The explosion of all things workwear and craftsmanship based these past few years has reached fever pitch in 2010 - it says a lot when Gucci are touting their heritage in adverts - but there are a few companies who've managed to avoid the glare of the spotlight. So just how have ARN Mercantile, despite their collaboration with Nigel Cabourn, managed to keep a low profile?

"Hype's quite Expensive" says Neil Christopher, co-founder of ARN Mercantile. "We don't do it because we can't afford it." At only four seasons in, ARN Mercantile is still a relatively new company, although Christopher - along with his co-founder and wife Akimi - has a storied history in menswear.

It started from an early age, as his dad opened up a factory after finishing service for the army. "When I was growing up I spent the school holidays working there. I cut my first pattern at age 12 and was hooked from there - the idea of taking things apart and putting them together again was central to my childhood. Patterns to me were like massive airfix kits I still look at thing in their whole and try to work out how to take them apart.'

He eventually began working at several retail outlets until a great, if not peculiar, opportunity came around. "I had this bizarre drunken conversation with a guy called Lee that led to 'come to America, I've got a shop'." says Neil. "I didn't take it seriously until, about two months later, two plane tickets to Miami turned up. He said bring your girlfriend and if you don't wanna stay, 'have two weeks in Miami'. I ending up taking a girl I'd known for about three weeks. Obviously it was the most glamourous chat up line you're ever gonna get. So we went and she got pissed off with me after about a week. Eventually, I went 'fuck it' and ended up traveling on the train to New York."