Perched halfway between the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail, near North Carolina's northern border with Tennessee, Micaville isn't a town—it's a T in the road. There is a tiny post office with a narrow stream running by, a country store, a Presbyterian church, and the flagstone-faced Taylor Togs facility, which Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, the English collaborators behind the five-year-old American sportswear line Rag & Bone, visit each season to direct production of their denim and twill clothing.
During the height of the 1980s denim explosion, the Taylor Togs factory was capable of producing 60,000 pairs of jeans per week, yet the space doesn't call to mind words like "sweat" or "shop." Support beams are painted bright pink, purple, and blue. And, as Wainwright puts it, lunchtime in the break room "sounds just like a sorority"—albeit one with two strapping British gents as mascots.
(Read more about Rag & Bone's relationship to Micaville in an interview with Marcus.)
"I've worked at this plant since I got out of high school," says Kathy Garland, an exuberant floor manager who marshals the Rag & Bone patterns through the cutting and sewing process. Thanks to her direct work with Wainwright and Neville, Garland has learned to value the older machines, which deliver signature stitches and make each garment unique. Wainwright and Neville have had a similarly indelible impact on each of Taylor Togs' 165 Micaville employees, and an additional 55 people who are on the payroll at a washing facility in Taylorsville, all of whom would probably be without jobs were it not—at least in part—for Rag & Bone.
In the summer of 2005, the mill's owner, Grier Lackey (pictured, with Wainwright), nearly shut it down after Levi Strauss & Co., a longtime client, moved its basic denim production to Mexico. Despite having drawn in specialty accounts like Rag & Bone, Lackey no longer had enough business to keep his sewing machines humming. Wainwright and Neville, who lost a factory in Kentucky under similar circumstances, were determined not to watch another one fail. "It was very sad when Kentucky Apparel shut down," says Wainwright. "Those women went from sewing for 30 years to working at Wal-Mart and going on welfare." So the pair began talking up Micaville's artisans to friends in the business. They convinced the designers at Helmut Lang to try out the plant. Cone Denim, part of an international conglomerate also based in North Carolina, added to the rescue effort, bringing in Gap's humanitarian Red line. Levi's returned with its vintage business. While orders no longer number in the millions of units, the factory is once again profitable.
For their part, Wainwright and Neville have essentially become patron saints of Micaville. Neville likes to joke, with a mixture of amusement and pride, "They have Marcus's photo up at the mill."
The two met decades ago at Wellington College, a boarding school about 35 miles southwest of London. Their paths diverged upon graduation, with Wainwright finding success in the tech sector and then heading off to scuba dive in Mexico. He met his wife—and first link to the fashion world—model Glenna Neece, on a beach in Tulum.
"She bought me a plane ticket and shipped me back to New York," he says. Neville, who is now married to makeup artist and Lancôme executive Gucci Westman, was already in Manhattan, working for ING in its U.S. equity markets division. What brought the former schoolmates back together was a desire for handcrafted clothes by skilled craftsmen, like the attire they grew up appreciating in England. "Rag & Bone started, really, because we couldn't find clothes we wanted to wear," says Wainwright, whose original partner, Nathan Bogle, left the company last June.
A few pairs of jeans grew into an entire collection of suits, sport jackets, mackintoshes, and womenswear. Today, Rag & Bone is available in roughly 100 stores in the U.S., including Barneys New York, and there are plans to open a Manhattan flagship this year. Wainwright and Neville still seek out specialized manufacturers like Taylor Togs for construction. Their dress shirts, for instance, are handmade by Duke Gambert in New Jersey. This fall brings the first Rag & Bone footwear, a classic English work boot built by Grenson in Northampton, England. The duo are also currently in talks with Savile Row tailors to collaborate on a line of Rag & Bone suits.
"It's certainly a dream of mine," says Wainwright, "to expand and use people who are the absolute best at what they do." Adds Neville: "As you grow, it's important to have a viable, functioning business. Particularly when both our wives are pregnant."
Late last summer, Wainwright and Neville discovered their respective spouses have due dates a week apart in April. It seems, like everything else in the Rag & Bone world, the timing is just shy of perfect.—SARA JAMES
NEXT: Five Questions with Marcus Wainwright.
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