Press Releases
UK Company e-moor Ltd., who design and manufacture the MARY DAVIS™ Knitwear label, were delighted to receive a visit from HRH THE PRINCESS ROYAL to officially open the MARY DAVIS™ flagship shop in Wedmore, Somerset on Thursday 15th February 2007.
HRH THE PRINCESS ROYAL visited the MARY DAVIS™ Shop in her official capacity as President of UK Fashion Exports. This Somerset based company was chosen for the visit because of its passion for bringing products exclusively made in the UK to the market. e-moor Ltd currently exports its MARY DAVIS label to Japan, USA and Germany, whilst also supplying top end Boutiques across the UK.
MARY DAVIS is a wholly UK designed and produced product. As a company, as well as being passionate about keeping manufacturing in the UK, that passion extends to keeping alive traditional manufacturing and design skills and keeping the workforce as local as possible.
Her Royal Highness arrived at 3.45pm and was greeted by The Chairman of Sedgemoor District Council, Councillor John Denbee and Mrs Denbee, The Chief Executive of Sedgemoor District Council, Mr Kerry Rickards and his fiancee Susan Holding. The Lord Lieutenant, Lady Gass, then presented Paul Alger, Executive Director of UK Fashion Exports and Fiona Jackson, Managing Director of e-moor Ltd., who invited Her Royal Highness into the shop.
Once inside, HRH The Princess Royal talked extensively to both Fiona Jackson and Mary Davis, (Creative Director and Designer of e-moor Ltd) about the range and what it means to be a British company in export. When asked why Wedmore was chosen as the location for the flagship shop, Fiona Jackson explained that the beautiful village of Wedmore was the perfect environment for the high quality MARY DAVIS garments.
HRH The Princess Royal with (all wearing MARY DAVIS Jackets) Fiona Jackson, Shop staff - Susan Harding, Jane Smith.
HRH The Princess Royal took a keen interest in the way the garments were produced, talking with some of the MARY DAVIS hand knitters and finishers, together with Eddie and Carl Strachan of Grantcraft, the Leicester based firm who manufacture a range of the MARY DAVIS machine knits.
Linda Penfold, Eddie and Carl Strachan, HRH The Princess Royal.
Part of the visit was to perform the official opening of the MARY DAVIS shop and to mark this with the unveiling of a plaque.
HRH The Princess Royal and Fiona Jackson.
This was followed by a presentation of a jacket from the collection and a donation to the Princess Anne's Charities Trust.
Mary Davis and HRH The Princess Royal.
Judging by the Princess Royal's response, MARY DAVIS could have a new devotee!
HRH The Princess Royal also met a number of MARY DAVIS wholesale customers and further local dignitaries.
Before leaving the shop after some 40 minutes, HRH The Princess Royal kindly signed the Visitor's Book and wished the MARY DAVIS team good luck, expressing her pleasure in seeing this kind of business flourishing in the UK.
The Mary Davis brand started as a favour to a desperate friend - Mary Davis helped rescue her husband's shrunk favourite jumper. This has turned into a design brand that is instantly recognisable as a 'Mary Davis'! Mary saw in this accident the exciting potential for a new kind of knitwear.
Mary Davis, the lady, has become synonymous with the amazingly different knitwear that she designs. So much so that it is the brand MARY DAVIS™ that we now talk about!
The range today consists of the Hand-Knit Jackets (and we call them jackets as they are so much more than a cardigan!) Waistcoats, Skirts, Tops, Hats, Scarves and Cushions plus a range of machine-knit Jackets, Waistcoats, Hats and Scarves. All these garments are still hand embellished and hand-finished, then felted, to retain the unique MARY DAVIS™ look.
Contact:
Fiona Jackson
MARY DAVIS
e-moor Ltd.
T: 01458 210447
M: 07767 763628
E-mail: fiona@e-moor.com