Albam

Albam was founded in 2006 in London by Alastair Rae and James Shaw as a contemporary British menswear brand specifically focused on what the founders described as 'a deliberately-British workwear-and-traditional-craft-anchored contemporary-menswear vocabulary anchored to small-batch British-and-European production.' The brand has been one of the defining post-2006 British-anchored contemporary-menswear brands operating at the 'British-everyday-craft' price tier. The Albam vocabulary settled around several specific products: the iconic Albam Fisherman's Sweater (the brand's defining hand-knitted product since 2008 — a heavyweight British-mill-wool fisherman's sweater with the iconic British-coastal-aesthetic construction), the Albam Carpenter Jacket (a defining workwear-derived overshirt product), heavyweight British-mill cotton work-shirts and oxford button-downs, hand-finished British-mill wool tailored separates, and a colour palette anchored to washed-navy, ecru, oxblood, military-olive, washed-charcoal, plus the brand's recurring use of natural-undyed and traditional-British-craft aesthetic colour combinations. Production is split between British workshops and selected European production partners. The brand is independent and held by Rae and Shaw. Albam operates flagship retail in London (Beak Street — the brand's home flagship; Marylebone; Spitalfields), plus international wholesale through MR PORTER, MATCHES, Beams Plus, Nepenthes, the broader Japanese-and-American heritage-menswear specialty network, and a curated set of luxury menswear specialty retailers globally. The brand has been one of the more quietly disciplined post-2006 British-anchored 'everyday-craft-menswear' brands.