Mencyclopaedia: Smart Turnout
How guardsman, Philip Turner,
earned his stripes in fashion.
BY LUKE LEITCH | 07 DECEMBER 2012 / http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9727814/Mencyclopaedia-Smart-Turnout.html
Following a nine-year stint in bearskin and scarlet, Philip
Turner left the Scots Guards in 1996 - only to find his campaign to gain
stimulating civilian employment a troublesome one. "I did do a bit in
marketing, and found out a little about how businesses should be run. But it
was difficult - very frustrating. A lot of us have the same experience."
Happily, Turner's soldiering days had already provided the
catalyst for future fulfilment. While serving, he represented the regiment in
the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown, and came up with the idea of having
some racing colours rustled up for the race. His fellow officers fancied them,
too, so Turner went back to the rustler-upper and had some jumpers made:
"I sold them around the regiment
In 1999, Turner remembered their enthusiasm, and decided to
try to expand the idea into a business. He found a British manufacturer,
contacted regiments, schools and universities to propose that he produce items
in their colours, then from his bedroom established a modest website to sell
them. "The alumni merchandise was very weak in this country compared to
America. At the beginning it was all word of mouth: for instance, a friend who
taught at Radley put me in touch with the right people there."
For a while the business, Smart Turnout, tootled along,
selling cufflinks, ties and jumpers as well as some clever military-style
striped nylon watch straps Turner had dreamt up, based on ceremonial braces. In
2008, American GQ featured the watchstraps in its pages, and suddenly Turner's
customer base rocketed. Each month the website now sells around 1,000 straps
featuring the colours of institutions such as the Household Division, the Royal
Marines, or even Vanderbilt University to men in the US, Japan, Korea and
beyond. There are some very attractive wallets, scarves, belts, polo shirts,
pyjamas, knitwear and jackets for those who wish to fly their favoured colours
even more prominently. There are even Bradfield boxer shorts (very brown: not
so nice) and some grey trunks with Nato-flash elasticated waistbands.
Smart Turnout has now expanded well beyond its original
remit. Successful non-alumni items, including its "SMART" jumper
(recently worn by a member of One Direction) and some extremely well designed,
Grantham-made backpacks and briefcases (my favourite of all Turner's range),
suggest that this business has the momentum to expand from bedroom start-up
into bona fide up-and-coming brand. It has just opened its first
bricks-and-mortar shop, in the Prince's Arcade on Piccadilly.
There is, though, a nagging etiquette-based conundrum
lurking beneath Smart Turnout's spit and polish: is it ever strictly pukka to
wear unearned stripes? Is Turner enabling any on-the-make charlatan to sport a
pair of pink-flashed Westminster socks? Personally, I would happily inhabit
Smart Turnout's natty Royal Artillery jumper (featuring a zig-zag burgundy
stripe across the chest of a navy crew-neck), were it not for the uncomfortable
prospect of running into a burly artillery man keen to discuss Multiple Launch
Rocket Systems.
Turner is admirably upfront about the point, cheerfully
conceding that there aren't many British military veterans in Japan - Smart
Turnout's second-biggest market - but pointing to a) the "spirit of
affinity" that draws men to his products, and ruefully observing that b)
many of the colours Smart Turnout features come from regiments long disbanded
by cut-happy governments. We live in a world saturated by meaningless branding
and trumped up logos: but the colours flown by Smart Turnout are the real
thing, and the story behind it is real, too. Well worth your attention.
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