Dents has loaned a number of gloves belonging to past kings and queens of England to Selfridges London flagship as part of the store’s Big British Bang exhibition, which is in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics this year.  The exhibit features a collection of royal gloves that have never been publicly displayed before, and runs from May 4 to June 17 at Selfridges ground floor concept store. This is from yesterday’s Mail Online:

I came across this on the popular French men’s fashion blog Dandies…

Translation: driving gloves will allow you to firmly grip the steering wheel without fear of slipping because of sweat!

HRH The Princess Royal’s recent visit to Dents glove factory (“the first new glove factory in Great Britain for 150 years”) was featured on both BBC and ITV – just click on the links to view.

And, there are some great pictures of the visit on Warminster Web.

The media was out in force for HRH the Princess Royal’s visit to Dents.

They were attracted not only by the royal visit, but also by Dents’ continued success during very difficult times for British manufacturing. With BBC TV, ITV, BBC Radio and local radio in attendance, along with several photographers and reporters from various print and online media, journalists were everywhere.  Ms Deborah Moore and Dents Marketing Consultant Mr John Roberts headed a long list of Dents personnel who were interviewed for television and radio.  Tony Foreman, who has been with Dents for 47 years, was interviewed about sales and the new distribution facilities, John Cundick, who started with Dents in 1949, spoke about the remarkable changes that have taken place over the years;  Sally Norris and Lily Munday, who have both been with Dents for well over 40 years, demonstrated their hand sewing techniques to fascinated camera crews;  and even our honoured overseas agents and visitors were pulled in, with Mr Nagabuchi from Japan managing an excellent interview despite limited English.

The effort and co-operation by everyone at Dents on the day ensured the visit by HRH the Princess Royal went without a hitch, and the celebrations at a dance for the staff that evening were well deserved. The visit had been a resounding success!

Dents handsewn deerskin driving gloves, selected as one of the Wall Street Journal‘s top 50 Holiday Gifts.

Spotted! Alesha Dixon, judge from Strictly Come Dancing, has been snapped wearing our gorgeous gloves (last Saturday, 24th September, Fabulous magazine, Sun newspapers). As a huge Strictly fan, I was very pleased to spot them.

Strictly Come Dancing starts this evening on BBC1 and I will be glued to the TV. Do not call me tonight – my phone will be turned off!

Laura

By Sally Smith

The end of an era. That was how I felt, and that was how some of the journalists described it, as the first excavators started work earlier today demolishing our iconic 1930s style head office and factory in Warminster.

Certainly, it was an emotional day for many Dents staff, especially the longer serving employees, who have been with the company for well over 40 years.

(left to right at front) Tony Foreman, Deborah Moore and John Cundick with demo team

The jaws of the excavator loom as John sheds a tear. Also in the picture, Deborah, Tony, and Jeremy Evans

John Cundick especially was attracting a lot of attention because he has worked at Dents continuously, apart from a short break for military service, since 1949.

He joined a few of us on site this morning to wave goodbye to the building he has known since he was a young teenager.

“I started immediately on leaving school at Dents, and my goodness, it was a different place then,” John told me. “We still made beautiful gloves, but there were no computers, few typewriters. Most work was done by hand – both the sewing and also the record keeping,” he said.

“Considering we were even in those days a global company exporting around the world, you can imagine the paperwork involved.”

John also has memories of a big well near the entrance, of real fires (for heating!) throughout the building, and of regular Saturday morning working with just two weeks holiday a year. Makes you wonder about the term “good old days”!

But times move on, and now the old premises are being demolished and developed by Henry Boot of Bristol to include a 23,000 sq ft Waitrose foodstore.

We at Dents are already happily ensconced in a superb new purpose built 45,000 sq ft head office, factory and warehouse just the other side of town, with a brilliant new factory shop on site.

Deborah Moore, one of our directors, said that while it was sad to see the old building disappear, it was nevertheless a celebration marking a new way forward into an exciting future.

“This year our sales have gone up steadily; our collections of handbags, hats and scarves as well as gloves for men and women are being sold in major department stores and fashion outlets across the world,” she said. “Two hundred years ago, when Dents was a fledgling glove maker, few could have dreamed of the premises that are now being demolished; and what they would have thought of our new headoffice and factory, with its electronic equipment and high tech facilities, I can’t imagine!”

Once the first excavator set to work, it was time to leave. The noise and the dust will continue for a while, but it seems it will all be gone in just two weeks. After that, it will be just photographs and our memories – and of course time to start forward on another exciting step in the Dents story.

John has been with Dents since 1949, no wonder the media flocked to him to hear all those memories of yesteryear. Here he is being interviewed by the BBC.

Some mixed feelings, maybe, as we see the bulldozers arrive at our old building in Fairfield Road – as the BBC has reported, demolition day is finally here.  Sally’s personal report, marking this important day in Dents’ history, with pictures and interviews, will follow…

In the meantime – it’s back to business, with Dents exhibiting at Moda at the NEC in Birmingham from August 14 to 16. You can see our spring / summer 2012 men’s collection on stand MA30, and women’s collection on M11

Finally, a note for those of you who can’t wait to fill your shopping trolleys – I hear Waitrose won’t be up and running until the New Year after all…

First the News of the World – now SHE.  This magazine, known to many people all their lives, is to close.

SHE has been through some hectic times, and was once described as the most “re-launched” magazine in Britain! But it has always been there, ever since its first edition appeared in the early 1950s.  Over the years it has changed format and style many times – from a feature and fashion title in the exciting 60s, to running explicit stories such as “Love Making Position of the Month” in the late 1980s. Then it changed again, and aimed at more traditional content material for 35-plus women with modern lifestyles.

Whatever its theme and format, it has been a well loved part of Britain’s magazine scene, still attracting a good readership of well over 140,000 a month.

Over the years the magazine has regularly featured Dents accessories and has been a great fan of our gloves, both formal and fun. We have worked with them on so many fashion stories – the idea below, featuring a collection of our bright leather gloves, started with a full jar of jelly beans, but we kept eating them, and a half empty jar just  didn’t have the same impact! The colourful balls worked just as well though, and made for an exciting fashion page.

All in all, it feels like the end of another era. Cosmopolitan Brides is also closing. But other titles are coming up, new electronic magazines are coming on line, and the future,  like our summer gloves, is very bright!

Simon Crompton, (from the ever popular Permanent Style),  spotted some interesting gloves on his recent visit to our factory. You can find out more, and read about Nelson’s bloodstained gloves, here.