We get asked a lot why our business is called Initially London rather than something more obviously "monogramming." The truth is, we wanted the name to say what we actually believe: that a monogram isn't a finishing touch might add on to a purchase before adding it to your cart. Instead, monogramming is a small but important statement about who you are, and in Britain that decision has history behind it.
A tradition hiding in plain sight
Once you start looking, you can't stop seeing monograms: royal monograms on postboxes; carved initials over a Georgian doorway, a set of aristocratic initials on a garden gate. Monograms have marked ownership, allegiance and pride for centuries here whether that's on silver, stone, textiles or leather. Long before anyone thought to put a monogram on a tote bag, the British were doing it on castles and coaches.
That's the bit we love most about the craft of monogramming. It isn't borrowed nostalgia. It's a genuinely British (and European) habit that's simply never gone out of fashion. It's just changed materials and processes.
This is also why we think monogramming deserves to be talked about as a lifestyle feature rather than a novelty gift category. In a world where you can buy more or less the same tote bag, water bottle or wash bag as everyone else with two clicks, a monogram is one of the few remaining ways to make something unmistakably yours. It's quiet branding that says "I made this just for you, and no one else has one like it."
Where it shows up in a British life
Monogramming has a habit of turning up at exactly the moments that matter:
- At home - on table linens for dinner guests to admire, a monogrammed dressing gown, initials on the children's school kit so nothing goes astray
- On the move - on luggage tags, travel toiletries bags and weekender holdalls that announce themselves at the baggage carousel
- At big occasions - at weddings, christenings, milestone birthdays, the kind of gift that gets kept rather than regifted
- At work - for corporate gifting and client thank-yous that feel personal rather than promotional
Monogramming is having a real moment. We've seen a clear resurgence of people wanting to monogram not just for show, but for themselves, in their own bedrooms and kitchens, where no one else is even meant to be looking.
Modern craft, old roots
What's changed isn't the impulse, it's the execution. We use graphic design and machine embroidery where a Victorian household might have relied on a seamstress with a steady hand or a well-educated woman with a lot of time and creativity. However the instinct is identical: take something ordinary and make it undeniably yours.
That's why monogramming has never really left British life, even when it's fallen out of headlines. It was never a trend to begin with. It's a habit, one we're rather glad to be carrying on, making it modern and relevant. If it isn't monogrammed, is it really even yours?
Would you like to see what a monogram could do for something you already own? Pop into one of our studios, either in Parsons Green or at Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, or start designing online. But be careful, it can get addictive!