The Red Dragonhood

The Red Dragonhood is about quality and exclusivity and that normally means expense. But it is also about communicating ideas of nationhood and high prices would exclude too many of the people with whom I want to communicate.

As a designer, I want to produce garments using the softest and most comfortable materials I can find. To maintain exclusivity, I need a wide range of pieces – otherwise you'd keep running into people wearing the same garment as you.

If I was designing a seasonal collection for one of the leading houses it would typically run to about 250 separate pieces. In our collection you'll find 50 or so. To keep a large stock of that many pieces ties up a lot of capital and ultimately increases the price of certain items.

Selling via the internet, we save the overheads of a high street shop and the margin we'd have to give to retailers. That means you get the quality typical of a Parisian or Milanese ready-to-wear range at Cardiffian prices.

To keep costs down, we don't keep much stock. Our pieces are produced by hand in limited numbers. If we have an item in stock, we'll despatch it straight away, but it is just as likely that we'll produce a garment specifically for you once we get your order. This can take a few weeks so please interpret us literally when we ask you to allow 28 days for delivery. We hope you'll think the wait is worth it because your item will be unique and exclusive.

I can't promise that you won't run into someone else wearing the same thing in Cardiff High Street. It's not a very big a city after all. But if you’re in Cardiff, Alabama; Cardiff, Colorado; Cardiff, Idaho; Cardiff, Illinois; Cardiff, Maryland; Cardiff, New Jersey; Cardiff, New York; Cardiff, Pennsylvania; Cardiff, Tennessee; Cardiff, Texas; or Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California; or in Cardiff, New South Wales for that matter, your chances of running into someone else wearing the same item are reasonably small at the moment.

We don’t produce collections by seasons. Fashion houses typically work 18 months ahead, but we add new pieces and delete old pieces periodically as seems appropriate. If an item appears on this site, it is available to buy. If you subscribe to our mailing list, we'll let you know in advance when new items are due to be released.

It was always my intention to produce everything in Wales but our garments are produced from the finest cotton in Turkey – sadly, Welsh wool won't do the same job and there is no manufacturer we could work with in Wales. We source other elements from Wolverhampton, our printing is done in Nottingham and our labeling, sorting packaging and despatch are done from London. These things are done by good people we know and trust who happen to be in those places.

However, we are committed to transferring to Wales as much of this work as we can at the earliest opportunity and we are happy to hear from potential suppliers. I must say that the Welsh Assembly Government's Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Networks has been next to useless in helping us to achieve this outcome. Nevertheless, we will get it there in the end.

Martin Davies
Designer

Find out more about Martin by clicking the following links:

Martin's Myspace

The Red Dragonhood Blog

The Blue Book of Shame

The Red Dragonhood is a registered trademark.