Lavenham

Lavenham is the Suffolk maker of quilted outerwear, founded in 1969 by Mrs Elliot in the village of Lavenham, from which it takes its name. She made the world's first nylon quilted horse rug, and the first nylon quilted gilet soon followed. Every piece is still quilted, cut and sewn in the company's own Suffolk factory, six miles from the original site, by more than 100 local craftspeople, and the same factory repairs Lavenham pieces. Through its Custom Gilet service, offered at pop-ups, you choose the base model, the outer cloth, the binding, the studs and optional embroidered initials, and the gilet is then made for you, one at a time, in Suffolk.