“Fashion used to be so much fun.”
It’s a sign I’m getting old when too often in a conversation this phrase or something like it crops up. My vast contacts list is full of people who have told me they fell into our industry by accident, often because they couldn’t get a job elsewhere, found they loved it, and stayed for decades.
All that’s lovely, of course, but on many occasions, when retirement beckons, such folk admit they are glad they are getting out now because “fashion isn’t as much fun as it used to be”.
After almost 45 years at this scribbling lark I’m still enjoying myself and so recently it was a real pleasure to discover my pal Josef “Joe” Schindler, who has a similar number of fashion years on the clock, is similarly hale, hearty and happy.
Living proof that it’s not what you do, but it’s the way that you do it, this jeanswear veteran is running two direct-to-consumer labels, producing high-quality goods mainly in the UK, and is selling his exclusive premium products not in an expensive retail property but on Altrincham Market and online.
Joe & Co is concerned with what young Mr Schindler (who is actually 61 years old, trailing me by eight years) calls “luxury workwear”. With it he is drawing on his love of jeanswear, workwear, streetwear and military outfits to produce items like selvedge denim jeans that sell – from his market stalls – for between £175 and £205 and a “Mancmak” raincoat in the classic Ventile fabric for £475 and a ripstop camo field jacket for £395.
As Joe might say, have a butcher’s here.
This really is premium menswear (and a bit for women too).
Northern Couture is Joe & Co’s mainly T-shirt-based sibling, pitched at slightly lower prices with Tees retailing at £30 and fleece hoodies at £60 – still way above the level of nasty fast fashion, of course.
Have a look at it here to enjoy some clever slogans (eg the odd Northern Girls Love Gravy) and a cheeky take-off of the Supreme logo.
Joe Schindler on Altrincham Market (Photo: Eric Musgrave)
With this two-pronged approach, over the past nine years on the covered-but-open Altrincham Market Joe has developed one of the best and most inspiring fashion concepts I have seen in a long time. I applaud him for doing what he wants, how he wants to do it and not compromising on quality.
His German grandfather provided his exotic moniker but Joe is a Manchester lad through and through. After his dad died suddenly when he was a teenager, Joe went off the rail somewhat, left school early and found employment in the Manc menswear scene.
His first fashion job was on the shop floor with the regional chain Stolen From Ivor, which was run by the legendary Ivor Hazan, who brought low-cost fashion bargains to Northern youths. Joe then moved upmarket to work for another well-known Manchester retailer, Phil Black. A bloke called Johnny Marr was a workmate there.
All the way along he was making contacts, learning about fabrics and manufacturing, storing info away for a rainy day.
By the late 1980s, Joe had his own jeanswear label, Josef Jeans, which he successfully wholesaled between 1987 and 1999. When that adventure ended, he bounced back with Schindler Lifestyle, his own multi-brand retail concept in Heaton Moor in Stockport, but the global financial crisis proved too big a problem for that initiative.
Joe & Co and Northern Couture are the products of all those decades of experience. With no capital to speak of, setting up another wholesale collection or opening a shop with all its immediate fixed costs was out of the question, so taking a single stall on Altrincham Market provided a route to market for the clothes he had produced mainly in north-west England.
He chose local manufacturing because he knew the factories personally, they were prepared to make in very small runs for him and it is easier to manage production in Burnley rather than in Bangladesh.
Despite his passion for UK production, he complains it is getting harder to do all the time. The collapse earlier this year of Manchester-based Fine English Cottons, his major T-shirt supplier, gave him plenty of headaches. He has gone to Portugal to find a replacement factory. He also complains about the high cost of sampling with British manufacturers and their readiness to stick to what he sees as a high manufacturing cost even though the factory is on a three-day week.
Yet Joe perseveres with his home-made stance. He favours wherever possible fabrics from British mills as well, even if the “British” mills now make overseas. He is obsessive about details, so, for example, his custom-made buttons come from Courtney & Co in the Cotswolds.
For the jeanswear that forms the core of Joe & Co, he imports denim from top mills like Kurabo in Japan and Candiani in Italy. As Joe points out ruefully, no one weaves denim commercially in the UK these days.
While he admits he is not a designer nor a pattern cutter, Joe rightly claims he has a good eye. He knows what he wants and can explain to his factories exactly how he wants his garments to turn out.
His footwear is made by the family firm Sanders & Sanders in Northamptonshire and he has a collab with its Northants neighbour Tricker’s due in imminently. He has even developed a Joe & Co fragrance, which is quite an achievement given that he is pretty much a one-man band.
Since 2015 his single stall in Alty Market has grown to seven, which he single-handedly mans on his trading days – Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – leaving him three days to manage design, production and the websites.
Obviously he has a strong Northern work ethic.
Joe also does a great job at explaining his take on clothing and the story of his products in a series of videos that can be seen on the website.
I am delighted to see an old friend doing well and enjoying a new lease of fashion life. When I made my long-promised trip to Altrincham to see him, I was determined not to buy anything as my wardrobe is full enough but I found Joe & Co’s Grafters 3 11oz Yarn Dyed Railroad Stripe Chore Jacket (£250) too good to leave behind.
If you look around, fashion still can be fun.
Keep up the good work, Joe.
