Catching Up with Jem Finer.

28.03.2025

Last week, we had the pleasure of dressing Jem Finer—musician, composer and UW Coal Drops Yard regular—and 36 musicians for a live performance of Jem’s Longplayer at the Roundhouse in London in April. A 1000-minute event, the musicians played a score taken from the 1000-year-long piece that began at midnight in 1999 and will continue until midnight in 2999 (with the help of computers today, and the technology at hand over the years).

18 of Jem’s musicians and 18 from the Roundhouse were part of the event, each playing sections of the piece. When chatting with Jem over coffee at Coal Drops Yard about what we might make, he told us about the time he had custom tuktuk drivers’ uniforms made in Delhi, India, for the first performance at the Roundhouse, in 2009, only to find they were too woolly and hot to play in. The musicians need their clothing to be simple, easy and breathable, in styles that suit everyone playing. This time we think we have got it right.

We went with two of our bestselling styles, a Utility Shirt, and a Low Water Trouser (the full-length, dry-land version of our Hi Water style)—both in Navy Broadcloth, a lightweight, poplin-like plain weave cotton fabric and with a subtle contrast stitch.

“I wanted something that had the casual smartness and quality one finds in workwear—one of the things I always liked about Universal Works clothing. Something both utilitarian and stylish.” — Jem Finer.

They probably won’t be worn for quite as long as a thousand years, but we love the idea that these uniforms might be brought back out for future performances. Utility Shirts in the year 3000? We can get on board with that.

Longplayer’s permanent home in London is at Trinity Buoy Wharf. There are also public listening posts around the world and a continuous online audio stream. Find out more about the project and the event here.