Geoff Stocker has designed a new range of British made silk dressing gowns, to be launched at Best of Britannia this week. He kindly asked me to model some of the designs at a photoshoot in the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, that magnificent George Gilbert Scott designed masterpiece of Victorian architecture at St Pancras Station.
Geoff told me about the project:
"I went on holiday to Japan in 2016 and visited Kanazawa home of the traditional Kaga Yuzen silk dyeing industry. I saw a lot of wonderful kimonos that were made with this 300 year old process: see http://japan-brand.jnto.go.jp/crafts/textiles/2798/I came back intent on making my own kimono, but after calming down a bit I realised there was no market for a garment like that in Britain. Instead I transposed the idea onto an existing traditional product: the men’s silk dressing gown.I began working on repeat pattern ideas that I felt would suit a garment rather than the accessories I had produced up until then. I eventually found a pattern on the John Lewis website, (he only place I could find one) and enlisted a couple of dressmakers to make up the first prototypes.Initially I started out with one design in one colourway. The ‘Sultan’ design in sage green. I had 4 metres of lightweight twill silk printed in this design with an additional 1 metre of plain coloured twill for the collar, cuffs and pockets. Over the next few months I added a further 3 designs to create a full collection, each with an additional colourway. As always my silk is digitally printed by RA Smart of Macclesfield.Now excited by the prospect I contacted Fashion Enter, a fashion garment manufacturer in London, who I had come across at Best of Britannia London 2016. They created a new and augmented pattern, with additional pockets and an enlarged shawl collar. This was then graded into medium and large sizes from which I made my first samples. Since then I have used another UK (London) based clothing manufacturer called Fabrika. I met them while exhibiting at the ‘Make it British’ Meet the Manufacturer show in May. Which goes to show that these type of events really work when it comes to sourcing new suppliers in Britain".
The full collection will be launched at Best of Britannia London 2017 on 12/13th October at The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, East London. See Geoff Stocker.
This was a collaboration between Grey Fox Blog and Geoff Stocker.
