Collection SS2015: Washington's Clamp Dye

The third in the series of original blue and red colours, this scarf brings together the two

"Clamp dyeing" is a tie and dye technique. They are made through folding and pressing within two wood blocks retained by links. This ancestral technique makes each scarf unique.

Collection SS2015: Les Cles Shibori

This is Part II of the return to the roots of the history of colour.  Today, I feature this artisanal line that celebrates a second natural pigment: madder, the original red.

Bagru clay, whose nuances extend from red to orange, is a mixture of clay and madder roots, the composition a secret known only to our indian artisans. 

"Shibori" is a Japanese word which illustrates all the tie & dye techniques. They are made through the tying, the folding, the sewing or embroidery of a fabric. This ancestral technique makes each scarf unique.

Collection SS2015: Ex-Libris Vichy Arashi

This is the first of three posts, taking us on a trip to the roots of the history of colour.  This artisanal line celebrates a natural pigment: indigo, the original blue.

The indigo bush’s leaves, the richest in this precious blue dye, are harvested in the Blue Village of Bangladesh.

"Arashi" (storm in Japanese) is one of the "shibori" techniques that results in diagonal stripes, reminiscent of a rainstorm.

The silk is flat-frame printed in the Hermes workshops in Lyon. Dye artisans use traditional reserve techniques to dye it with intense colours of blue.

Collection SS2015: Zebra Pegasus (Gavroche)

Colour variations on the same theme - Zebra Pegasus

Collection SS2015: Zebra Pegasus

A graduate of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and The Prince’s Drawing School in London, Alice Shirley is a frequent collaborator with the city’s Natural History Museum.  Fascinated by the myth of Pegasus, and the famously untameable African zebra, Alice Shirley reinvents the classical legend, transporting it to southern Africa.

The celestial mount of Zeus brought forth the fountain of the Muses with a kick of his hoof, and was turned into a constellation by the king of the gods.  Here, he swaps his immaculate white coat for the two-tone pattern of his close equine cousins.  Completing this highly original portrait, his magnificent wings turn flaming orange, echoing the plumage of African parrots.

Has his metamorphosis given Pegasus the power of speech, like them? We cannot know…