Percival is a London-based menswear brand founded by Chris Gove, launched in its current form around 2010 and relaunched as a direct-to-consumer business from around 2018 after an earlier first incarnation. Known for combining a quintessentially British sense of humour and cultural reference with genuinely interesting fabrication — unusual prints, rare cloths, wax cottons, embroidered details — Percival has built a loyal following and grown into one of the UK’s fastest-growing independent menswear brands, with customers including Tom Holland, Ryan Reynolds, Gareth Southgate, and Paul Mescal.
Key Facts
- Founded: c. 2010 (relaunched as DTC brand c. 2018)
- Founder/Creative Director: Chris Gove
- Headquarters: London, UK
- Flagship: Soho, London (The Percival Arms — store and bar)
- Industry: Contemporary British Menswear
History
Gove spent a decade in marketing before founding Percival, studying graphic design and illustration and working in advertising agencies before deciding he wanted to make clothing. His first product was a yellow wax jacket made from custom British Millerain fabric, inspired by a photograph of himself. The early version of Percival opened a store on Berwick Street in Soho but struggled commercially, eventually being liquidated after Brexit-related difficulties. Gove bought the brand’s rights back through his own PayPal account for around £5,000 and relaunched as an online-only direct-to-consumer brand, learning to run the business properly alongside the design.
The relaunched brand grew steadily by anchoring its identity around two unlikely brand pillars: quintessentially British style, and football — not tribal or commercial, but as cultural shorthand for a certain kind of English masculinity. The combination, executed with Gove’s graphic-designer wit (an octopus sushi chef embroidery; prints referencing Japanese woodblock prints, vintage football programmes, and sailing manuals), attracted a strong following among men who were bored of navy basics but not ready for full runway. Revenue grew from around $11m in 2022 to $15m in 2023. In 2024, the brand launched a community crowdfunding campaign and began wholesale partnerships with Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue for US expansion.
Aesthetic
Percival’s tagline is “Subverting the Classics” — taking the forms of traditional British menswear (polo shirts, chore coats, Oxford shirts, tailored suits) and injecting them with unexpected colour, pattern, embroidery, or fabrication. Garments are finished by hand in east London. The Soho flagship doubles as a pub, The Percival Arms, reinforcing the brand’s unapologetically British social identity.
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