A Silk Cut Above The Rest

Paris, Milan…Macclesfield? Katie Mulloy discovers how the town’s last-standing silk mill became a global style player for designers, celebrities and even royalty

As you wind up into the pretty little rural village of Langley, which sits on the upper edges of Macclesfield Forest and follow your sat nav’s directions down a gravelly, pot-holed track running alongside a modest housing development, there’s nothing overtly reassuring you that you’re about to arrive at one of the most exclusive – not to mention expensive – silk printers in the world.

But then Adamley, Macclesfield’s only remaining silk mill, which turned 50 this year, has made it a policy not to shout about itself.

‘It’s been a conscious decision to remain discreet,’ says CEO Tro Manoukian who joined Adamley 16 years ago before leading a buy-out from its former parent company in 2007. ‘We work with some of the leading luxury names in the fashion world. Their names are important; we can be more subdued.’

Indeed, sometimes the discretion is enforced. There are some fashion houses for whom Adamley must sign a legallybinding non-disclosure agreement. Part of this, you assume, is so competitors won’t know where designers are sourcing their fabrics.

But there may also be another motivation; one which is fairly irksome to Tro. ‘Our main export is to Italy. Yet a lot of British clients prefer to source their silk from Italy – there’s a certain caché that comes with silk printed in Milan or Como. But the irony is that the Italians are coming to us.’

The famous Neapolitan tie maker E. Marinella, whose ties are worn by the Prince of Wales, not only sources their printed silks from Adamley but actually now owns 10% of the business. ‘Still we struggle with the perception of Italian manufacturing versus UK manufacturing,’ says Tro.