Daks unveils knitwear collaboration with John Smedley

British heritage brands Daks and John Smedley have unveiled a capsule knitwear collection for spring/summer 2025 as they look to champion ‘Made in England’ manufacturing.

The collaboration marks the first collection between the two British luxury brands that are both steeped in history and design and follows John Smedley reopening its production lines at its Derbyshire factory to brands for seasonal orders in 2024.

Jess McGuire Dudley, deputy managing director at John Smedley, said in a statement: “When we reopened our factory to third-party manufacturing, it was important that we collaborated with brands that truly recognised the benefit of our skills and experience of which we have honed over generations.

“Daks were able to work across the full spectrum of our offering, drawing on our expertise from design and production to create a collection that is innovative in colour and design and that represents both brands commitment to responsible manufacturing.”

What started as a conversation to manufacture Daks' own product, turned into a partnership to bring together the brand's design teams together to create co-branded collaborative knitwear designs.

The 12-piece knitwear collection references Daks’ archive, with John Smedley reinterpreting two iconic Daks styles, the House check and House stripe, creating exclusive variations of both that can be seen across John Smedley’s knitwear silhouettes. Styles include polo knits, knitted T-shirts, and cardigans.

The colours throughout the capsule reference the Daks house colours, from the house colours of Vicuna, navy and black and are made with John Smedley’s highly sought-after fine gauge sea island cotton and designed by the Daks’ design team.

Commenting on the collection, a spokesperson from Daks’ team said: “Audiences of both brands view the ‘Made in England’ tag as a marker of quality and authenticity, which has long been a key aspect to Daks and we have found the perfect pairing to deliver this in working with the John Smedley team.”

The Daks x John Smedley collection will be available at Daks online and at its stores across Asia and at John Smedley’s two London boutiques and e-commerce website.