Pictures and text by Joanna in our Design Department

The Worshipful Company of Glovers of London visited Dents last Wednesday for their annual social engagement. This Livery Company was formed as long ago as 1349 by glove makers in London who wished to protect the high standard of their craft, and it now embraces the best qualities of a fine City institution with an active and enthusiastic membership of 260 individuals. The aims of the Livery are to promote the British glove trade, the wearing of gloves, and to raise money for charitable purposes.

The Master Glover, Keith Ebsworth, with Wardens and Dents Director, Deborah Moore.

Dents Chairman, Robert Yentob, welcomed the 50 Glovers.

The Glovers were given a tour of the new Dents facility This included the factory and the Dents Museum, where Museum Curator, Sarah Kenyon, showed the Glovers our extensive collection of historic gloves. The Glovers were also given a presentation on how Dents put together their new seasons’ collections, and a special PR presentation of recent TV coverage that Dents has featured in, including Flog it, Gok Wan’s Fashion Fix and Princess Anne’s Royal visit.

The Master, Keith Ebsworth, awarded Daphne Highfield a certificate for her 25 years of service in the glove industry.

Overall, it was a lovely day, apart from the awful rainy weather of course!

 

 

 

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!

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

BBC Wiltshire presenters Matthew Smith and Mark O’Donnell did a comprehensive feature on Dents when we moved premises at the beginning of the month, so we thought we’d share some of it with you: 1. Annie Weston of BBC Wiltshire talks to Robert Yentob, Dents’ chairman, about the secrets of the company’s success, and the reasons for the move. 2. Despite local job losses and recessionary times, Dents is moving into bigger premises after sixty years at its present location. Deborah Moore, Dents’ Creative Director, speaks about the move, and Annie Weston interviews Sally Norris, who has been making Dents gloves for forty years. 3. Tony Nicklin, chairman of the Warminster Town Plan Working Group, explains how Dents’ move came about, and the positive impact it will have on Warminster and the local economy, including the long awaited arrival of the Waitrose supermarket, scheduled for completion by December. 4. Annie Weston speaks to Deborah Moore about Dents gloves, and we hear more from Sally Norris, including answers to questions you’ve probably wondered about yourself, such as, “don’t you get nervous making gloves for Prince Charles?”, and “when you’re out, can you always recognize a pair of Dents gloves?”  

Channel 4's Gok Wan co-presenter Brix Smith Start

I am still trying to get over our visit from Brix Smith Start. It was all very exciting…

Brix at Dents glove museum

I was particularly interested in what she was going to wear, and she didn’t disappoint. Fabulous outfit!

During the show Brix visited our museum and picked up a vintage pair of, quite frankly, very cool 60’s stripy driving gloves –  so it was a lovely surprise to be inundated with phone calls requesting them!

Dents multi coloured driving gloves 7-9041

They were so popular, we immediately went into production, and you can imagine my excitement when they arrived on my desk this morning. We are offering these gloves on our website, and you’ll also find them at Selfridges.

Hey, if it’s good enough for Brix then it’s good enough for me, I’ll definitely be wearing a pair.  Perhaps it’s time for a new car to match ; ) ……

Kelly -x-

Bianna Golodryga, co-anchor of ABC News Good Morning America weekend edition

ABC News’ Bianna Golodryga and Nick Watt went to Selfridges, one of London’s top stores, to get some tips on what to wear for the Royal Wedding. When it came to gloves, there could only be one choice… it was great to see Dents on Good Morning America today  (if you don’t want to watch the whole segment, the part on Dents starts at minute 3.12 of the clip). An ABC fim crew visited our factory in Warminster, and those of you lucky enough to have seen the program will have caught glimpses of royal gloves from past weddings in our museum, as well as traditional glove handsewing in our factory.

You can read about Bianna and Nick’s day at Selfridges here. Selfridges’ stylist Sophie Hendley told Bianna that gloves for women were essential for a Royal Wedding. ABC went on to report that ” Dents gloves are the brand de jour, favored by the royal family, handstitched in Wiltshire for three centuries, and worn at many a royal wedding in bygone days”.

The Elle Style Awards is always one of the most glamorous parties of the year and this year’s event, held on Monday (Feb 14th) was one of the best ever. So many A-list guests turned up that the photographers didn’t know who to turn to first – Emma Watson, Cheryl Cole, Helena Christensen – the list of top celeb names just went on and everyone of course looked totally stunning. Vivienne Westwood seemed a little uncertain as she presented Emma with the Style Icon award; she admitted she was a little unsure who Emma was as she hadn’t seen any of the Harry Potter films!

But the highlight for us of course was seeing our lovely Dents gloves up on stage for the presentations. Gok Wan co-presenter Brix Smith Start showed our long black leather gloves to full advantage during the awards and she wasn’t the only person who glammed up her look with Dents gloves. A really excellent evening all round.

Brix loved our gloves so much, she went to our Warminster factory to see them being made – you can see her visit, shown on Gok Wan’s Fashion Fix,  by clicking here.

This just in from Sally in PR…

Tuesday, February 22nd, Channel 4 at 8 pm – don’t miss it!

Brix Smith Start, Co-presenter, Gok ‘s Clothes Road Show

“Sometimes I feel that gloves are the forgotten accessory. People go on and on about shoes and bags without realising that gloves can actually make an outfit. You are never truly dressed without a pair of gloves. Just a pop of colour on the hand can bring a smile to you on a gloomy day, a sexy riding/driving glove can spice up any outfit, long evening gloves denote elegance and sophistication and the de rigour white gloves of the nineteen fifties evoke a ladylike glamour of years past. With the resurgence of shows like Madmen and collections like Louis Vuitton and Prada, gloves are back in a big way and nobody does them better than Dents.”

Brix

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to be part of the judging panel for the British Glove Association glove competition, open to students all across the country. One of the categories was to design a pair of gloves for the Lady Mayoress to wear at the Lord Mayor’s Procession in November 2010.

Well, this weekend was the 795th Lord Mayor’s Show. The winning design was by Carly Squire from the University of Lincoln and Dents was honoured to be selected to make the winning design for the Lady Mayoress, Barbara Bear, to wear!

The Lord Mayor’s Show is an ancient London tradition dating back to 1189. King John granted a charter in 1215 to allow the City’s citizens to elect their own mayor. The new Mayorhas to travel to Westminster to see the sovereign to obtain their approval and to swear loyalty to the Crown. Over the years the Mayor’s journey became so splendid that it became known as the Lord Mayor’s Show. It is the world’s oldest civic procession!

This weekend’s show was a great sight. If you missed it, you can see the Lady Mayoress talking about her Dents gloves here. It was certainly a very beautiful and timeless desgn by Carly, and check out another timeless design – HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation gloves, also made by Dents craftsmen.