The Montagu Matysik story begins with Nellie Ionides – friend and confidante of Queen Mary – who in the 1930s started England’s largest standard poodle kennel, Vulcan, and kept it going through the darkest days of World War II.

In the bluebell woods at Buxted Park, her house in Sussex, Nellie provided homes for over 100 dogs and even ran a school for kennel maids. One of Nellie Ionides’ more eccentric endeavours was the weaving of poodle-wool into fine tweed, from which she had suits and overcoats tailored in Savile Row for her grandsons — clothes that are still lovingly treasured by her descendants for their soft texture, subtle colour and durability.

Decades later, her great-granddaughter Georgina Montagu — a dog lover herself with her own standard poodle, Albert — happened upon a carefully wrapped package in the depths of a neglected family cupboard: the last remaining bolt of Ionides poodle-wool tweed. Stored for over 70 years, it still appeared as if fresh from the loom.