The belt buckle is solid pewter, individually cast in Cheshire and given a light polish. The leather strap is deep brown Saddle leather tanned by Joseph Clayton in Chesterfield and split to 4 mm thickness. The belt is hand cut and and hand stitched using a waxed thread.

The Yan is our first one inch belt. Yan means One in the old local dialect still used by farmers and other folk up in the Lakes. It’s also the first word of Yan Tan Tethera, the counting rhyme derived from a Brythonic Celtic language and used by shepherds. This is CHERCHBI, there had to be sheep connection somewhere.

Aside from the inspiration and choice of materials used, the most important feature of this belt is that it holds your pants up. Or those of your girlfriend or wife, as has happened a number of times recently and which of course I’m taking as a compliment

The Yan Belt is now available to buy at cherchbi.com.

The past two years have been solidly building towards now; the first collection of Herdwyck bags in production for AW11 season. The bags are slowly coming together, hundreds of individual processes combining in a particular order to create a single item. The Black Sail Rucksack production sheets are pictured below – 18 pages with approximately 240 different operations to make one bag. Nice to travel a little way along the M6 motorway and see this coming together, rather than jumping on a plane for a 12,000 mile round trip as I did in a previous life.

Some of these images of laden benches and equipment or tools left mid-operation may suggest a lack of organisation. The reality is different, there’s a great atmosphere around the workshop, a faint buzz you feel rather than hear. The ladies all work in a slow and deliberate way, the materials, parts, tools or machinery are all carefully studied before engaging each action. This is bench making. Some processes use machine, most are completed by hand, they all come together on a bench.

The pace, consideration and skill with which this work is conducted is in beautiful contrast to the years I worked with Chinese factories. Virtually every aspect of their operation – scale, noise, density, speed, mechanisation, computerisation and volume of output – is in opposition to the CHERCHBI workshop.

Back to England, and another difference. Our bags are likely to vary from one another because so few pairs of hands have assembled them. This isn’t a disclaimer, more a statement of pride. In celebration of this – and so we can trace every bag back to a date, batch run and workshop – each is individually hand-stamped with a unique number. These final points say a lot about CHERCHBI’s approach to quality. A word much overused and certainly less well understood than four or five decades ago. I think about it a lot and describe our goods as ‘robust, traditional British quality’. It’s a cornerstone of what CHERCHBI is all about, we’re designing and making goods using materials and techniques essentially unchanged for centuries. This may be visible in the pictures, but entirely apparent when you see the finished goods; in the touch, smell, weight and feel of Herdwyck No.10 tweed, British leather and solid brass combined.

The images show the early and mid-production stages, just after material cutting through to some being almost finished. There are twelve styles in production for this AW11 season, some of which will be available to buy from MR PORTER, Fortnum & Mason, Lissom & Muster, United Arrows [Japan], Everly [Japan], Cambridge Members [Korea] and Kapok [Hong Kong] from mid to late August.

We imagined it would be an interesting day, but it surpassed all expectations; incredible bicycles, characters and outfits, and a wonderfully positive mood from the 600 or so participants. The weather obviously helped, as did the contents of numerous hipflasks. We’d also like to think our own Tweed Run X CHERCHBI edition Kendal mintcake contributed too. It seemed to go down very well and we’ve had a number of requests for more over the past days via our Facebook page.

Here’s a few images [many thanks to Kelly and Ruth for some of those images], also CLICK HERE for a film from one of the sponsors. And yes of course, we’ll be there for the next one, this Autumn I think.Click to view slideshow.

What’s in your bag?

They may have designer labels, but do the male fashion pack carry just as much junk inside? As menswear day at London fashion week kicks off, Helen Seamons delves into some very stylish bags, and finds everything from Prada fragrance to climbing rope.

London-based fashion designer Oliver Spencer is currently carrying one of our early Black Sail Rucksack samples and is carrying a waxed waistcoat liner, swimming googles, glasses “for when I have a contact lens emergency”, Oliver Spencer cycling cap and scarf, Cotswold Outdoor climbing rope “for my inner adventurer”, notebook from Italy, Ipod and headphones, No Way Down by Graham Bowley “again to satisfy my explorers spirit”

Next fall, men are going to need a gaming license to make proper use of all the hunting- and fishing-inspired fashion that was shown this week at Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence, Italy. The expected tweeds were out in full force, but in heavier weights and softer textures, in jackets and outerwear with utilitarian detailing and trousers made for stomping about in the country.

Haversack, a Japanese line with a very English “to the manor born” sensibility, showed colorful plaid jackets with hunting pockets along with tweed knickerbockers, those cropped pants favored by shooters out on the range as well as on the fairway. Diamond-quilted belted overcoats and a cropped khaki canvas and wool double-breasted jackets made for elegant impermeables while long-john-styled, button-front knit trousers came out for air. Takuji Suzuki of ts(s) took a long Chesterfield coat and added a chunky knit collar and topstitching details to make it more rough and ready. He layered ribbed knit leggings under long corduroy shorts and added Alpine hiking boots for this urbane explorer.

Over at Pitti favorite Engineered Garments, Takuji’s brother Daiki Suzuki designed coveralls in glen plaid wool with a matching cape and work apron. His always elegant layered looks combined wool utility jackets and quilted anoraks with bright hunting plaid shirts and chunky corduroy trousers, topped off with knit watch caps. Brown cotton canvas or “duck,” best known from Carhartt work wear, was used in washed sport jackets, vests and reinforced trousers. This American everyman fabric kept cropping up in the show, in hunting-style vests from Post Overalls and elegant flat-front trousers at Jack Spade.

The English outerwear expert Nigel Cabourn worked with Brady, an old English accessory manufacturer, to create angler-style bags in tartan tweeds with handmade net pockets that also showed up on sport jacket pockets. A new partnership with the Seattle-based Eddie Bauer, originator of the down parka, inspired Cabourn to reinterpret the label’s classic models in new high-tech fabric combinations and bright colors. The result is some striking Alpine-ready outerwear.

Adam Atkinson, who started the new bag company Cherchbi, based in the United Kingdom’s lake district, took 10 tries over a few years to perfect a new tweed made from a notoriously tough wool produced by the high-climbing Herdwyck sheep breed. The handsome range of rucksacks and totes are perfect for our city-dwelling, country-minded gents.

“UK Fashion and Jewellery Showcase – Determined Craftsmanship and Mode including fashionable eco brands UK Fashion and Jewellery Showcase was held in Aoyama. Thanks to strong Japanese yen, a good number of orders were generated, especially for made in UK men’s items.

CHERCHBI which is going to make its debut in Pitti Uomo next January is bag brand with eco friendly view point. Texture of leather trimmed wool is rough like Harris Tweed. He managed to use wool of meat sheep that used to be abandoned because it was difficult to yarn after three years of trial and error. He is determined with made in the UK as wool from Lake District, yarn spinning in Northern Ireland and weaving in Wales.”