ANDREW BUNNEY INTERVIEWS DEREK HARRIS ABOUT LEWIS LEATHERS<\/p>\n
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Photographs by Tommy Bunney:<\/p>\n
The latest feature from honeyee has the popular Japanese site focusing on the history of Lewis Leathers with an in-depth interview alongside brand owner Derek Harris. Amongst the many topics, honeyee breaks down Harris\u2019 involvement in the brand and how he managed to make Lewis Leathers into one of the UK\u2019s most enduring companies. Andrew Bunney conducts the interview, which can be seen below.<\/p>\n
How did you become involved with Lewis Leathers?<\/strong><\/p>\n I ended up going to Japan in June 1991, firstly to see some friends of mine that used to come over every six months. I was out there, and this band were touring, so I got a job translating for them, buying their food, lighting equipment and things. I stayed on longer, staying on friend\u2019s floors, I hooked up with these guys that I knew, one of them had a company and said \u201cWe need someone to buy stuff for us in London. Would you do it?\u201d \u201cDoes that mean I\u2019d be working for you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we can pay you a fee\u201d. So I became a self-employed export agent, but I only worked for them, and I was just finding punk-y gear. One of the first things they wanted was leather jackets. So I said the first thing you want is Lewis Leathers, so I headed off there to take photographs of their jackets and things, and that\u2019s how I first officially became involved.<\/p>\n Were they easy to find then?<\/strong><\/p>\n No-one wanted Lewis Leathers at that point. I got them for \u00a310 or \u00a315 each. There were other things \u2013 we needed to find the right buckles and linings, an evolving thing. Then we got the Bronx and a few more jackets and by the 3rd or 4th jacket I had a bit of a bug. I was really appreciating these things. We got these styles up and running, and Richard Lyon who owned the business from 1986 decided to close the shop. It wasn\u2019t doing well, high-overheads, and he could see that we were doing a couple of hundred a year in Japan, and if he closed the shop then maybe it could grow in profit again, albeit small profits. He had other companies that he was more than happily living from, meanwhile he let me get on with my thing. I\u2019d work until 8 o\u2019clock with my day job, then go down to the factory because they\u2019d be working all hours when they had work to do. I\u2019d go down and make sure they had the collar right and stuff like that. 666\uff08\uff0a2\uff09 were buying the jackets to sell in Japan, but what I was doing in the evening was purely my own thing. I\u2019d come back home and it would be 11 o\u2019clock, I was having great fun.<\/p>\n How did the range develop?<\/strong><\/p>\n They probably faltered a bit in WWII in terms of retail sales but there were government orders there. Obviously through WWII it was a bit of a tough time because you couldn\u2019t sell to private flyers because there were no private flyers \u2013 you couldn\u2019t have planes flying around willy-nilly in the war, so I think the motorcycle clothing was a bit more concentrated on. Little by little it became more designed for its purpose. So for motorcycling, instead of a coat you\u2019d have a jacket and pair of trousers, or a one-piece suit for flying. They would have giant pockets for maps, or pockets in the trousers because when you\u2019re flying you need a notepad. Cycle gear was becoming more and more specialized.<\/p>\n As we came out of WWII, motorcycles took off incredibly because of petrol rationing. A bike would go much further on a gallon of petrol a week than a car. So you had this huge boom of motorcycling. The catalogues reflect this where in 1952 you have a lot of motorbikes, with a bit of flying gear in, whereas you get to 56 and it\u2019s almost all-motorcycling gear. 58 there is no flying gear at all although you could still buy it in the shop. Flying had moved on too \u2013 there were enclosed cockpits on private planes by then, so motorcycling was the place to be for this kind of stuff.<\/p>\n
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