march-2011

BUSINESS | LYLE & SCOTT
Their product line developed
throughout the 19th and early 20th
centuries, until in the 1950s the company
changed direction and went into women’s
clothing, which included making cashmere
garments for Christian Dior. Then, in
the late 1960s, it was all change again –
this time into golf clothes. By the time
Campbell became MD in 2004, it was
time for another shift in direction.
ONE ADVANTAGE CAMPBELL has over his
19th-century predecessors is his ability to
travel – he lives a genuinely international
life, and says that the jet-setting helps
with his job. Every Monday morning he
commutes from his home in Paris to the
Lyle & Scott head offi ce in London, and then
on Friday evenings he either heads back
to Paris, or fl ies up to Edinburgh and then
drives 50 minutes to Hawick in the Scottish
Borders, where the factory still makes all of
Lyle & Scott’s lambswool jumpers.
“I think being an international traveller
has kept my eye for trends fresh,” he says.
“It’s easier to see the differences when you
live in two cities. I love coming to London
because you pick up trends. Londoners
are more free about how they dress –
women take more risks and men are more
adventurous.” But he’s quick to add that
he’s not convinced he’d want to live in
London, as it’s “very expensive” and “much
more speedy” than Paris, the city where he
has set up home.
Thirty years ago, when Campbell joined
Lyle & Scott’s Hawick offi ce as a junior
with a degree in modern languages, he
hired a French intern, Laurence. They were
soon romantically attached, and when she
94 | TRAVELLER | MARCH 11
“INTERNATIONAL
TRAVEL KEEPS
MY EYE FOR
TRENDS FRESH”
was offered a job at L’Oréal in Paris in the
early 1990s, she and Campbell decided to
leave Hawick for the snappy sophistication
of the French capital. They now have
a three-year-old son, Max, and Campbell
has become “an insatiable traveller”.
He even enjoys the Monday morning
commute from Paris to London: “I’m wide
awake and refreshed, and I’m also an hour
ahead of everyone because of the time
difference so I get ahead on my emails.”
The independent life of the international
commuter clearly suits him well, a fact he
attributes to his Caledonian roots. “I’m
very resourceful, and I think that comes in
Clockwise from left, Lyle
& Scott’s Archive range,
Vintage, Derrick Campbell
part from being brought up in the Scottish
Borders,” he explains. “I did a lot of hill
walking, horse riding and skiing when
I was younger, which would take me off
into the countryside on my own. It’s good
to be a team player in business but selfsuffi
ciency is also useful.”
HE’S BEEN LIVING in the same room
of the same Knightsbridge hotel for the
20 years he’s been doing the weekly
journey, and stays in touch with home
by speaking to Laurence and Max every
morning and evening – in French. “Max
has started to correct my pronunciation,”
he laughs. While he enjoys his time in
both London and Paris, he has no doubt
about his favourite place to be. “My heart
will always be in Scotland,” he says with
a twinkle. “I love going back to Hawick
because there’s a complete unawareness
of what’s on trend. I fi nd sanity there and
a genuine wholeheartedness about people.”
And with that, Campbell fi nishes his
cappuccino and he’s up and out of the
coffee bar. The polo shirt with the eagle
logo on the breast is becoming as easily
recognisable a badge of casual cool as
a Fred Perry or Ralph Lauren shirt.
With a new line of golf-themed knitwear
out this spring he’s aiming to narrow the
gap on the competition even further –
and still get home for the weekend.