The first shops weren’t really shops at all. They were market stalls, merchants’ tables and dusty corners where somebody had something somebody else wanted. They were just spots where people pitched up and traded what they had.
By around the second century BC though, something more familiar began to emerge. In places like Pompeii, permanent street-facing tabernae lined the roads, their shutters flung open from dawn until dusk, selling everything from bread and wine to leather sandals and lamp oil. They weren’t just places to buy things; they were where neighbours bumped into one another, ideas were exchanged and communities quietly took shape. Archaeologists often describe Pompeii as one of the earliest examples of a true shopping street, but really it was something much bigger than a place to buy things. It was a community hub, a culture with some products and a till.
The best shops have always worked like that. They become landmarks rather than pit stops. You might arrive intending to buy a pair of trousers and leave with a recommendation for a record, a new favourite band, directions to a decent pub or the feeling that you’ve somehow found your people. They shape taste rather than chase trends. They give cities character. Strip them away and all you’re left with is transactions.
This is why Oi Polloi was never just another clothes shop. Yes, it happened to sell some of the finest clothing on the planet, but what it really dealt in was curiosity. It introduced generations to brands they’d never heard of, championed overlooked designers, celebrated the everyday alongside the exceptional and somehow made Manchester feel like the centre of the universe for clothing and footwear, without ever taking itself too seriously. It wasn’t simply a retailer. It was a catalyst, a curator, a community and, for many of us, a culture.
And that’s precisely why its return matters.
To get the inside track on how things came to a head and get an insight into what Oi Polloi’s second act will look like, we caught up with one half of its founding duo, Nigel Lawson.
The full version of this interview will feature in the next issue of Proper, available to buy from late August 2026.
Oi Polloi is back. But what does that mean exactly?
I suppose initially, setting up at Campfield Market in Manchester was feeling my way back into it all. The whole process of getting the clothes out, talking to people, selling them things, just getting back in the game a little bit, really.
And then the next step that has got people talking on social media and stuff is the latest development, with the website getting a reboot and us taking on new brands again.
So it’s as simple as taking the old Oi Polloi and building it back up bit by bit?
Yep, there will be a new website in September, as you’ve probably heard, with a view to a store at some point. For me, it’s about really reconnecting with all those brands that we all loved and just going and checking them out again. As soon as everything was agreed I was straight to Paris for the showrooms, looking at things over there, some great stuff. Then back to London, seeing some nice bits and pieces here and there.
So, you know, it’s three years out and then just straight back into it at, at high speed. It’s been a baptism of fire, you might say, but I think I need burning a little bit every so often just to fucking remind me where I am and what I’m supposed to be doing.
You mentioned Campfield Market. You’ve also had a website operating, selling Oi Polloi own brand stuff?
Well, about a year and a half ago or so, I opened Silver Raven which I view as a kind of mini site with some Oi Polloi products on there. A lot of it is custom-made in Manchester, and some in Birmingham. So, I built up a bit of stock, started doing the markets, getting people’s orders in. They were buying T-shirts, hats, and polos and stuff so things sort of expanded a little bit from there to where we are now. The custom-made stuff is sort of like really the heart of the new Oi Polloi, at least it has been for the last year for me, or even year and a half, I should say. Just designing and getting it made, fabrics, going up to Colne, Dewsbury, Chorlton, and Chester, buying ends of rolls of fabrics, and then just really just making five or six or something.
I’ve been blown away, to be honest, by the whole rebirth of it. It’s been quite shocking and amazing, you know.
It was sad when it stopped, obviously, and it took a while to get back together but eventually we got there. Then more recently, a business partner came on board and a new idea was hatched.
How new is it though?
Well, it’s the same thing it always was. It’s Clarks, and adidas, and Berghaus, and Engineered Garments. Reebok. The same basic plan but with some new things going on.
So not Gorpcore?
No. That extremely low, wide black trouser with the approach shoe is something I’m here to stop.
One of the main questions people have asked is regarding Steve’s involvement, or lack thereof.
Yep, he stepped away. He’s working on his own thing called Karevan and he’s enjoying it, he loves it, and he wanted to spend all his time doing that. But the only way I know back is through Oi Polloi, really. So, Steve moved away from Oi Polloi and a new business partner is in place which has enabled me to jump straight back on the skateboard or surfboard or whatever. It’s now about being able to actually control it and not fall off and then to be at the right wave at the right time.
The final few years of Oi Polloi there was a bit of a pile-up of things that probably brought it to where it got to in the end? Can you put the record straight there?
People point fingers but things like COVID didn’t help. We made some mistakes, but you’re right, it took a load of things to come together for it to finish, it wasn’t just one wrong turn.
