Restored silk damasks originating from the churches and cathedrals of 18th century France and Italy. These beautifully woven panels once formed liturgical garments for vestments and chasubles worn to denote position and mark ceremonial celebrations. As textiles of significant importance, they were well-cared for, preserving the intricate gilt needlework and rich floriated motifs that were typical of the French and Italianate clergy during this period. Repurposed for new wearers, shades of gold, burgundy wine, and green are softened with neutral beiges and browns and hand-sewn into ornate patchworks.

Creating a thing of beauty from something previously left to wilt is our guiding motif. As one of our largest zero-waste projects, Fringe Froth utilises the once-discarded trims of antique silk piano shawls, which often became tangled and damaged during export from East Asia to the West. In Walid’s hands, this collection of distressed tassels adds an incredibly tactile and playfully captivating movement to designs. The advantage is in the unknown, in that each thread differs slightly according to composition and finish, producing an entirely unique effect in the dyeing process.

Crafted from heavily embroidered silk broadcloth in an array of colourful shades, piano shawls were originally designed as decorative coverings to keep the wood and keys free from scratches and dust. By the 1920s Jazz Age and the influence of Orientalism in Western fashion design, they were adopted as an elegant alternative to evening dress jackets when gowns became sleeveless and cut low at the back. In transforming these historical textiles for future wear, this is one of our most versatile fabrics, which becomes anything from lightweight tops to bedecked swing coats in artfully matched tones.

Signature textiles to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), our collection of resplendent 19th-century Chinese silk chronicles a rich storytelling culture. The rarest of these are yellow in hue – the symbolic colour of the five great Emperors – and include the ‘Forbidden’ or Peking stitch, which was solely reserved for use by the master embroiderers of the Forbidden City, the historical seat of the Imperial household in Beijing. Each piece displays stylised depictions of flora, fauna and family life revealed in intricately laid out scenes, and is meticulously restored and repurposed into contemporary cuts that highlight the impeccable craftsmanship.

An early example of artisanal zero-waste production, Suffolk Puffs, as they are known in England, first became popular in the 19th century but are recognisable in traditional textile techniques around the world. Used as decorative accents or assembled into quilts and hangings, these cloth flowers are thought to originate from the age-old Brazilian craft ‘fuxico’, in which fabric remnants were formed into gathered circles and then stitched together into blankets. Our vintage archive is sourced from the 1920s-1940s – when these rosettes boomed in popularity – and appliquéd onto cotton, linen and hemp backings to upholster homeware designs.