Universal Works

In 2009, David Keyte began designing honest clothing from his kitchen table. This collection would become Universal Works – clothing based on fit and good design, without the "over-designing" common in other contemporary clothing brands.

Universal Works is shaped by Keyte’s formative years in the Midlands of UK – seeing his father and uncles in their workwear; experiencing the development of 1980s sporting and music subcultures; and his own thirty years in the fashion industry. Keyte uses Universal Works to explore the mixing of all these ideas – how can we understand our heritage and context and, at the same time, speak to contemporary needs and aesthetics?

While its popularity and distribution has grown substantially since its humble beginnings, Universal Works remains a small, independent operation to this day. Most goods are produced in the UK, Portugal, and India. They seek out skilled, small-scale factories for production, often utilizing recycled, organic, and sustainable raw materials in their designs.