20 years of Gresham Blake

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY

Fal and myself have been doing this business, Gresham Blake, for 20 years. It has been one of  the most rewarding experience that you could imagine. Don’t get me wrong it has been hard work; I used to work 16 hours days for the first years of the business. Making and selling any product in any business is a tough call, especially when you have to do marketing as well. Lucky I did not have any social media to deal with back then. 

So we simply (ha ha) grew the business organically, starting with bespoke tailoring, then we started to do more contemporary bespoke suits, these don’t involve as much work by hand so becomes more cost effective, but still uses the cut and high quality British fabrics. 

We soon started to include shirts and ties and then ready-to-wear with the expansion into a larger shop in 2005.  Every step was a bigger financial commitment than the last and equally scary. When you have your house and everything on the line you have to make it work. 

BESPOKE UNIFORMS

We have had are up and downs like every business and you learn as you go along. But I am blessed with a fantastic team, which has help grow other revenues in the business. We have developed a strong bespoke uniform business, started of with 2 good accounts The Grand Brighton and Swingers (indoor golf) in London. We have expanded the corporate wear business with 4 new members of Staff this year. We now have accounts with Hard Rock Hotels in 8 locations, 2 Hard Rock casinos in the USA and all their European café business. 

The Savoy Hotel in London was a fantastic opportunity and we currently supply all departments. Other properties are Penny Hill Park, Soho house group, The Biltmore Hotel, The Stafford of St James well the list goes on. While writing this we have had a call about a new Music Venues opening up in North London that we have to make uniforms for ASAP so we are busy and happy.

BESPOKE

We keep to my original brief about British fabrics, design and make. We stick to the go the extra mile ethos. We will maintain our enthusiasm to this side of the business, but we only have a set limited of this kind of garments we can produce so we can keep the high quality and control. We get very busy especially in Brighton. We have no desire to over sell our bespoke suits.

20 YEAR LOOKBOOK

So we launched a 20 year book to the press at the Hard Rock Hotel London

We had some great acts, Phil Hartnoll (Orbital) and Phats & Small on the decks with live acts from Rebuplica, Collette Cooper , grime legend Footsie and the amazing Slaves.

A full blog on the night will follow later this month.

The book features some well known faces, fashion shoots from the last 20 years and more importantly 50 customers who committed to the book and had portraits taken by Kenny McCracken ( Scottish Kenny). The book has over 276 photos in glorious colour. I will be doing a blog next year on my 10 top photos from the book.

As well as are corporate wear, we will be expanding our merchandising business that already includes nickelodeon, Swingers and D Double Es , Bluku records.

AND THIS YEAR?

Finally, I am delighted to announce that we will be adding a new service to Gresham Blake.

We make you look good, and feel good but how good are you really??

Some of you may know that 20 years ago Fal Blake trained as a scientist. She has always maintained an interest in wellness and more recently has been studying NUTRITION and is now a qualified Nutritionist. So, when our clients say, “THIS IS MORE THEN A SUIT – IT MAKES ME FEEL AMAZING”, she will now be able to guide you to actually FEEL AMAZING TOO on the inside. This year, alongside Mark Killick and Jo Woodhurst they will be setting up The ‘Tailored Health Clinic’ at Gresham Blake. So many of us these days eat the wrong stuff. With biometric testing such as DNA profiling, hormone panel testing, and a whole range of blood tests – we will be able to assess what works for you, in order to plan a Bespoke Health Plan tailored for you, to help optimise you on a deeper level.

It’s all about BESPOKE NUTRITION and a personalised approach to GOOD HEALTH, the point being – how to STAY WELL. I have lost a stone already, and my energy levels in my brain as well as body have change dramatically. If you are interested in learning more on this please contact her directly on fb@greshamblake.com.

So, we really will be able to make you LOOK and FEEL GOOD, Inside and Out!

Looking forward to seeing you in 2020 from the GB Team