A follow on from our first corduroy coat post - the one where we admitted the fabric was taking longer than the design. Here's what happened next.
Last time we wrote about the handmade corduroy coat, we told you the honest version: sourcing the right fabric was the hard part, and nobody warns you about that. This is the update, and it's a bigger one than we expected to be writing. The coat is still launching this autumn - but the plan for how it gets made has changed completely. The first run is now being cut and sewn by hand, by us, in Winchester, from heritage English corduroy woven in Yorkshire.
Here's how we got there.
Why the plan changed
We've been working with a manufacturer in India on this coat - and we still are, for future pieces. But a combination of timing and fabric constraints meant that getting the coats out this year wasn't going to happen through that route. The choice was: push the launch back again, or make them ourselves.
We'd already pushed it back once. So: ourselves.
The fabric problem, finally solved
If you read the last post, you'll know fabric weight is the thing we've been most stubborn about. A corduroy coat lives or dies on it - the difference between a coat that hangs properly for decades and one that collapses in two winters is measured in grams per square metre. It needs to feel substantial, hold its structure, and actually keep you warm through an English winter.
Sourcing that weight of corduroy in India, without committing to fabric minimums we couldn't justify for a small first run, wasn't happening. So we started looking closer to home - and found a heritage corduroy mill in Yorkshire that's been weaving since 1858.
The fabric is exactly what we'd been describing to suppliers for months and not getting: proper weight, beautiful drape, made with the kind of care that's increasingly hard to find. We're genuinely proud to be working with them.
The emissions maths we couldn't ignore
There was something that didn't sit quite right with shipping heavy fabric from England to India to be made up, then shipping the finished coats back. For a brand built on the idea that the most sustainable clothes are the ones that already exist, the air miles on that round trip were hard to justify.
Keeping the whole thing in the UK - Yorkshire fabric, Winchester construction - solves that. The coat's entire journey before it reaches you is a few hundred miles.
What "handmade" means this time
Our handmade knitwear is made ethically in Nepal by people who are much better at knitting than we are. This coat is different: every coat in the first run is being cut and sewn here, by hand, from a pattern we've developed ourselves - drawn from the 1970s coats we've spent six years handling, repairing, and watching sell out in seconds.
That makes this the most genuinely handmade thing Reloved Studio has ever sold. It also means supply will be very limited... around ten coats in the first edition. There is one pair of hands making them, and those hands also run the rest of the business.
When and how to get one
The launch is planned for October 2026. The waitlist gets first access before anything goes public, and with a first run this small, first access is the whole game.
In the meantime, our one-off vintage outerwear is where to find the originals this coat is descended from.
FAQs
Where is the corduroy coat made?
The first edition is handmade in Winchester, England, from heavyweight cotton corduroy woven at a heritage mill in Yorkshire that has been running since 1858.
When does the corduroy coat launch?
October 2026, in a limited first edition of around ten coats. Waitlist members get first access.
Why isn't it being made in India any more?
Timing and fabric constraints meant a 2026 launch wasn't possible through that route, and shipping heavy fabric to India and finished coats back didn't sit right with us environmentally. We're still working with our Indian manufacturer on future pieces.
Will there be more coats after the first edition?
That depends on how the first edition goes. Joining the waitlist is the reliable way to know.