About Us

As designers with a menswear background, we grew frustrated by the need to redesign products and ranges every season. The demands of seasonal retail trends had become more important than the products being sold. We wanted to create a place where customers could find well designed, high quality products which are built to last and stand the test of time.

We hope you enjoy your visit!

Simon & Rachel
Founders

Labour and Wait first opened in the Summer of 2000 on Cheshire Street, East London. We always imagined the shop should be near a bustling market and with Cheshire Street being just off Brick Lane, where better?

The 'little shop' on Cheshire Street was only open on weekends until 2009, with occasional appointments in the week for those that could not make it on the weekend. How things have changed!

Early on, we knew what our 'uniform' had to be; classic British workwear in the form of brown hardwearing cotton aprons.

The first batch was made by us in the shop basement purely for our own use, but after many customer requests, we put them into production and now they're seen across the world in cafes, workshops, studios and more.

Labour and Wait are honoured to be asked by Comme des Garçons to open a space in their recently opened Dover Street Market store in Mayfair, London.

Offering a small, curated selection of our ranges, the Dover Street Market space provides Labour and Wait with a new reach to customers who may not have wandered down the back streets of East London!

We are visited by Bshop, who would like to work with us in bringing Labour and Wait to Japan. Daunted by the task, we eventually agree and subsequently open a series of small spaces in their shops across the country. Many of these shops continue to host Labour and Wait to this day.

An opportunity arises to open a small pop-up shop in Fulham, West London. We occupy the ground floor room in an interesting building, more house than shop, on Fulham Broadway. We present an edited selection of our stock and bring the Labour and Wait message to a new neighbourhood.

Having reintroduced Riess enamelware to the UK when we first opened, we have a close relationship with the company and its owners. By 2009, our relationship edged ever closer when we worked together on a range specifically for Labour and Wait.

Some items are classics in colours we have stipulated; others are completely new objects designed by us.

In 2010, requiring more space, Labour and Wait move to 85 Redchurch Street. This handsome and instantly recognisable late Georgian building was formerly a Truman brewery pub called The Dolphin, and still boasts its original green tiled façade. 85 Redchurch Street has been our spiritual home and flagship shop for nearly 15 years.

Here, we continue our search for products that work alongside the current ranges and further enhance our brand values.

"Fifteen years ago, I made the pilgrimage to Labour and Wait - seeking out the first shop in Cheshire Street on a busy market Sunday - and since then, barely a month has gone without a return visit, to admire the magnificent displays of hardware..."

"...It always raises a smile to wonder at the heroic arrangements of everyday objects, but I realise now that it has been an education too - Labour and Wait has taught me an appreciation of both the poetry and the humour of these modest household goods..."

"...If, like me, you seek perfection in small things - shiny kettles, enamel pots and pans, galvanised buckets and watering cans, proper bristly brushes and balls of string - Labour and Wait will never disappoint you."

The Gentle Author, Spitalfields

As the demand for online sales grows, so does our requirement for stock and processing space. We open our Workroom in Bethnal Green in the summer of 2016.

Whilst not a ‘shop’ so to speak, items can be viewed and purchased, but a preliminary research visit to our website or shops is recommended!

After having a concessions in several branches of Bshop, Japan for many years,  a standalone Labour and Wait shop opens in the Sendagaya area of Tokyo. This milestone represents the culmination of our close relationship with BShop and the intense interest our Japanese customers have shown us over the years. 

We are pleased to be invited by architectural salvage company LASSCO to open a pop-up shop in their railway arch premises in Bermondsey, South London, from Summer until Christmas 2019. Finally stepping south of the river, we offer a succinct collection of our recognisable favourites. These items rub shoulders with some of the finest examples of LASSCO's salvaged goods.

In the same year, and in collaboration with Hole & Corner magazine, we open a pop-up hybrid shop in Bruton, Somerset called 'Fifty High Street’, to run over the Christmas period. Not only does Fifty High Street feature a wide selection of Labour and Wait goods, it also hosts demonstrations by resident makers, offering an insight into the process behind the objects, detailing their dedication and skill.

For many years, residents of West London have asked us if we will open a shop in the West End, and so in Spring 2021, twenty-one years after opening our first shop, we are excited to open a second permanent London shop, this time in Marylebone.

The Marylebone premises at 48 Dorset Street features the Labour and Wait classics sold over the last two decades, with the addition of some exclusive clothing items.

Alongside our standard collection we have always searched out interesting and beguiling vintage products. We had become well-known for many years of finding the best examples of vintage French work jackets.

With perfect examples of vintage stock becoming more elusive, in 2023 we collaborate with the venerable French workwear manufacturer Le Mont Saint Michel to introduce a jacket that is closest and most true to the originals we have sold over the years, incorporating the best features of these.

Many products we stocked in 2000, we continue to sell to this very day, steadfast in our commitment longevity and timelessness.

Often our longest standing customers delight us by showing us items they purchased from the 'little shop' in Cheshire Street, still going strong as intended; still functional, still timeless and always useful.