Sunspel is a British garment manufacturer and retailer, founded in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in 1860. The brand is particularly well-known for its range of

boxer shorts Boxer shorts (also known as loose boxers or as simply boxers) are a type of undergarment typically worn by men. The term has been used in English since 1944 for all-around-elastic shorts, so named after the shorts worn by boxers, for whom unhind ...

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a '' crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are genera ...

s and

polo shirt A polo shirt, tennis shirt, golf shirt, or chukker shirt is a form of shirt with a collar. Polo shirts are usually short sleeved but can be long; they were used by Polo#Players, polo players originally in India in 1859 and in Great Britain durin ...

History

Sunspel was founded in 1860 by Thomas Arthur Hill, who established a textile factory in Newdigate,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

(the centre of the British

lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...

making industry).Sunspel official web-site
''Sunspel History''
(accessed on 11 September 2018) Since 1937 the company’s UK manufacturing base has been at

Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and some 8½ miles (13.7 km) south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has ...

, in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. In 1947 Sunspel first introduced the boxer short from the United States into the United Kingdom. In 2005 Hill’s great-grandson, Peter Hill, sold the company to a former barrister, Nicholas Brooke, and his then business partner Dominic Hazlehurst. The pair sought to modernise the brand, without losing the appeal of its historical heritage.Sarah Shannon
''Sunspel’s Second Coming, Best of Fashion''
Business of Fashion, 14 November 2017

Notable products

T-shirts

The earliest garments that Sunspel produced were tunics and undershirts, which were manufactured in their Nottingham factory at the height of the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. They were amongst the very first T-shirts ever made.

Boxer shorts

Sunspel introduced the boxer short to the UK from the US in 1947. In 1985, a Levis advertisement saw English model

Nick Kamen Ivor Neville "Nick" Kamen (15 April 1962 – 4 May 2021) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and model. He was best known for "Turn It Up" from 1989, the singles " Each Time You Break My Heart" from 1986 and " I Promised Myself" from 199 ...

wearing a pair of Sunspel boxer shorts. This advertisement is widely attributed as being the moment that brought this underwear style to mass popularity in the UK.

Polo shirts

In 2006, Sunspel designed a custom polo shirt for the James Bond film Casino Royale. The shirt was based on a classic 1950s Sunspel polo shirt, which was selected and updated by award winning stylist

Lindy Hemming Lindy Hemming (born 21 August 1948) is a Welsh costume designer, who won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for the 1999 film ''Topsy-Turvy''. Hemming's name is an example of an aptronym. Career After she studied at the Royal Academy of ...

Recent developments

After the change in control of the company in 2005, the new owners focused at first on building its brand on the internet. However, since 2010 a number of Sunspel stores have opened worldwide – at first in London, where five stores had been opened by 2013, and more recently in Berlin and Tokyo. In August 2018, Sunspel announced the imminent opening of its first store in the United States, at 85 Mercer Street in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

’s SoHo district.

Film and media exposure

In 1985

starred in a celebrated

Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, t ...

advertisement, in which he removed his jeans in a launderette, to reveal a pair of white Sunspel boxer shorts. In 2006

Daniel Craig Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English-American actor who gained international fame playing the secret agent James Bond in the film series, beginning with '' Casino Royale'' (2006) and in four further instalments, up to '' ...

wore a Sunspel Riviera polo shirt in his first

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

film, ''Casino Royale''.Square Mile
''Brand Watch: Sunspel''
25 June 2018 In 2016, the television football pundit

Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker (; born 30 November 1960) is an English former professional footballer and current sports broadcaster. He is regarded as having been one of the greatest English strikers. His media career began with the BBC, where he has ...

undertook to present the season-opening edition of ''

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary ...

'' in his underpants if

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

became

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

Champions. He performed his promise in a pair of Sunspel boxer shorts.

External links

Sunspe
official web-site

References

{{Reflist Clothing companies of England Clothing retailers of England Retail companies established in 1860 Clothing brands of the United Kingdom Clothing manufacturers 1860s establishments in England Manufacturing companies based in Nottingham