Fri, 23/12/2022 - 10:17
For the past five years ANCHOR & CREW have been building their gent’s jewellery brand in studio 3.3 at Banks Mill. Now a strong online and instore brand, ANCHOR & CREW have moved premises and expanded to the High Street, taking a shop on Sadler Gate in the Cathedral quarter. A multi-storey premises, ANCHOR & CREW’s manufacturing occurs on one level with customers able to look at how things are made as well as browse all their collections.
Multi-award winning since 2014, they believe in having a highly ethical and traceable supply chain, and the new store showcases their full jewellery collection which continues to expand season on season. Recently, they were also Highly Commended in the Men’s Jewellery category of the jewellery industry’s Collection Of The Year awards (Professional Jeweller 2022)
Director Chris Warner describes: “One reason ANCHOR & CREW started was because we felt, at the time, there was a consumer mentality that men could only wear watches, and if they do wear jewellery, it would be something traditional. We are, no doubt, not alone in this thought given the popular rise in men’s jewellery with other brands also evolving and becoming more modern-focused since, but for us, we paired this idea with being both handcrafted in Great Britain and made of precious metals. Across the spectrum of our competitors, many offer products made of stainless steel and mass manufactured in factories, whilst others are handcrafted and particularly craft-like. We wanted to bridge the gap and fit somewhere in between, in which we’re confident an ANCHOR & CREW consumer sees our products as clothing style accessories as much as pieces of jewellery."
ANCHOR & CREW are now stocked at known big label department stores, both instore and online, across Europe as well as in many independent menswear stores and jewellers. Department stores include France’s Galeries Lafayette and Le BHV, Germany's Zalando, Belgium’s INNO, London’s Wolf & Badger and more.
In the past few years, as part of ANCHOR & CREW’s ethical priorities, the brand were also seen at COP26, Glasgow and it’s Terra Carta, HRH Foundation event series. In collaboration with Lyfecycle, a science company that pioneers plastic inventions based at Imperial College London, ANCHOR & CREW manufactures an experimental product made of a new plastic invention. With the plastic engineered to degrade in a pre-set amount of time, little over a year compared to the thousands of years it is estimated that typical plastics take to break down, after the year, no microplastics or toxins are left behind, only an earth-friendly wax that becomes a part of the natural cycle of life. With ANCHOR & CREW’s experimental product tangible proof of the consumer possibilities of this new plastic, King Charles III commented: "I was very impressed by the team at Imperial College London who took their knowledge of chemistry and polymers and mimicked the way nature breaks down organic waste. Brilliant ideas like this come from realising that nature has worked out how to fix most of the problems we face.”
You can visit ANCHOR & CREW in their new store at 8/9 Sadler Gate, Derby, or visit their website and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.