Oldfield Outfitters

Oldfield Outfitters was founded in 2009 by Joe Oldfield, who built the label around his family's textile history rather than a general nostalgia for vintage style. His grandfather worked his entire career for Courtaulds Textiles, starting as a tea boy at 18, with his service interrupted only by World War II, during which he commanded a fleet of minesweepers. That family connection to British textile manufacturing shaped Oldfield's approach: rather than sourcing vintage-look clothing from wherever was cheapest, the label set out to recreate specific 1920s-40s British patterns using cloth woven in Britain and garments made in the UK. The first piece the fledgling company produced was a knitted sweater hand-made over three weeks by an elderly woman named Dorothy Massingham, which became the pattern the young factory then worked from. Oldfield's Fair Isle sweaters are made by a family-run business in Shetland, tying the brand's supply chain to the same small-scale regional manufacturers associated with the original garments it reproduces, rather than a mass contract factory. The label covers both men's and women's vintage-pattern clothing, positioned around authenticity of construction and cloth rather than costume-style vintage reproduction.