lace

Hawthorne & Heaney: Intern Projects

August 30, 2018 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Hawthorne & Heaney has been very fortunate to have a series of wonderful students who come to the studio as interns to learn about the industry and experience a working studio. But what do they actually do while they are with us I hear you ask?

What they work on day to day is very changeable but for our longer term interns we like them to have a project of their own ongoing whilst they are with us. The gorgeous images you see here are from our most recent intern, Elsie Wong who was working on some floral motifs for us along side her other duties.

She draws on her Singaporean heritage and Central Saint Martins experience to bring her clean yet delicate style to these pieces.

She then went on to translate one of the pieces into embroidery using one of the techniques learnt in her classes at the London Embroidery School, specifically Limerick Lace.

Here is is presenting her final piece to us demonstrating the design process from design, to draft, to embroidery. I’m sure you will agree, great job Elsie! What do you think?

If this has taken your fancy and you would like to join us as an intern, please see the internships blog or jobs section of the website for application as we are currently looking for someone to join us for an immediate start.

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined Exhibition at the Barbican

November 16, 2016 by Hasina Akther

The word vulgar is used to describe common people, lack of sophistication or good taste and reflects someone making explicit or offensive reference to sex or the body.

The “The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined” exhibition curated by Judith Clark and Adam Phillips displays famous looks from the fashion world dating back from the renaissance to current day fashion. The exhibition definitely gets you questioning about why is vulgar such a sensitive area in fashion and what makes something vulgar?

By looking at the definition of vulgar as being common, it also explores the ideas of fashion being common, has it ever been unique? By trying to be different, your fashion exaggerating then turning into a vulgar taste.

The exhibition includes works from designers such as, John Galliano, Pam Hogg,Vivienne Westwood and Yves Saint Laurent. Some of the looks there, I can understand as being vulgar, over the top, makes you wonder why is that necessary and in a way almost a bit disturbing. What I found difficult about the collection, is what do you actually classify as vulgar?

Surely it’s all down to personal opinion rather, as some things I did find vulgar but other pieces there I found beautiful.

These hair shoes by Alessandro Michele for Gucci were featured in the exhibition. For me, these shoes say vulgar. They are very eccentric, easy to show off with and over all a strange idea to get over.

Hussein Chalayan’s Autumn/Winter 2014 collection, his dresses covered in acrylic nails. The idea of vulgar coming from the concept rather than the look of it.

Pam Hogg SS14, her designs are very unique and different, but most of the time they are revealing and insensitive. Getting a strong reaction from society which I feel the idea of vulgar is all about.

Walter van Beirendonck 2010-11 “Take a Ride” collection.

Whilst with this Christian Dior SS 2003, I think it is very exaggerated but still has elegance and beauty to it, so does that make it vulgar?

Looks from the Viktor&Rolf collection, Van Gogh Girls, were also featured. But is the actual fashion vulgar? Or is it the whole design of the big straw hat and flowers growing off the dress. This to me creates more of an exciting, artistic presentation of the clothes, presented almost like paintings, what they were inspired by.

Whilst in the exhibition there were also pieces, which I found beautiful, elegant and sophisticated. Lace collars, stomachers and looks by Givenchy, Raf Simons, Chloe and Madame Grès, were some of the looks that I didn’t understand why they were there.

The collection is full of interesting pieces of fashion and historic embroidered pieces such as stomachers, dresses and accessories. It’s a really interesting and exciting collection to see with lots of information and film about vulgarity in fashion and the different movements throughout history that affected it.

Images taken from:

http://fashiontribes.typepad.com/fashion/2015/04/bride-of-bigfoot-hairy-slipper-shoe-footwear-things-stomp-into-fall-2015.html

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/gallery/22125/2/the-vulgar-fashion-redefined

http://the-moustached-king.tumblr.com/page/4

http://showstudio.com/collection/hussein_chalayan_paris_womenswear_a_w_2014/anders_christian_madsen_reports_on_the_chalayan_show

http://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/barbican-vulgarity-the-spice-of-fashion-life

Hawthorne & Heaney at the V&A’s Undressed Exhibition

August 18, 2016 by Natasha Searls-Punter

The Victoria and Albert Museum has such a great reputation for its fashion exhibitions and their new underwear epic ‘Undressed’ does not disappoint. The exhibition is in the fashion section of the museum and is split between the historical pieces below and contemporary pieces on the first floor.

For me the historical pieces are always the most intriguing as you start at the 18th Century corsets and work you way through. A great example of this is this baby blue corset made of cotton twill and silk lined. It is reinforced with whale bone and metal busk with machine lace and hand embroidery details. The embroidery on this piece is quite simple with the long fanned stitches around the hips and bust but it is very effective all the same. Most of the corsets are over 200 years old so it is amazing that they have survived to be displayed.

Moving forward there are some lovely lace examples from the 20’s and 30’s such as the above brassiere and negligee below. They demonstrate the development of the technology in this area and to see the intricacy that they were able to achieve.

Along side the more prim and proper pieces are those which have a sense of humour such as the knickers pictured below. They belonged to a society Lady from the 1930’s who moved to the far east and commissioned these knickers as a fun item to have. They turned out to be to be quite useful, as the story goes, when she needed an ice breaker with other ladies she met, she would lift up her skirts and flash them a look at her hunting themed knickers to their great amusement. The hunting theme is achieved by lace applique of machine lace onto silk chiffon.

The exhibition also offers a selection of garters, stocking and other underwear additions as well. There are some great examples of embroidery on these as there are greater opportunities to be create with them.