JD get a lot of stick but it’s important to be fair. They saved my house. They saved my Porsche…my Toy Porsche collection I mean. And my collection of Smurfs. If we’d gone bankrupt we would’ve lost everything, dog, cat, chickens, children, wife. Yeah. Losing the business was one thing, but losing everything you’ve got would’ve been crushing, you know. I wouldn’t be back here now if that had happened.
So when COVID brought that final bit of pressure, how did the JD thing come about?
So Peter Cowgill, the main guy, he got us in to talk. He knew exactly what had gone on, he knew exactly what had happened and he said, “Look, I’ll take all your pain away. We’ll take the company over. You’ll still retain a small amount of shares. You’ll keep your wages. All your staff keep their wages. You can continue, get rid of all your debt.”
We’d got a lot of debt. We were starting to creak. Things were going wrong. We were missing out on Liam Gallagher’s adidas collabs because we didn’t have money to pay for the adidas that we had before that. It was all creaking, and then COVID comes along. But yes, JD were there for us to save our bacon. The way it looks to the customers is that JD killed Oi Polloi, and eventually, yes, it did. But the two years prior, they saved our houses and our jobs and everybody who worked there’s jobs. That lifeline was needed, you know? Absolutely needed, so we had to do it at that point, and we did, and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.
Unfortunately, two years later, the personnel changed, focus changed. The new director just wanted to focus on JD. He didn’t want any of the peripheral brands. He just culled it all back and that’s where Oi Polloi ended.
You kept the name though?
Within the hand-back, they said, “Here’s your brand name. Here’s your website address.”
So we actually got 100% ownership back of the brand between me and Steve, which at the time seemed all right, but we’d also just lost Oi Polloi as a going concern, so that was a bit weird.
So I waited a little while, got a job, and that’s when the Campfield things came about.
So in summary, to be fair to JD, they did actually save us, so tell everyone to stop being horrible to them. Ok, also they eventually they did kill us, so you can be horrible to them. It was two very different sets of people at the helm. The ones behind the scenes when they first came in were great people. They were all really good to us, and it was a great starting point, but then they all left and that’s when things changed.
Let’s talk about new regime. What’s the chemistry like?
Like I touched on before, the chemistry is important. I think we’ve absolutely got sort of the mix of abilities and mindsets to avoid some of the mistakes we made before. It also helps that there’s a team already in place that I’m working with straight away, and they are sharp as Bowie knives. I get on with everybody, so it’s been really nice meeting the team. Some of them know who I am and what I’ve done, and they’re excited and inspired to be working on Oi Polloi. They’re passionate, focused and considered. So I couldn’t really be in a better position.
The Oi Polloi that I remember really began with the community around the shop. With the website I always felt like the idea was to replicate the shop floor, but online, somehow. Without a shop at the moment, is that a challenge?
I suppose so, but it’s like we are sort of repainting something that already exists. You know, something looks a bit tired, you need to repaint it. We don’t need to build the structure from scratch because people know what Oi Polloi is. When I got back to selling gear at Campfield Market, it was just me, standing there next to a rail of hundred items for sale. You know, I was able to put outfits together and stick them on this mesh thing behind me. I’d put up the coats with the hoods up. I’d set all the hats in some sort of random color order, which is what I really like, and is what the logo means. I’d just have a doughnut and a coffee and start talking to people
Was it almost like rehabilitating yourself and Oi Polloi?
I had to get a job to pay the bills and the heat and the light and the the mortgage. But with Campfield I could earn in a day what I used to earn nearly for the fucking month working at the airport. So I said to myself “Right, you need to fucking get back on this.”
I might be going off on another tangent here.
Yeah, back to the shop…
It helped us build something. We had a lot of customers early doors that stuck with us because we had something different. That did all come from the culture that had been discussed in the shop. An obsession with music, obsession with trainers, obsession with coats, obsession with jeans, with every last millimetre. I didn’t have an obsession with socks, but Steve taught me well. Sandals, belts, fucking sunglasses, bags.
Putting all those things in the shop was like a tapestry of things that you’d been into since you were a kid. We’d also come across things that weren’t originally part of the Oi Polloi culture and we’d be like “I want a bit of that too,” you know?
The shop is the bit where you build that vibe and we built it very well. And, yeah, that is something that’s very important to Oi Polloi and the people of Manchester, but where we really we won was with the website, because nobody really was treating websites like we did.
The timing of the website and the way you displayed everything was key.
We sold to some very famous names from early on. I shouldn’t really say, but you’re talking people like Jonathan Ives, Yeezy. But the name Oi Polloi is taken from the Greek phrase ‘Hoi Polloi’ which means the masses, the ordinary people, and they were the ones who made Oi Polloi what it was. We just presented it to them in a way they identified with. The plan is to do that again.
