Drake's

Drake's was founded in 1977 in East London by Michael Drake as a small atelier producing handmade silk scarves and ties for the London tailoring trade. For three decades the brand operated quietly as a wholesale supplier to Savile Row tailors and high-end menswear shops; the breakthrough came in 2010 when Michael Hill (then a long-time Drake's customer) acquired the business and pivoted it toward direct-to-consumer. The Drake's vocabulary expanded under Hill's direction into a full menswear offering: hand-rolled silk ties (still produced in the Haberdasher Street workshop in Shoreditch), button-down oxford shirts (the brand's flagship category), tweed jackets, Madras shirting, knitwear, and the increasingly ambitious 'Games' seasonal collections that combine British craft references with hand-painted prints and travel-inspired colour stories. The brand became one of the leading voices in the international 'Ivy revival' of the 2010s. Drake's operates flagships in London (the Clifford Street store, the Savile Row store, and the East End atelier on Haberdasher Street), New York (Crosby Street), and Tokyo (Aoyama). The brand remains independent and is held by Hill and his partners. Production is overwhelmingly British, with ties and scarves made in London, shirts in Somerset, and knitwear in Scotland. Few independent menswear brands have built such a coherent, craft-led international identity in such a short time.