Moving upstairs, the focus is more on how underwear has progressed and its other interpreations such as into outwear. The piece below is reminisant of 17th Century fashion but is a piece from the Galliano show for Givenchy haute couture 1996 where underwear becomes outerwear. The embroidery on this piece is quite stunning with the romantic colouring of the stitching onto sheer muslin.

There is also a short video with interviews and insight into the design process with designers such as Fifi Chachnil and La Perla if you need a little sit down after all the lingerie.

Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7, until 12 March 2017. vam.ac.uk. Click here for another review from respected Dress historian Lucy Worsley for the Guardian.

Hawthorne & Heaney for Ong Oaj Pairam

February 24, 2016 by Natasha Searls-Punter

With London Fashion Week well and truely underway, we thought we would share with you a little piece of Hawthorne & Heaney embroidery that made its way onto the catwalk. We worked with the Brighton based designer Ong Oaj Pairam on his AW2016 collection to produce a heavily encrusted, lace and crystal bodice.

It was a pretty quick turn around so we used all the tools at our disposal when we were developing the techniqies. The collection has a dark fairytale/ Victorian lost love theme which we worked into the designs. Using our CAD embroidery machine we developed lace like flower and leaf designs to build up a heavy base and compliment the sheen of the duchess satin on which they would be placed.

Along side this we experiemented with a variety of different sequin techniques for creating floral effects

Once this was all decided on then all there was left to do was to get stitching

We were really pleased with the effect, it felt very heavy to hold but wonderfully textured. When teamed with the jaquard trousers and sheer shirt from the rest of Pairam’s collection it really comes to life.

We hope you enjoy looking at this piece as much as we enjoyed working on it. Check in again with us to see what else we have been working on recently…

If you would like to see more from Ong Oaj Pairam, please visit his website

Hawthorne & Heaney at the Gieves and Hawkes Archives

May 18, 2015 by Natasha Searls-Punter

We were lucky enough to be asked to go on a tour of the new refurbished No. 1 Savile Row, Gieves and Hawkes Historical Archive so we thought we would take the opportunity to share the pictures of some of the treasures they have there. Their long history of 450 years has allowed them to accumulate this amazing collection of pieces. The building itself is also very striking as the former home of Lord Fairfax, the Duke of Devonshire and then the Royal Geographic Society. Part of their renovations was to bring the splendid Map room a the heart of the building, originally installed by the Royal Geographic Society, back to its former glory. It is through the impressive balcony in the Map room that the archive is accessed.

Above: detail from uniform jacket with its aiguillette, an ornamental braided cord.

A selection of uniforms on display at the entrance of the archive

Cuff details with Gold lace and belt on display

Inspecting some of the jackets from the archive, this one with original aiguillette.

Tiny Cut-work bird and crown emblem with gold lace

These cutwork cuffs would have been gold when they were new, but over time, they become discoloured and settle at the shade they are now.

Embroidered Epaulette, also discoloured by time with a glimpse of the attached aiguillette bottom left.

Hawthorne & Heaney for London Embroidery School

January 30, 2015 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Hawthorne & Heaney like most advocates of an ancient art feels the need to make sure that we pass the skills needed to make these beautiful pieces onto the next generation in order to try and preserve the skills. Therefore, from April, The London Embroidery School will be moving into the Hawthorne & Heaney office in Mayfair on the weekends.

There is a range of the most popular classes that capture the essence of the work that we create available for the public to book and parcipate in. Couture Tambour beading, traditional military Goldwork and the much coveted and widely admired Lace Group are now available. So if you would like to dip your toe into Hawthorne & Heaney’s world, workshops from the London Embroidery School can be booked her e.

London Fashion and H&H

June 4, 2014 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Hawthorne & Heaney always watch the emergence of new fashion graduates with great interest and feel its very important to encourage young designers in order to propel fashion forwards. Over the last week there has been plenty of new talent coming through and this talent has been displaying a range of extremely innovative embroidery. Starting with CSM and RCA and working into graduate fashion week there has been plenty of techniques on display.

Olga Kuryschuk displayed a delicate silver and white collection, with lace applique and a swathe of crystals strewn across the garments in a nonchalant manner.

Amie Robertson and Richard Quinn opted for bolder, structural applications of large shaped sequins or floral pieces for a more 3D effect.

While Flora Cadzow incorporated fine machine embroidery into her sheer fabrics.

London is always such a haven for young designers because it is so open to embracing the experimental, innovative and the quirky. Therefore finding new and exciting ways to present embroidery and reinvent old techniques in fashion gives is very exciting and challenging. In the past, we have had great fun working with emerging designers, like these graduate may go on to be.

We work with the designer right through from the initial idea, translating drawings into embroidery during the sampling process, development, placement and finally the realised products in production. In collections past we have worked with designers such as Isa Arfen, Reem Juan, Sibling, and Claire Barrow just to name a few.

Free Falling Crystal and Bead Tassels from Isa Arfen

Delicate Silk shaded body suit from Reem Juan

Islamic Inspired floral goldwork cap from Sibling

Fully couture beaded dress from Claire Barrow

Being a London based studio, we provide a more inclusive approach to embroidery for fashion as well as being able to modestly boast 15 collective years of industry experience. If you have an idea about some embroidery that you would like to have done, but don’t have the capacity to make it happen, contact us and we can see what we can do to make it a reality. For more examples of fashion embroidery by Hawthorne & Heaney, have a browse of our pinterest board