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Austin Reed

British fashion retailer

Austin Reed was a British fashion retailer founded in 1900; the brand was acquired by Edinburgh Woollen Mill in 2016. NKVD officer Vladimir Pravdin wore an Austin Reed suit he purchased from the Regent Street store, abandoning it in a Swiss hotel as he fled after his 1937 assassination of Ignace Reiss.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1900Founded1

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Austin Reed 3181
Photo: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Austin Reed was a British fashion retailer founded in 1900; the brand was acquired by Edinburgh Woollen Mill in 2016.2

The story

Austin Reed was founded by tailor Austin Leonard Reed (1873–1954).

Timeline

1900 - First shop opened in Fenchurch Street

1911 - Opening of flagship store in Regent Street

1929 - First international outlet on the RMS Aquitania

1930 - Opening of Regent Street Barber Shop

1936 - Opening of a concession on the RMS Queen Mary

1946 - Opening of a concession on the RMS Queen Elizabeth

1940s - Winston Churchill was a customer

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1980s - Launch of Austin Reed's womenswear

2000 - UK Manufacturing ended and Crewe factory closed

2005 - Kosugi-Sangyo was the Austin Reed ready-to-wear license holder in Japan

2009 - Austin Reed Group acquired Viyella brand

2011 - Move from 103-113 Regent Street to 100 Regent Street

2016 - Entered administration. Five concessions located in Boundary Mills outlet villages were retained by Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

Austin Reed purchased retailer Country Casuals, rebranding it CC.

From Wikipedia’s article on Austin Reed (retailer), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

  • clothing

Listed on Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1900Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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