Celebrating
10 Years of R&R!
Celebrating
10 Years of R&R!
10 Years of R&R!
A quick timeline
Risdon & Risdon is a small family business, working from a workshop in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
We sell to the everyday cook, artist, potter, jewellery maker…anyone who has a passion to make and create, we also sell to professionals and retail.
From starting with a home sewing machine at a kitchen table, we're extremely proud of what we have achieved. Please forgive the shameless name dropping while we tell you who we have worked with over the past 10 years!
Click the links to see more!
2016
Where It All Began
Ten years ago, Risdon & Risdon began with a simple idea: to make hard-wearing, beautifully considered aprons for people who cared about their craft. No one was offering a high quality, British made, cool looking apron…so we designed one!
It took a lot of research to find the perfect fabric, the best leather and the most durable metalware. The style had to serve its purpose and feel great to wear! Read about every detail of that journey here.
In our very first year, the Original Apron began finding its way into some unexpected places. Gwyneth Paltrow somehow found us and personally selected our aprons to be sold on her Goop website. The florists in Liberty, London were wearing them too. We were featured in Woman & Home, BBC Good Food, and Good Housekeeping magazines…where Jamie Oliver was spotted wearing one!
It was an early sign that there was something special about what we were making — and that people were beginning to notice.
2017
Finding Our Feet
By our second year, Risdon & Risdon was beginning to make a name for itself beyond the workshop.
We collaborated with Rouleur magazine for a cycling event, saw our aprons featured in NME and Living Etc, and worked with the amazing fledgling brand The Beefy Boys – who now have an amazing 7 restaurants.
We were also very privileged to be recognised as the Blue Patch New Business of the Year, receiving the award at the London Design Centre.
Well respected, north London deli Panzer’s became a regular customer. It was also the start of a great working relationship with well known Shropshire chef Marcus Bean.
It was a year of momentum, experimentation and plenty of encouragement to keep going.
2018
From the Workshop to the Screen
This year saw Risdon & Risdon step into the world of television!
Our Street Apron featured in a GoDaddy advert worn by Freddie Flintoff. Then our Workroom Apron was chosen by BBC1 for the contestants in the first of 3 series of Best Home Cook with Mary Berry and Claudia Winkleman. Thanks to Marcus Bean, we also got a snap of Mary at BBC Good Food Show in an apron!
We had a visual treat on the night of 10th May, where we watched our aprons on BBC1 Best Home Cook, then switched over to BBC2 Countryfile and saw two separate features with people wearing them. A hat-trick of aprons!
During this year we worked with Tiffany & Co. on a promotion, became the apron supplier to luxury brand Sage Appliances, and were featured in House Beautiful.
From professional kitchens to television studios, our aprons were playing their role.
2019
A Bigger Canvas
By 2019, we were beginning to realise just how much could be made from the Risdon & Risdon approach.
We worked on an extensive project for 2 Michelin star restaurant Ynyshir, producing everything from leather aprons and huge leather curtains, leather coasters and menu covers, to linen napkins.
For award winning The Botanist gin, we created hundreds of custom aprons and for the incredible Japanese handcrafted scissor manufacturers Mizutani, we supplied them with scissor cases.
The brand featured in whole page photoshoots for Vogue Homme and Harper’s Bazaar.
We were even in a McDonald’s McCafe advert!
It was a year that pushed us beyond simply making aprons and towards creating considered pieces for the wider world of premium hospitality, food and craft.
2020
A Changing World
2020 was a strange year for everyone, but Risdon & Risdon didn't stop sewing and found its way into new places.
Our aprons appeared on programmes including BBC Ready Steady Cook and Pooch Perfect.
We created a series of bespoke designs for luxury chocolate brand Hanoverian.
Vogue recommended us in their 16 Great Aprons to Practice Your Cooking Skills in Style guide, as well as in The Chic Yet Practical Tools Every Gardener Needs.
If you watch very carefully you will see our apron in a Sky Vegas tv advert, one for Metro Bank and another for Seriously Cheddar!
Brands that found us this year included Della Vite, founded by Cara, Poppy and Chloe Delevingne, Katharine Pooley’s Forter Castle, Thom Bateman’s The Flintlock at Cheddleton, The Lost Kitchen in Maine, The Conran Shop and the makers of beautiful British artist brushes, Rosemary & Co..
Even as the world around us changed, we kept making, collaborating and finding new ways forward.
2021
Growing With Purpose
2021 brought a growing community of food producers, chefs and creative businesses into the Risdon & Risdon story.
It was also the year we sold our first of many apron orders to the Beckhams!
We created bespoke aprons for renowned London bakers Crumbs & Doilies, collaborated with leading vegan cook Rebel Recipes, and also worked with Clarence Court celebrating their wonderful Burford Brown eggs!
Not to be missed, our aprons appeared with a talented squirrel in a Graze television advert.
