James Burke’s shirt in Liberty ‘Ianthe’

James Burke’s shirt in Liberty ‘Ianthe’ http://wp.me/p2MeJS-gH

Sometimes an idea for a shirt just pops into my head – style and fabric together, and I can’t get it out.

This one is like that. I enjoyed working with the peacock feather print ‘Hera’ so much that I wanted to take on the challenge of this other traditional design and for some reason, the shirt just had to have short sleeves.

It’s called ‘Ianthe’ and its inclusion in the Liberty range reflects the company’s art nouveau heritage. According to their website, it is a reworking of a design by the French designer R. Beauclair from 1900. ‘Ianthe’ means purple flower in Greek, so perhaps the original design featured purple flowers; but this strong red and blue is my favourite of the current colourings.