The ultimate guide to British knitwear brands – all made in the UK
British knitwear is world-renowned. It’s no wonder – the mechanical knitting machine was invented in England and the oldest operating factory in the world is owned by a knitwear manufacturer – John Smedley.
When it comes to quality, British knitwear can’t be beaten. Whether it’s menswear, womenswear or childrenswear; hand or machine knitted; cashmere, wool or cotton; heritage brand or start-up; there’s a British knit for everyone.
If you’re looking for the best British knitwear brands, you’ll love our ultimate list.
Blackshore Coastal Clothing
Warmth, comfort, durability, wind and weather protection! All these are essential qualities of true working knitwear. And all are qualities you’ll find in Blackshore sweaters.
They’ve partnered with two family knitting factories in the heart of England, and a traditional workshop in the Channel Islands, to create outstanding sweaters worthy of serving the same fishermen who inspired their entire company.
Mars Knitwear
Mars Knitwear is a Leicester based knitwear manufacturer that has been producing the finest quality knitwear since 1994. All of their products are designed, manufactured, and carefully inspected in-house by their team of experts.
Paul James Knitwear
Paul James is a luxury, Leicestershire-based knitwear manufacturer. They take yarns from all over the world and knit them into stylish, functional garments that are made to last.
The Cotton London
Designed and knitted in Scotland from the finest quality wool and cotton, the Cotton knitwear collection offers style in an array of seasonal colours and luxurious soft blends. Their super-soft knitwear collection is a perfect combination of comfort and style.
The Welsh Girl
The Welsh Girl was founded by Julie Leonard in 2015 on returning to her Welsh roots after 25 years in the fashion and photographic industry in London. With a passion for wool and a vision to re-ignite and celebrate the heritage textiles of Wales, she works with the cloth in a unique and contemporary way.
Waring Brooke
British knitwear designer Samantha Brooke, Founder of the luxury ‘Waring Brooke’ takes a multi-pronged approach to reducing fashion waste with a vision of the future firmly in mind for creating her womenswear, menswear and personalised accessories. As seen in Vogue and billed as one to watch in the fashion industry, talented Samantha creates luxury knitwear with ethically sourced biodegradable materials designed for those who share their love of the outdoors and who have an interest in protecting the British countryside.
Ally Bee
Ally Bee makes beautiful sustainable knitwear, adopting a ‘cradle to cradle’ commitment to fashion. They seek out natural fibres with care for the land and animal welfare and adopt the cleanest processing and dying.
Celtic & Co.
Celtic & Co. is a luxury British brand, offering a wide range of footwear, clothing, outerwear and accessories made exclusively from the finest, all-natural fibres, predominantly produced in the UK.
Channel Jumper Co.
Established in 1976, Channel Jumper was started as a Cottage Industry with the intention to revive the Alderney jumper which had not been seen for decades and to establish a knitting industry on the island. Today, Channel Jumper produces a range of different designs, many of which are unique to them.
Eribé Knitwear
ERIBÉ Knitwear is an award-winning design house and manufacturer based in Melrose, Scotland. Established in 1986, they are world-famous for putting an innovative spin on traditional Scottish knitwear.
Genevieve Sweeney
Genevieve Sweeney launched her eponymous knitwear brand in 2015. Made exclusively in the UK, Genevieve Sweeney is writing a new chapter for the knitwear industry, marrying contemporary design with exceptional hand finishes. Indebted to the time-honoured techniques of artisan makers, the brand has reimagined the possibilities of knitwear.
Glencroft
Richard Sexton & Co is a family run British clothing company based in Clapham, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. Since 1987 they have been supplying wholesale with their quality ‘Glencroft’ brand which includes some beautiful knitwear pieces.
Oubas Knitwear
Oubas Knitwear create beautiful and timeless knitted pieces from natural fibres. Oubas values made in Britain; drawing on the rich history that surrounds them to bring contemporary products with high end craftsmanship.
Ramnation
As well as making very nice knitwear, Ramnation are passionate about provenance and supply chain, insisting that their wool is British, their dyes natural and non-toxic, a Cornish mill and a factory in Nottinghamshire.
Valentina Karellas
Welcome to Valentina Karellas, where every piece of knitwear is one-of-a kind. That’s because we use surplus yarn from large factories that would otherwise have gone to waste. The result: each one is a lifelong-lasting, entirely unique London original. We continue London’s rich heritage of quality making.
British Christmas Jumpers
At Make it British we love a Christmas Jumper and British Christmas Jumpers offer a huge range of designs, all made in the UK of course!
Turtle Doves
Nestled in the heart of Shropshire the Turtle Doves team specialises in turning pre-loved cashmere jumpers into practical and gorgeously soft new accessories.
We are Rushworth
We are Rushworth are a Scottish borders based clothing label started in 2012. All of their knitwear is made in Scotland.
Charles Kirk
Charles Kirk make bespoke school knitwear, all made in the UK, in their factory in Worthing, West Sussex to your precise specifications. Customise one of their standard styles or work with them to produce an entirely unique garment. They can also colour match to co-ordinate with your other garments and offer options for those with allergies or requiring smaller/larger than average sizes.
John Smedley
Established in 1784, John Smedley are the oldest manufacturing factory in the world, crafting beautiful, high quality garments that are designed to last, made in Britain and distributed the world over.
Johnstons of Elgin
Founded in 1797, the Johnstons knitting mill in Hawick, has a team of highly skilled designers and craftspeople working together to create their wonderful knitwear.
&Daughter
Luxury women’s knitwear & accessories made in Scotland & Ireland. Aran knit & cable wool jumpers, cardigans and hand-finished cashmere.
