Fox Brothers ⭐ Top pick

We invented flannel. 250 years later, we still make it in the same place. Somerset has the right water, the right hands, and the good sense not to change what works.

1772. Thomas Fox founded a woolen mill in Wellington, Somerset. England was then the world center of textiles. Somerset, with its fresh water and pastures, is ideal territory for wool.

1803. Fox Brothers develops a new fabric: a soft, lightly milled, combed wool fabric with an incomparable feel. They call it “flannel.” The word didn't exist before. The Fox flannel quickly became the reference for English suits, then for the whole world.

In the 19th century, Fox Brothers supplied the British army, private schools and cricket clubs. Gray flannel became synonymous with English respectability. The pattern archives, preserved since the foundation, today constitute one of the richest textile collections in the world.

The 20th century was brutal for the British textile industry. The spinning mills close one after the other. Polyester, offshoring, fast fashion. Fox Brothers survives where hundreds of others disappear. The reason is simple: no one else knows how to do what they do.

In 2009, Douglas Cordeaux bought the company and invested massively in modernizing equipment while preserving know-how. The mill today produces flannels, tweeds, worsteds and woolen sheets. Everything is made in Wellington, from yarn to finished fabric. The tailors from Savile Row, from Naples, from Paris order from Fox.

250 years old. Only one address. The same job. The last English spinning mill that does everything on site.