John Smedley is celebrating its 110 years of trade in Japan with an interesting limited-edition 10-piece lifestyle collection, designed exclusively with the brand’s key Japanese retail partners. It launches this month.

But while it’s driven by the brand’s presence in Japan (which is currently the company’s second biggest market for sales, after the UK), the collection will actually be available globally via the label’s webstore and those items will be in UK retail stores for the very first time. 

They’ve been “created to expand John Smedley’s existing product categories and complement its extensive knitwear selection”.

The company said that through the collection it’s “cementing its status as a trusted, go-to British brand — and positioning itself as a full wardrobe outfitter, both on home soil and in Japan”.

It’s an in-demand label in Japan where its British heritage, Royal warrants and quality focus are highly prized.

That said, the label’s typical customer in the country is “younger and more fashion-orientated than its European or North American clientele”. 

This means that recent years have seen it tweaking or redeveloping its signature knits sold in Japan, to target Gen Z and “to fully cater to the preferences of its discerning customers there — the classic polo shirt, for example, features a larger collar and a rounder silhouette, which has earned it status as an investment piece within the modern closet”.

So it will be interesting to see how the new collection performs globally.

Given the ‘cool factor’ that Japanese fashion has, it’s also interesting that the company is combining its ‘quality British’ appeal with more than just design inspiration from one of Asia’s key markets. In fact, each piece within this range will be exclusively made in Japan, marking the first time John Smedley has manufactured outside its Derbyshire headquarters.