Re your report (Fashion and tradition: how John Smedley is innovating in a tough market, 1 November), I was fortunate to grow up with a mum who was interested in good quality clothes and fashion, and who, when I was 17, bought me a black rollneck top. Think Roger Moore. Think Illya Kuryakin (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Think of me in the lower sixth at a rural grammar school in Wiltshire, who missed going to the Bath blues festival at Shepton Mallet in 1970. I also missed the Isle of Wight ferry once.
I recall going on a school trip to see the film Kanał by the Polish director Andrzej Wajda. There were girls on the coach from the girls’ high school. Shock horror. What should I wear? My black polo top, of course. It would be perfect with my tweed sports jacket. And then Mum uttered those immortal words: “It’s made by John Smedley. You can wear it with anything.”