Barrie
An historic manufacturer of premium cashmere, established in the Scottish Borders in 1903. Barrie Knitwear is renowned for its outstanding, traditional expertise.
Brora
Brora are known for their luxury, Scottish cashmere knitwear.
Collingwood-Norris
Knitted jumpers and accessories for men and women, designed and made in their small studio in the Scottish Borders. Using the finest lambswool, each scarf, hat, wrap, and jumper is individually knitted by Flora in her studio.
Cooking Apple
Traditional yet wearable clothes for children and adults. Cooking Apple designs are inspired by forgotten patterns and styles, which are then knitted up in beautiful colours. Each piece is hand-knitted in the Cotswolds by a small team.
Eleven Everything
Eleven Everything creates luxury fashion knitwear designed in London, knitted in Britain and completed with foiling and hand finishing back in London in an east end artisan studio.
Esk
Esk combine style and luxury in their knitwear. They make and mill everything in Scotland under the same roof and source their yarns with care and integrity, trying to use the small but rich seam of spinners in Britain.
Fanclub
Fanclub is a London based knitwear brand. Yarns are sourced from Britain’s premium suppliers, spun in England and Scotland.
Glenbrae
With a heritage born in the mill town of Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, and a reputation renowned the world over, Glenbrae’s history is rich in developing technical yarns.
Glenevan Mill
Since its foundation in 1978 on the hills of the Scottish Borders, Glenevan Mill has been producing exclusive handmade Cashmere knitwear for its discerning clientele around the world.
Harley of Scotland
Harley of Scotland have produced quality knitwear for 87 years. Their ideas and inspiration, eclectic blends of the highest quality fibres, textures and patterns, and pairing their traditional techniques with highly sophisticated technology ensures the perfect balance between old and new.
Last of England
Last Of England is a clothing brand which is led by design. Last Of England takes stylistic inspiration from the past to create items that will endure in the future and use the manufacturing talents of British industry.
Leith Clothing
Leith clothing is a British menswear brand whose range includes cable knit jumpers crafted on the Shetland islands using 100% Shetland wool from the Jamiesons mill – a company who have been supplying yarn since the 1890s.
Peregrine
Peregrine is an English Heritage clothing brand with British Heritage Merino wool jumpers and cardigans.
Plum of London
Luxury knitwear brand Plum of London makes its entire range within these shores meaning that they can support local, highly-skilled industries whilst keeping their carbon footprint to a minimum!
Richmond Knitwear
Richmond Knitwear is country, cricket, work and schoolwear knitted by Crystal Knitwear since 1990.
The Tailor Retailored
Designer men’s luxury Scottish cashmere knitwear combining modern fits and design with traditional artisanal construction.
Unmade
UMd is an experimental fashion label from the team behind Unmade. Everything produced by UMd is powered by Unmade technology, made to order and unique to the customer. UMd works in collaboration with other innovative global brands, reflecting Unmade’s desire to transform fashion by working with the industry.
Valentina Karellas
At Valentina Karellas every piece of knitwear is one-of-a kind. Valentina uses surplus yarn from large factories that would otherwise have gone to waste. The result: each piece of knitwear is a lifelong-lasting, entirely unique London original.
William Lockie
William Lockie is one of the oldest family run luxury knitwear businesses based in the Scottish Borders.
They specialise in knitwear made from natural fibres such as Cashmere, Camelhair, Merino, Geelong & Lambswool using traditional techniques that have been passed down for generations.
Wonderers
Wonderers makes knitwear for 3 to 10 year olds. All Wonderers knits are made in the UK using 100% natural fibres.
Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed this article about British Knitwear. You can also see which Make it British members make knitwear in our directory here
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There is no doubt that English knitwear is the best in the world.
Why English and not British. We do make very good knitwear in Scotland and i’m sure Ireland and Wales do too
Absolutely 🙂 uniqueness is irreplaceable
Where can you buy Ross Bar in London?
You can but his products here > https://www.ross-barr.com/
British manufacturers please contact me on leila@kingfox.co.uk if after looking at my Instagram/facebook @kingfoxmenswear you think you’d fit in.
Thanks so much.
Good selection of knitwear companies, nice to see traditional styles represented as well as new designs.
We would love to buy some sweaters here but we are in the USA and do not know what the customs duty would be. Any advice? Thanks
Do any of these manufacture cardigans for men with detail like the stripe around the Vneck as per gucci designs and similar. I want to support ethical manufacture but struggle to find non solid colour boring garments from many of these manufacturers
If you can, please let me know of British knitwear which is NOT woolen, as my daughter is quite allergic to all wools. Thanks,
Danielle J.
Love this and great info for a recent graduate like myself
Good to see British Companies still producing quality items.
Do you have any idea of what’s going on with Leith Clothing? Website down, Instagram account down, …. – out of business? Would be a shame since they made some fine jumpers.
Whatever happened to Sabre? I used to buy their knitwear in the 1980s.
Looking to support British knitwear like we all should be doing, will check with all these web sites with view to Christmas shopping, Scotland seems a good place to start. At the moment British farm are having to nearly give their fleeces away, so sad. Sue w
Brilliant that there is a source with so much useful information in one place – well done. I have been trying for a while to locate supplier/retailers of a wonderful particular woollen jumper that suffered a severe moth attack, and thanks to this site I believe I have. Thank you
Thanks for the list of real wool products. Fed up with so-called ‘wool’ jumpers, which are a mix of stuff. Look forward to buying from British firms who make really decent wool jumpers.