Behind the scenes, we introduced reusable cotton drawstring bags for packaging our aprons, and reinforced all of our sustainability credentials.
That year, The Telegraph named Risdon & Risdon among the '25 Best British Independent Brands to shop across the UK'.
2022
New Faces, New Platforms
By 2022, Risdon & Risdon was appearing alongside some of the big names in television and hospitality.
Our aprons were worn on 2 series of Amazon Prime's The World Cook hosted by Fred Sirieix and Emma Willis, and also chosen for Tom Kerridge’s recipe campaign with Marks & Spencer. ...we didn’t expect to walk into our local M&S Food Hall and be greeted by a life size cardboard cut-out of Tom Kerridge in one of our aprons!
The finest in Somerset became a theme, with our aprons going to The Newt in Somerset, Berdoulat in Bath and The Fife Arms Hotel, Bruton. As well as London establishments including The Quality Chop House, Arabica, The Sea The Sea, Sloane Street Deli, The Audley and Parrillan.
We joined forces with the legendary Maldon Salt to make a collection of stylish aprons.
Award winning author Janice Hallett mentioned us in The Twyford Code: "Here we are, the kitchen. Old lady dishes, enamel sink, teapot, griddle. Risdon apron, very elegant."!
Risdon & Risdon aprons had become more than something we made in our workshop. They were becoming more recognised in the worlds of food and hospitality, and even creeping into the nation's culture.
2023
A Place Among the Greats
2023 brought some of our most exciting collaborations yet.
ITV’s Next Level Chef created and hosted by Gordon Ramsay, selected Risdon & Risdon aprons for the contestants, while Tom Kerridge’s Fish and Chips restaurant in Harrods were wearing them too.
One of our most well known customers has to be Pierce Brosnan! He has always been an artist before he became an actor, and in 2023 he launched his first exhibition of work ‘So Many Dreams’ in Los Angeles. His son Dylan produced a short biographical film showing Pierce in his Street apron. We even received a personal message “Thank you all at Risdon for your great workmanship, sincerely PB”. We love you Pierce!
We don’t always know who uses our aprons and sometimes they just appear when we’re least expecting it! So, another surprise discovery was one of our aprons being used in the Flip the Game video for Nike with Sam Kerr.
2023 was also the year that Fortnum & Mason came to us! They were changing their whole 3rd floor into a Cook Shop, Food & Drink Studio and gin distillery. They wanted aprons for their staff, including leather ones for the distillery, and they wanted to sell our aprons. We rose to the challenge with beautiful black aprons for the floor staff, red and blue aprons for the Food & Drink Studio, black leather aprons for the distillery and a mixture of our aprons to buy.
After seven years, it felt like Risdon & Risdon had truly found its place — still rooted in tradtional handcrafted values, whilst increasingly appearing in some remarkable company.
2024
Ten Years in Sight
As we approached our tenth year, Risdon & Risdon continued to build on everything that had come before.
We had the continued pleasure of supplying more aprons to Artfarm, the “independent international hospitality and development company with art at its heart”. Sending orders to their farm shops in Mayfair and Bruton, and leather aprons to Switzerland.
The fabulous clothing company &Sons invited us to join them in a collaboration apron with Kamado Joe BBQs. Then in quite a contrast, we made some pretty pink aprons for Kylie Minogue Wines.
Risdon & Risdon appeared throughout Waitrose Weekend magazine, worn by some of Waitrose’s development and innovation chefs, cookery school teachers and editorial staff. No pressure!
Nearly a decade in, the journey had taken us much further than we could ever have imagined.
2025–26
Ten Years, Still Making
Technically our 10th and 11th years but who’s counting?!
April 2025 saw our Street apron have a whole page in Good Housekeeping and we couldn’t have asked for a better write up: “Developed over 10 years at founder Carla Risdon’s Shropshire workshop, Risdon & Risdon's Street Apron is your kitchen BFF. Made from sustainable Italian denim, with removable leather straps, it's machine-washable and the roomy front pockets will hold all manner of kitchen essentials. With design this thoughtful, is it any wonder it's worn and loved by chefs, artisans, gardeners and home cooks alike? And with free repairs for life, it's also the only apron you'll ever need.”
During this time we also got to know the fantastic Hebridean Baker, Crosta Mollica, Paramount, Flexjet, Loyd Grossman, and started a great partnership with Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone Brewery.
But...the perfect highlight to round off with, was having Harrods approach us to help design an apron for gardeners. Started in 2025 and available since Spring 2026 we couldn’t be more delighted to be ‘in partnership’ with Harrods!
Ten years has brought countless new stylish apron wearers. We have helped in thousands of unknown tasks, creations and personal triumphs!
And yet the most important thing hasn’t changed, we’re still very proud to be making the things we believe are worth making.
Here’s to the next 10 years!
