EXPRESSING AND DOING WHAT YOU REALLY FEEL IS GREAT!

The AWR concept was born on February 14th 2015.

And to make damn sure I stuck to the launch date I'd promised myself, I immediately told Social Media that I'd be launching on February 14th 2016.

At that time I had no product, no makers and no designs. Just a business name and a purpose. I knew what AWR was for and it is this purpose that's driven us ever since. I wasn't doing what I knew at that point - I was doing what I felt.

AWR launched at midnight on Valentine's Day 2016.

The Ups and Downs of an Emotion-Fuelled Brand. Within 12 Months - We Closed.

When you're driven by emotion, you face difficult choices daily.

Your dominant right brain is telling you how you feel (or should feel) and its (metaphorical) hard-wiring to your 'gut' is pulling you all over the place. Your logical left brain is telling you one thing, but you just know when things aren't quite right.

So you either listen to your gut or you don't.

I listened - and I closed the business.

Great Brands Look You in The Eye. They Make Bold, Valuable Promises.

When AWR launched in early 2016 we made a promises to our customers. One of these promises was:

"Any clothing that does not get talked about is not worth wearing. And it is certainly not worth making"

Our post-launch honeymoon period was significant. We picked up many customers and the Collection was (and still is) beautiful and unique. Designed by us, made by the best.

But something wasn't quite right.

Our makers were and still are iconic. We still work with them all. We knit in Scotland from less than 9% of the world's cashmere because 91% is not good enough, we wait 12 weeks (12 weeks!) for our hand-made, debossed bridle leather and solid pewter or solid brass Devil's horn buckled belts to be hand forged and hand stitched with blood-red waxed linen in London.

And our packaging, modelled on the mighty Hermes packaging that is hand-made in North Yorkshire costs far too much and takes up far too much physical space at AWR HQ.

And I wouldn't change any of it.

But we weren't quite delivering on our promise. The labelling was too ostentatious. AWR is all about understated confidence and turning classic looks into statement looks, not brashness (there's a thin line).

The Collection was not quite interesting enough either. It was almost too polished.

And it was too red.

Everything in the AWR Collection will always contain red, but everything should not be red.

And the brand was not being crafted and articulated at all accurately. We are not GQ MAGAZINE, we are FANTASTIC MAN Magazine.

We are not for flashy, look-at-me, chisel-jawed tossers; we are for unique, confidently understated, expressive, memorable, playfully intelligent and likeable pioneers.

So in February 2017, I closed the online store.

Ultimately, The Only Person To Listen To - Is Yourself

Turning my back on AWR was not a nice feeling. And many people thought it was the wrong thing to do.

But I didn't. So I closed the store.

I went back to designing. I explored collaboration with exceptional others, I introduced AWR BLACK to the Collection, I explored contradictory 100% Merino wool BANDAGE KNIT textures (that confuse and concern our Scottish makers to this day) and I broadened our categories and overall offering.

We will introduce 100% cashmere and 100% Merino wool sweaters as well as 100% organic cotton short and long sleeved tops in the next 6 to 12 months. All of these things are designed, made and using revolutionary approaches, legendary makers and iconic design.

And all will be in very small batches to ensure that we are driven to innovate and our customers can be damn sure that they are wearing something that only very, very few others may have.

We are embroidering with the global number one, Hand & Lock and we are all-garment printing with the one company in the UK that can do what I want in exactly the way that I want it.

Our Purpose

Our Purpose is the creation of confidence for the people that wear our Collection.

I believe that confident people can do anything they want.

But I also believe that people with the potential to do anything are discerning, deserving and demanding.

And so they should be.

I was not happy that we were the best we could be at the beginning of 2017, so I stopped.

On the 1st of September 2017 I knew that I was 100% ready, so AWR opened again online and we are now open for good.

I always knew that when I was ready, I'd feel it.

And I feel it now.