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MILL OF THE MONTH: Stephen Walters

Photography by Ant Jones

Fit for a King or indeed a Queen is an expression we don’t hear much nowadays but one that would work well when talking about our jacquard fabrics woven for us by Stephen Walters.

The silk weaving company founded in Spitalfields in 1720 is now based in Sudbury, Suffolk and has been making fabrics for royalty for hundreds of years, major commissions include Queen Elizabeth II coronation robes and wedding dresses for Princess Anne and Lady Diana Spencer amongst many others.

Here at the Dashing HQ we are easily satisfied with the best so working with Stephen Walters is a natural choice. Regular loom weaving is a process by which the vertical warp threads are lifted together to form patterns such as twills and herringbones. These looms have been around in various forms for thousands of years and are what we use most of the time for our classic tweeds.

Jacquard looms have much more complex mechanisms by which individual warp threads are lifted, enabling highly complex patterns and even photographic images to be woven into cloth. The technology dates back to the 17th Century and includes innovations such as the invention of punch cards the earliest form of binary data storage later adopted by computers. We can thank King Louis XIV for renouncing the Edict of Nantes and causing skilled Huguenots to flee France and bring us the technology.

As with many powerful tools the skill is in control; we have used Jacquard weaving to provide an element of humour to our designs that would not be possible by regular weaving. Our Threadbare design is woven in pure cotton with the idea of emulating a garment worn to threads, we thought it amusing to use the Jacquard loom to give the supposed warp and weft an open wiggling shape as if stretched with age. The scale of the design does contain a regular repeat but this adds to the optical element of the fabric. The cotton cloth adds another dimension to our staple of woven wools and makes up in to a delightful summer jacket.

Our Exploded Houndstooth is another playful idea executed on Stephen Walters’ jacquard looms. The idea was to extrapolate a classic houndstooth design to a scale not otherwise possible on a classic loom, a zoomed in version of a weave made with a fine silk weft on a cotton warp. The resulting fabric is arresting to look at yet strong enough for a wild night out, perfect for a player and fit for a king of clubs.

Our jacquard designs are now also available through our Dashing Classics range meaning they will be stock supported going forward. However if you wanted these designs in a slightly different colour way, this is also possible but at a premium through our bespoke services. To find out more, do email Naomi@DashingTweeds.co.ukwho looks after all our cloth production.

P.S – *SAVE THE DATES*

We are also hosting two events in September for our official womenswear collection launching on the 17th September. To RSVP, please click here.

We will also be celebrating a private view of a new collaboration with 1960’s celebrity tailor, Dougie Millings on the 18th September. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

For the love of Harris Tweed

Authenticity is the new luxury. Machines that were once just sci-fi fantasies are now a reality and if Captain Kirk wannabes ask their replicators to make a tweed I’m sure the outcome will look pretty good. But is it the real thing? Tweed clad philosophers could theorise the night away spinning arguments with quotes from Plato to Bertrand Russell but one point they would all have to agree on is that the synthesiser could not make Harris Tweed.

Rules for the weaving of genuine Harris Tweed cloth from the archipelago Islands off the West Coast of Scotland are incredibly strict and were recorded as acts of Parliament over a century ago. Genuine Harris Tweeds are produced by just a few mills and many are hand woven by crofters living a self sustaining life on the island ensuring a very low carbon footprint for the fabric. The Harris Tweed Authority hand checks all production and authenticates it with the famous orb logo.

As climates ameliorate the islander have adapted and produce what they term “feather weight” qualities. These weigh in at around 14 oz, which may say as much about the local bird population as the climate of Scotland. However, if you are going to invest in a Harris Tweed jacket or suit it’s reassuring to know that the hardy fabric will wear for many years.

A while ago we worked with the Carloway Mill to weave some original designs for us. These were highly prized by tweed aficionados around the world and especially in Japan where the love of originality is endemic in the highly cultured population. Sadly, the Carloway Mill has now laid down its shuttles, but there are others and we are stocking a large range of glorious coloured tweeds woven by Harris Tweed Hebrides. We have close to a hundred different colour ways of classic Harris Tweeds to choose from.

In addition to the classics we have our unique collaborative design Iona as below. This fashionable royal blue barley corn weave structure is a more modern design and suitable to wear in town and out in the country.

Our Iona cloth is handwoven on a Hattersley loom as below. If keeping a low carbon footprint is as important to you as it is to us then you will be interested to know that these looms are driven solely by foot power. The weaver literally puts his all into the production, boldly pedalling as no man has before…

Beam down to our shop at 47 Dorset Street, Marylebone and even if your everyday items are facsimiled you can be sure your new Harris Tweed jacket is an original. Do drop us a line at Holly@DashingTweeds.co.uk if you have any questions or would like to book a Made to Measure appointment using one of our Harris Tweeds!