A Muse Boosh: Inspiring Womenswear
“A woman wearing a suit is anything but masculine. A strict, clean cut accentuates her femininity, her seductiveness, her ambiguity.” Yves Saint Laurent
You may not realise it, but every artist needs a muse. As a Fashion student at Nottingham Trent in the 90’s mine was Joely Richardson - modelling the new Paul Smith womenswear collection. The Tailoring was exquisite, the nod to traditional suiting, the detailing and the sharp cut really struck a cord with me and I craved to adopt that luxury.
I improvised and styled out my uncle’s hand-me-down suit jackets with vintage dress shirts and a neckerchief… I wasn’t brave enough to add the tie but I desperately wanted to. So strong was my obsession, my final collection was a womenswear line based on traditional tailoring and I relished in sourcing the cloth and delving into the history.
Roll forward 10 years and I had my dream job working as Senior Designer at Toast, being afforded the privilege to tap into the detailing, fabric and cut of historic tailored pieces and create womenswear that reflected that artistry.
Tailoring always goes in and out of fashion and styles soften or sharpen depending on the trends but it could be said that classic made to measure tailoring hasn’t strayed very far for women - styles evolved from practical garments into fashionable ones based on the 1800’s hacking jacket.
And aside ‘office attire’, many tailoring workshops focus more on Menswear and stick to simple styles for their womenswear offering, which often feels outdated. With the arrival of Savile Row tailors who specialise in womenswear like The Deck London and Molly Anderson heading up women’s bespoke tailoring at Richard Anderson, the focus has once again shifted from safe feminine styles to androgynous tailoring and female tailoring is back on the map.
Brown in Town has offered tailoring for women since its inception utilising traditional female silhouettes but whilst our menswear offering has flourished over the past 5 years, women’s tailoring has lacked the cut and attention to detail and there has been a long standing desire to offer more and develop a signature style or even multiple styles worthy of shouting about.
When the opportunity arose to make a suit for horticulturalist Jane Porter for her Choose Love Garden which she designed and installed at last years RHS Chelsea Flower Show, we jumped at the chance. Knowing already that Jane was an avid Toast fan who had great style, this was to be an exciting challenge, if not a little daunting, but one which would shift focus onto Brown in Town’s womenswear.
But we did what Brown in Town does: sat down to discuss what the requirements for this suit were, where Jane was coming from and where she was going to. Having collaborated with Acme Atelier on an arresting kilt that was worn in her gold award winning ‘Still garden’ at RHS Chelsea Flower show 2022, Jane had a clear idea of what direction she wanted to go in.
Jane had never owned a bespoke suit and was eager to explore the possibilities and tap into the masculine cut and characteristics that would not only flatter but instil confidence. Its hard to get a perspective on what you are looking for in a suit when you are beginning this journey, so we started with pieces Jane already had in her wardrobe and focused on the cut and proportion to visualise the ensemble, she also tried on our Master Garments (suits used for taking measurements) in the studio that are also a useful tool to help with fit, design and because Brown in Town offer several cuts, the style of the jacket or indeed a waistcoat or trousers.
Then for the choice of cloth and colour…
Jane already had a specific colour palette in mind having meticulously designed her Choose Love Garden so the biggest challenge was finding a cloth that could meet the brief - and cope with the heat in the Great Pavilion.
Linen possesses excellent moisture absorption and wicking properties and takes on colour like no other cloth - so a vibrant 12oz linen from Dugdale Brothers Lisburn collection in a chartreuse green was the perfect choice - it would zing against Jane’s orange accessories and organic undyed Plant Love t-shirt, not to mention her brightly coloured and meticulously planted garden.
Having delivered Jane’s suit in good time for judging, the next dilemma was what to wear myself to Chelsea?! I wanted to develop a suit that reflected my own personal inspiration, a suit that could be worn everyday... workwear in its truest sense. The result was a garment-dyed cotton twill two piece suit - what would subsequently become the Darby Suit… but thats a different story.
If you have always desired a bespoke suit but you are not sure where to start, why not get in touch and we can discuss your requirements.
The Choose Love garden was sponsored by Project Giving Back and has now been relocated to Good Food Matters
Jane Porter wears; Two piece English cut suit in Dugdale Brothers 12 oz Lisburn 100% Linen. Pocket square Umberto Fornari and neckerchief, Bigi Cravatte. Tshirt and shoes, models own.