In celebration of our 25 years working together, we are excited to be showcasing an extended range of guernseys in Labour & Wait’s Shoreditch shop that launched on Wednesday 30th October and runs until the end of January 2025.
We saw this as a perfect opportunity for London & the South East to experience a wider range of Le Tricoteur guernseys, supplying a wider collection and giving everyone a chance to see, feel & try on the garments for size. Simon & Rachel chose some additional colours alongside their traditional core range, with kelly green back and a seasonal candy stripe in red & cream.
Labour & Wait’s beautifully curated shop is a treasure trove of the very “best in category” across functional & sustainable product design and they have been stocking Le Tricoteur guernseys since their launch.
We sat down with the founders, Simon Watkins and Rachel Wythe-Moran to ask them a few questions about the business and plans for the future.
How did the business come about and when did it all start?
We had both had careers as menswear designers, but had grown frustrated by the need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ every 6 months. We both appreciated classic, timeless design, and felt increasingly that there was little need to keep changing things so regularly, other than as a means of generating business. We talked frequently about timeless products, not just clothing, but household goods too. We would often wax-lyrical about good quality dustpans and natural brushes! We both lamented the fact that everything seemed to be over-designed, and it was really difficult to find the classics which we so admired.
The idea of Labour and Wait was born from these discussions. We imagined a shop where you could always find simple, well designed products that were built to last. We began sourcing these items and found the companies or individuals who were still making these goods, which seemed to have been almost forgotten by the mainstream.
Tell us a bit about the ethos behind how you curate the shop.
We are very rigorous in our selection of the items we stock. Products need to be well designed and made, using quality materials and have a timeless quality. The traditional village shop has always been a reference point for Labour and Wait. Our shops have the feel of a general store, selling a wide range of quality items. We enjoy the unexpected juxtapositions of products; where else would you buy a Guernsey sweater, a kettle and a stapler in one transaction?!
What’s your proudest Labour & Wait moment?
One of our proudest moments has got to be when we were voted London’s Number one shop by Time Out magazine. This was quite amazing, it was in the days of our first little shop tucked away on Cheshire Street in East London. We beat Selfridges into second place!!
What’s your bestseller (apart from Le Tricoteur guernseys of course!)
A consistent best seller is our Labour and Wait Bib Apron. We sell quantities of the aprons to cafes and restaurants both here and overseas - even as far away as Australia! They are also a favourite with artists and crafts people. We originally made the aprons ourselves to wear in the shop . . . but after many requests from customers to buy them we decided to get them made, and they have been a big success ever since.
The first cafe to buy them was the Monmouth Coffee Company, we couldn’t have wished for a better way of promoting them!
Another one of our ‘greatest hits’ is the Brown Enamel Bread Bin. It’s very satisfying to know that its not just Simon and Rachel that have a natural penchant for the colour Brown! Most of our enamelware is produced in Austria by Riess. We have been working with them almost from the beginning of Labour and Wait. We developed the Bread Bin with them and based the colour on some vintage Riess pieces produced in the 1920’s.
What does the future hold for Labour & Wait?
In terms of physical retail, we currently have two shops and a concession in London. There is also a Labour and Wait shop in Tokyo, and several concessions around Japan. Our online business is strong, and we are about to embark on a project to realise our largest shop to date, in Covent Garden. We plan to increase our ranges and present the Labour and Wait philosophy to a wider audience.
Labour & Wait’s Le Tricoteur pop-up shop opened on 30 October 2024 and runs until January 2025. The Shoreditch shop is located at 85 Redchurch Street and is open every day from 11am to 6pm.
