The wild coast of Bohemia

Today I bought an unused roll of silk on linen (yes, real silk, real linen) brocade/damask from the 1920s/30s. And it's in Wedgewood blue with white floral swags. And I love it. Beautiful. It even feels beautiful. And it gleams.

Now, as ever I have to:
1. Work out what to do with it,
2. Then bring myself to cut it, make it up and sell it.

Those of you who have been following this blog for some years will have realised that certain fabrics appear here and I talk about making them into bags and... I never do. Instead I have boxes full of hoarded Art Nouveau (I have some of the real thing - unbelievable - I nearly passed out when I got it) and one piece of 18th century brocade sits permanently, it seems, on what is supposed to be my in-tray but is in fact my preciousssss-fabric don't-touch-hands-off tray.

But this damask may be destined, in part, for very special corset-tops I think. I have a plan. Deep breath. I WILL part with this (well, some of it).

A nice day of wondering less about theory (though be warned, I really am going to come back to that one as there are all sorts of things I'm working out in my own mind) and more about DOING design.

Aida is now helping us out part-time (long, long story about Vassa - basically she is alright thank GOD, but has been through a large operation due to an emergency situation and has gone home to Ukraine, probably permanently). Today we decided to pull out the new silks from India and take a couple of hours to consider new shapes and ideas. Good fun - and I think we came up with some beautiful possibities. Not once did "Modernism" and its discontents even enter my head. Like all the best design sessions we did some of it in a newish cafe that's opened. Wonderful fresh salad. Fabulous genuinely made-on-the-premises cakes. Great coffee. Perfect for getting ideas going. One day I want to talk here about the link between good design and good baking ("OMG - just get ON with the bags" is probably what you're thinking).

Anyway, here is a taste (no pun intended) of the new silks.
They are actually simply amazing in person - the new silks are wonderful and there is no way we can even begin to capture the way they change colour in the light. Maybe this some impression, though it still doesn't get the sense of the way the colours respond to movement:

( More pictures here )
So - we finished the afternoon by meeting with Romana and asked her to try out some sample patterns (she's a brilliant pattern maker) and also hand-dye some cream silk brocade into a soft "tea" colour - and did some asymmetric things with copper, black and gold/black brocade. The overall plan is some black and white, sepia and cream and soft indigo (imagine a denim coloured silk) and cream fairytale drawings. Watch this space - in about a month I think.

Tomorrow... the fashion shoot team reassembles and we all go off to Vysehrad cemetery:




to shoot the Gothic scenes. In which Aida (who when not designing things is a part-time professional model) stars. I love doing these fashion shoots - the last one was utterly exhausting and hugely good fun.