I remember a conversation possibly with you or Steve about the importance of the originators. So if you’re gonna get a duffle coat or a pea coat, it’s gotta be a Gloverall.
Yeah it’s always been about wanting the authenticity of the originator.
I’m sure you could talk for a long time about Lacoste polos, too?
Yeah. Well, that’s still there. You know, they’re like the building blocks, what we built the whole thing on in the first place, and they need to be there as place markers for employing the past. And, you know, it’s like a pair of 501s, isn’t it? How many times has that come back? Fashion is always cyclical, and it’s kind of obvious that people of a certain age will always have a certain thing. They don’t want the copy. They don’t want the shit version. They don’t want a cheap version, or a jazzy version, or whatever. The design and the simplicity of the design, or sometimes the complexity of the design is what inspires me when I’m buying something. But the classics, you know, the Lacoste polo and the Baracuta G9, and the Levi’s, and the Converse, and the Spring Court.
I remember first seeing Spring Court in Oi Polloi.
Luckily, they’ve seemed to have changed the shape again, which is nice. But you know, those building blocks. Clarks Desert Boot, Desert Trek. Those classic designs are more important now than they ever were because they’re still here, doing the same thing they always were. Today, you see a young lad and he’s got a fucking great outfit on. And yeah, to a degree he’s fitting in, he’s wearing loose fit trousers or whatever, but he’s actually got a bit of colour going on or something. It’s fucking rare. But you know when you see somebody like that, you’re like, “Wow, that’s great.” And that’s what it always was. That’s what everything Oi Polloi’s ever been about. Just, you know, some lad looking amazing somewhere.
And I suppose all the things you’ve just touched on there, that aesthetic and that sort of sensibility that was behind Oi Polloi from a clothing perspective and a footwear perspective, you could apply the same to a lot of the things that we used to write about on the blog. Like a particular car, a particular shade of a colour of a car. You know, furniture.
Yeah. All of those things. There’s an equivalent of a Lacoste polo in the car world. It’s the Porsche 911. I actually collect the colours, so I’ve got about 80 up to now.
Lacoste polos, not 911s?
Yeah. Fucking hell.
Let’s get back to the future.
Oh… Nike Bruin?
No I mean talking about Oi Polloi’s future. Is it fair to say that if, if that status quo continued with JD, the ingredients were all there for it to succeed?
Yep. There’s no difference between then and now, but no the ownership of the brand is better for me. I’m in a better position, back to where I’ve always felt was right and fair for me for doing what I do.
You touched on trends before. A lot of fashion brands today explain their success by talking about some unique, secret process. They talk about the hustle, getting up earlier working harder than everybody else.
Yeah, you look at some brands these days that are really popular, and it’s a fashion brand, and it’s a T-shirt, but it couldn’t be any further from what Oi Polloi was into for me.
I’m aware of what the kids are wearing, Represent and all that. I can see what they’ve got on and everything, but I’m waiting for one of them to look any good really.
The Picante stuff I’ve seen was quite cool. I like that. The way they’ve done it with colours and the obsession for detail. That’s cool to me because they’re passionate about it and they love it.
With the other brands though, it’s not for me, but they smashed it, so good on them.
Cream sweatpants with cream sweat, T-shirt with summat plastered on it in black, in gold or brown or whatever. I like those colours on a Rolls Royce Corniche. It’s too regimented, it’s too sturdy, it’s too stiff. There isn’t a swagger to it, you know? It’s a different attitude, I think.
I don’t know who it was that first coined the term luxury scruff but that sums up Oi Polloi for me.
Yeah, lovely. That’s what I’m all about. Somebody might wear a pair of cords in a certain way and they look too posh. You wear them a different way, with the right jumper or whatever and suddenly it works… scruffy but cool as fuck.
For me it stems back to when Rolling Stones were somewhere on holiday or recording something and Anita Pallenberg and all that lot were all there. Somebody there said, “Oh yeah, you have very, very expensive clothes on, but look really scruffy.” Yeah. And I think there is that sort of nonchalance. Casual is halfway from smart to scruffy. My Mum always used to say, “Casual clothes are way more expensive than smart clothes.” When it’s too neat and it’s too expensive and too fitted, it just looks quite forced. It’s about being comfortable, isn’t it? For me, scruffy is comfortable. And I think casual is sort of in the middle. You can be a bit smart and a bit casual. All those looks that have been around in Manchester since the 1970s.
The same old stuff that gets you excited?
The things that get me excited are just very good products.
