was still happy to work in the store on a certain number of days, the whole issues caused by COVID and the lockdowns made it difficult. For us, he was the fundamental part of that store, so we decided to close it. It was always too small for us really anyway given the size of our collection.

As much as we loved being on the street, we had the Coal Drops Yard store which is a 15 minute walk from it, and Berwick Street, which is a 15 minute walk in the other direction. We can’t get all of our collection in either of the two remaining London stores either to be honest. But then we do have approximately 40 stockists around the country in the UK, all carrying different selections, and more than 300 globally, so there’s a lot of places you can buy our products.

Why did you decide to open a store in Berlin last September?

I think that, because of the whole Brexit thing, we were very conscious to be deemed to be actively busy in Europe. A huge part of our wholesale business is in Germany, France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden and most of our products are made in Portugal, all of which are in the EU. So, we needed to remind people that we weren’t a small business in a small country, we’re very much international. We feel it’s important to still be a very British company, but be visible in Europe. We haven’t changed, we’re not deserting anything.

We’ve done collaborations with brands like Adidas, Birkenstock and Pyrenex and we were conscious of wanting to work alongside and with our European partners and friends. We’d talked to one of our main stockists, Trüffelschwein in Berlin, Germany, for a couple of years about opening a store there. I’d always said I’d want to be on the same street as them as the guys that run it are a fundamental part of the success of its business. They found the right store on the same street so we said ‘yes’. The store is 100% Universal Works and it’s a joint venture between them and us.

Universal Works SS22

Can we expect more of the same elsewhere?

We’re ready for and open to opportunities, and we look at how to grow steadily. We don’t have backers or huge corporate businesses pumping in money, so if we want to grow we’ve got to fund it. We will try to do it in a sensible manner so our supply chain can grow with us. We’re not looking to triple our business overnight but we are looking at the right kind of opportunities where we see fit.

We’ve recently done a month-long pop-up in Manhattan in New York, and we’re doing other projects with other stockists in Germany, France and the US. All of those could be things that lead to further developments. We’re pushing it in a controlled manner. If we get interest from people to open a Universal Works store, we don’t think we’ve got the expertise to open in Australia, America or France for example, so we need people locally to be able to do that. You need to live somewhere and be part of a community to understand what that community wants.

What is the shop-in-shop concept you have in the Liquor Store in Birmingham, and is that something you may consider doing elsewhere?

That partnership has been going since 2017, and long may it continue. When they first moved from a small store to a much bigger one, they had a space to fill and they wanted to work with us. So, we put a shop-fit in to a big back area of the store, which is entirely filled with Universal Works every season. It’s very much like the store in Berlin, except it’s not a standalone store. I was very happy to do something with Phil Hazel at the Liquor Store, as I think what he does is really good. On top of that, Birmingham is my home town.

The shop-in-shop concept is certainly something I’d look at doing elsewhere if it was with the right independent in the right place. If someone comes along with the right proposal, we’re listening.

Does Universal Works appeal to women as well as men?

I design it and I see it as one massive wardrobe for me, because I love stuff. However, I’ve always thought that a lot of what we do, women can and do wear. We’re not specifically designing it for women, but we increasingly see more women buying it each season. It’s currently about 5%-10% of what we sell. So, we’re certainly being much more aware of that in terms of sizes and whether we should offer more that are compatible with a woman’s physique.

You’re also well known for doing some great collaborations, including recently some denim pieces with Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, are there more in the pipeline?

We’ve got more shoe collaborations coming up, but I can’t reveal what they are just yet. This year, we’ve also got quite a lot of projects with stores. They are special make-ups for stores we’ve worked with for a long time, such as Oi Polloi in Manchester, which is 20 years-old this year, as well as another customer in Boston in the US that’s also in its 20th anniversary year.

We’re also doing something with Merci in Paris and Uncle Otis in Toronto. We’re taking on more of those kind of projects, rather than brand to brand collaborations.

Universal Works SS22

How important is social media for your brand?

Communicating with our customers is always vital. All of the social media platforms provide a great opportunity to do that, and Instagram has been particularly appealing to the community that likes Universal Works. You get that instant hit of ‘that’s cool’ or ‘that’s interesting’, and you can go deeper into things if you want to. It’s a way of getting straight to our customer base that we never used to have, so it’s been very appealing. It’s also about talking about the brand and what we’re doing, rather than just trying to sell something – people respond to that.

Will you be doing any trade shows for SS23?

We’ve done Welcome Edition in Paris in the past and I think it’s a great show, but for we’ve had our own showroom in Paris for so long now and we just don’t need to be in a tradeshow environment there right now.

The best thing about trade shows is to get in front of customers who don’t know you exist, but most of those good buyers who go to trade shows know we exist as we’ve been around for 13 years. They either like us and buy from us already, or they don’t. They’re not going to now discover us by us being at a trade show in London, Paris or New York.

We’re not showing at Pitti Uomo in Florence this time either, though that’s not to say we won’t go back in the future as it’s such a great show in an amazing place, and it has a good pull in terms of domestic and international buyers. But our Italian agent is doing a great job as it is, and our collection will be available to view at his showroom in Fattore K in Milan.

Generally, I’m very happy to use the money we previously used for trade shows in other ways to promote the brand, and to do interesting things with our client base. However, we currently still do the Chicago Collective show to get in front of retailers in parts of America that don’t go to New York, and we still do Revolver in Copenhagen because that covers retailers in the whole Scandinavia and helps our agent cover four countries.

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