Meet the makers at Smythson

In Walpole’s 'Meet the Makers' portfolio for the Book of British Luxury 2026/2027, we celebrate the people behind the design of the products and services that have become a global calling card for British luxury excellence. From historic hand-printed wallpaper to timeless trench coats, we speak with the highly skilled individuals who pour their passion into their respective crafts to create new British icons.

In this edition, we visit Smythson’s factory in Wiltshire, where age-old printing processes meet modern design. With almost 140 years of heritage, the brand continues to champion craftsmanship across its handcrafted stationery and leather goods.

Brad Hillcoat, Head of Bespoke Production, oversees the incredible diversity of techniques and skills required in the complex production. “I’ve grown up with the stationery side of the business,” he says. “When I joined 26 years ago, I was taking a gap year out before going to university, which never happened, obviously.”

Passing down the skills that he learnt from his own mentor over a quarter of a century ago, Hillcoat is rightfully proud of the team and their ability to adapt, which applies just as much to the company as a whole. “When I started my apprenticeship, emails had just launched, and friends were saying, ‘Why are you going into this? It’s never going to last.’ But it’s come full circle,” he says. “You see people becoming their own designers now, who want to put their own marks on their stationery, and modern technology has allowed us to do that.”

This has entailed a heavy investment in both machinery and staff, ever evolving by combining traditional and modern techniques and being less pigeon-holed in terms of roles. “When I came into this, you were a press person, or you were an envelope liner, or you were a gold stamper, but now you can be all three,” says Hillcoat. “And that makes us a lot more flexible.”

Josh Uzzell is a Production Operator working across die stamping, guillotining, digital and gilding work. “I can, if needed, jump onto another job first, do different bits and bobs if we’re on a tight deadline,” he explains. “It’s good to have that knowledge. There’s such a variety and a wide range that you can choose from.”

One of his specialities is working with the gilding iron, which involves running a 300°C iron over golden foil along the edges of fanned-out pages and cards, held in place by clamps, to leave a distinctive gold finish.

Alongside working on gilding, bordering and spray-edging, Production Operator Lian Luis specialises in another of Smythson’s hero products: its tissue-lined envelopes. These are fully lined by hand with delicate tissue paper and are said to date back to the brand’s beginnings in the 19th century, when spies and diplomats required envelopes that were double lined so nobody could see through the thin paper to read the messages inside. Whereas the brand’s rivals simply add tissue to the inside parts of the envelope, which you can see when opened, Smythson takes pride in cutting no corners.

“I never knew we did tissue envelopes until I came to Smythson,” she says. “I was like, okay, this is something new!” It’s a skill that requires a great degree of patience and steady hands. Luis started off in a flower factory, but quickly moved to Smythson. “I would say it’s my first ever proper job – and my dream job. I love stationery, obsessed actually.” You get the impression she’s not the only one here.

For Luis, one of the biggest attractions of the job is being able to unlock new skills. “I learn something new every day because I’m always learning a new technique of something that I might be doing in the old-fashioned way. There are so many processes that people don’t appreciate when they see them. They know an item is handmade, but people think about it almost in the abstract; they don’t understand everything that goes into it. Many people think that the bordering or the spraying we do is actually a machine doing it.”

It’s these hand skills that Hillcoat looks for most when recruiting new members to the team. “When I’m looking at CVs, I’m looking for the extraordinary: something that stands out, that shows somebody may be into craft, unusual things,” he says. He tends to be less interested in grades than if, say, they mention a love of origami. “Then it’s okay, well, I want to see that person. And I’ll put a sheet of paper in front of them. Everybody has a different avenue in here. And I think that’s what makes it special"

Photography by Sam Walton