frogging

Hawthorne & Heaney for Jason Momoa

October 27, 2021 by Natasha Searls-Punter

In October we had the great pleasure of working on a very quick turn around job with our friends across the road at legendary tailors, Henry Poole. They were making a coupld of jackets for Hollywood actor Jason Momoa one of which was to be a velvet smoking jacket for the ‘Dune’ London premiere. No smoking jacket would be complete without some frogging style details on it and so Momoa chose our oak leaf cuff embroidery design to adorn his jacket.

Working with the coat makers means that we can do the embroidery before the jacket is constructed which gives it that super lux finish that one comes to expect of Savile Row quality garments. The burgandy colour of the velvet brough a fun edge to this particular jacket, reflecting the wearer’s dynamic personality. What’s more is that Momoa and his team filmed the whole process of the making of the jackets, which included a visit to our studio to see the cuff embroidery in action and learn a little more about the process behind the craft.

Thanks to Daniel McDonald from Henry Poole for bringing us in on this project and Damien Bray for the film, as well of course as the man himself, Jason Momoa for wearing it so well. Be sure to check out the film in full at the top of the blog, its well worth the watch!

Hawthorne & Heaney on Frogging

October 18, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Frogging is an interesting word for an embroidery technique isn’t it. It is believed that it referes to the shape of the knot used in ‘frog fasteners’ with the center being the body and the sides being the wide back legs of the frog. The term over the years has come to refer to the embroidery done with this same type of appliqued chord onto garments though not resctricted to the original 3 part knot or for fastening purposes.

At Hawthorne & Heaney, we can produce traditional, hand embroidered frogging, where braid is manipulated and sewn down to create these elaborate patterns that you may recognise from historical garments and costume.

Peacoat with hand embroidered frogging detail by Gieves and Hawkes for Permanent style

Elaborate hand embroidered frogging sleeves before garment construction

We also can produce similar effects using digital embroidery:

Close up machine embroidery frogging on sleeves

Velvet smoking jacket with machine embroidery frogging sleeves for Arjan Blok

Playing cards inspired machine embroidery onto velvet sleeves before construction for Anderson and Sheppard

Playing cards inspired machine embroidery onto velvet fronts before construction for Anderson and Sheppard

Playing cards inspired machine embroidery onto velvet for Anderson and Sheppard

Anderson and Sheppard smoking jacket for the Beaumont Collection (LCW) . As photographed by Guy Hills

It is particulally fun when people want to push the traditional boundries with their order like these frogging inspired sleeves before construction:

Dogtooth sleeves with machine embroidered details for Kathryn Sargent

Hawthorne & Heaney for Anderson & Sheppard’s London Craft Week Beaumont Collection Collaboration

May 4, 2017 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Along side our own London Craft Week Classes, Hawthorne & Heaney also have some embroidery on display in the shape of a navy smoking jacket we embroidered for Anderson & Sheppard. They are part of a collaboration with Jeremy King OBE of the Beaumont Hotel London to create a capsule collection inspired by the hotel:

‘Each tailor has produced an outfit for Jimmy Beaumont, a fictional character invented by Jeremy to inform the interior design of the 1926 hotel building. The collection includes a tuxedo, a three piece suit and night-wear, highlighting the skill of the tailors alongside their ability to respond to their client’s character. Each piece of Jimmy Beaumont’s wardrobe is displayed in the tailors windows along Savile Row. ‘ (London Craft Week)

Here are some of the photos of the jacket in the various stages of production, whilst the pieces were still flat they were provided to us to create the frogging on the front and motifs on the sleeves which are inspired by the symbols on playing cards:

All above images from @jennie_mcwalter

And here is the finished jacket, if you’d like to see this piece and others from the collection, they are all on display in their prospective shops down Savile Row now until 7th May.

Image above by @guy.hills and video courtsey of Anderson & Sheppard.

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London Craft Week has officially kicked off today. Jimmy Beaumont of @thebeaumontldn has commissioned a double breasted embroidered velvet smoking jacket with shawl collar and midnight blue fine herringbone braided dress trousers. Velvet cloth is from @scabal and frogging and cuffs embroidered by @hawthorneheaney. The velvet slippers, of course from @georgecleverley. Please visit us at the Haberdashery to see the full ensemble displayed in our window. #lcw2017 #savilerow #bespoketailoring
A post shared by The Anderson & Sheppard Shop (@andersonandsheppard) on May 3, 2017 at 6:37am PDT

Hawthorne & Heaney in ‘Savile Row And America: A Sartorial Special Relationship’

May 21, 2015 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Last week,Washington DC played host to the tailors of Savile Row in a special exhibition collaboration with Bentley Cars at the British Embassy. A selection of Savile Row’s best tailors went over to represent the craft and show some of their own pieces, modern day and historical in Savile Row And America: A Sartorial Special Relationship. By all accounts it was two fully packed days of festivities with 30 guests on the first night, treated to a guided tour of the exhibition, dinner and drinks. The second day 400 people passed through the exhibition to take in all its sights. There were 70 outfits and 175 artefacts, including ledgers, patterns, photographs, documents and curiosities demonstrating the relationship between Savile Row and the USA.

The above jackets were produced by four of the best known tailoring houses; Henry Poole, Huntsman, Gieves & Hawkes, and Dege & Skinner which were inspired by the Bentley GT speed as seen in the background in celebration of the collaboration. At Hawthorne and Heaney we are very proud to say that a few of our pieces found their way into the exhibition too. The jacket second from the left can be seen in more detail below, sporting a little embroidery on the pocket and the check jacket has some lovely frogging details on the cuffs.