ball

The first Monday in May each year is always a prestigious day in the fashion calender as it marks the opening of the Metropolitan Museum’s new exhibition and therefore the Met Gala. This year, the exhibition is dedicated to Comme des Garcon’s Rei Kawakubo and is entitled ‘The Art of In-Between’. Taking its theme for the Gala from this year’s muse, the attendees dressed to impress in their own interpretations of Avant-Garde.

You may remember a series of silk jackets we did for the Accessories Brand Chaos last year, this year’s Met Gala gave us the opportunity to work with Chaos again as we were embellishing the outfit of Chaos’s Charlotte Stockdale.

They wanted to create a black on black piece so we made the embellishments all about the texture and relief, working with different weights and qualities of thread to provide definition. Some sections were super dense and flat to the fabric whilst others were given height of various levels within the machine embroidery.

Some sections were cut open to provide another texture with fluffy edges which creates a very matte deep black effect against some of the shinier threads.

The whole back piece centers around the Chaos logo which was treated as if it were a traditional heraldic piece. This became the base on which we could build by hand. A variety of beads were applied into the machine embroidery such as bugle beads and cut jet.

As with most of our bespoke pieces, Charlotte’s initials were integrated into the design in the same heraldic style as the mantelling around the logo.

I think you will agree that the final effect is pretty phenomenal when the machine embroidery, hand embroidery, beading and tassels all come together.

For more details about Chaos and the products they offer, check out their website here.

At the start of July each year the Benevolent Tailors’ Beneficiary Association Summer Ball comes knocking stylishly on London’s door and Hawthorne & Heaney was there this year to answer it’s call. The Summer Ball is the more informal of the two annual BTBA Balls, one might think that there would not be that much to see on a sartorial front; however this is not the case. As a meeting of the majority of Savile Row and its associates it is a great place to show off your wears with the cream of London’s Tailoring Community present.

The event is held at the beautiful Merchant Taylors’ Hall and guests include Tailors, Cutters, Fabric Merchants and of course Embroiderers as we were there!

The BTBA hosts these events in order to raise money to aid and award grants when necessary to anyone who has worked in British tailoring at any level for a period of ten years or more. It was formed from a merger of the British tailoring industry’s two oldest and most revered charities – the Master Tailors’ Benevolent Association (est. 1887) and the Tailors’ Benevolent Institute (est. 1861). It is also a great opportunity to celebrate the tailors who are moving up into a new stage of their careers as they receive their awards from Savile Row Bespoke.

Here are a few pictures to give you a flavour of the evening.

Kathryn Sargent, Chris Kerr and Andy Varnava

We can’t wait for the Winter Ball to come around so we can do it all again.

Hawthorne & Heaney for Charlotte Stockdale’s Met Gala Outfit

Hawthorne & Heaney at the BTBA