Designer Profile: Eton

Video Transcript:

This is Eton; a shirt maker. Eton’s not a big company, but they do have a big reputation. Over the years Eton had become known worldwide for creating fine shirts with the highest quality. Not bad, considering it all started in the tiny village of Gnesta, outside of Boras in Sweden.

In 1928 after the recession had forced them to close down their sawmill Annie and David Pettersson started a new business, making shirts. The company was initially named Syfabriken Special, but when Eton brought the shirt collection to the United Kingdom in the 1950s it was apparent that the Swedish name was too hard for the English to pronounce. So the company was renamed Eton after the famous and exclusive Eton College. After all, exclusive shirts need an exclusive name. Today Eton shirts are well known for their high quality, and can be found in high end clothing stores all over the world. And it is still owned and run by the Pettersson family. The CEO Hans Davidson is the proud grandson of Annie and David.

Eton likes to say they don’t work with fashion it’s fleeting what’s fashionable and in one day, can be out the next. They believe in sustainable design and believing in creating beautiful clothes of the highest possible quality. Eton creates tomorrow’s vintage. Quality and attention to detail has always been the heart of everything that Eton does. Eton starts the process by deciding the colors of the season; colors which they then use to create the seasonal patterns. The high quality fabrics are exclusively made out of carefully selected Pima Cotton stable fibers that are spun using cutting edge weaving technology and a unique finishing process. And it is this excellent craftsmanship that gives Eton shirts their outstanding feel and performance.

By staying true to the heritage of Eton and never forgetting what they stand for Eton had been able to grow from a small two person operation in Gnesta, to a company known world wide for its superior quality. Annie and David would have been proud; welcome to Eton.

Video Transcript:

Hi my name is Sebastian Dollinger; I am the creative director for Eton. Currently I am in Toronto at Harry Rosen.

STORY OF ETON - We’ve been around for 85 years we probably will be around for 85 more years money doesn’t run us it feels like emotions run us more. I think what’s beautiful about Eton it’s the soul and it’s the emotion that dictates the movement in the company and I find that brilliant.

THE COLLECTION - We make 125 different patterns every four months and that comes in six different color waves so you’re quite unlimited when it comes to choice.

ONLY THE BEST WILL DO - We’ve got this peculiar finish in Switzerland and what we do there is a process about stretching the fibers and re-fixing its natural position; that means that when you wash your shirt or when you wear it all day it doesn’t want to crease, it wants to stay sharp.

DETAILS - The secret with menswear is adding a bit, but not too much. We try to work with the details in the details in the top button, it could be the thread or it could be the button hole. Here they have gone for the contrasting, tonal poplin on the collar, and the same on the piping and button holes, which adds nice details and touch.

“WE’RE SPECIALISTS” - The reasons why people continue buying our things is because we are specialist, and there are aren’t that many specialists left. We can focus on our products and that means we can be the best shirts and ties out there.

A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE - I think when you work with something it lasts for five, ten, fifteen years. You can’t follow any typical trends, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t find innovation in your traditional items. The strength with working with menswear is that you can go back to the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and you look at a guy in a tailored suit, he always looks good. You can see that there is something quite charming in creating tomorrows vintage and I like to think that, that’s what we’re doing.