Dandy & Rose

May 30, 2016
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The Blues

Commissioned man’s shirt in Liberty of London’s paisley ‘Bourton’

As you’ve probably guessed, I love colour. But my favourite colour is blue.

My mum loves blue too. When I was a kid I was nearly always dressed in blue, so for a while in young adulthood, I rebelled. But now blue and I are the best of friends again, and we have been for ages.

There are so many shades of blue in this classic Liberty paisley that I can’t begin to count them.

Bourton blue cuff

Bourton Blue right front

From darkest navy, to dusky violet, through to sweet lilac and clear, clean turquoise, they work together to make a cheering whole. I’ve added stitching in a smoky midnight colour and snaps the colour of bluebells.

I have worked with this Liberty classic paisley print in several colourways and loved them all, but this one always lifts my heart.

Commissioned men’s shirt in Liberty’s classic paisley, ‘Bourton’.

This shirt was commissioned, but if you’d like a Dandy & Rose shirt of your very own, click on the SHOP tab at the top of the page, or drop me a line through the CONTACT page. I’d love to hear from you!

May 18, 2016
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Tulip Mania

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London's art nouveau Tulip print 'Ten Six' 7

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London’s art nouveau Tulip print ‘Ten Six’ back yoke

I was a little sad to see the tulips pass from my garden a couple of weeks ago. They are so exotic, with their vibrant, polished petals and encompassing shape. No wonder that, when they were first introduced to Europe from the Islamic world in the sixteenth century, they were considered precious objects of status. In the 1630s their value boomed so high that a phenomenon known as ‘tulipmania’ happened, with frenzied trading making many Dutch merchants enormously rich; when the ‘Tulip Bubble’ burst, they lost everything.

But anyway, never mind the history lesson. Here’s a shirt. It is made from an art nouveau style Liberty print representing tulips. It comes from last year’s Spring/Summer range, but it’s based on a furnishing design from the 1890s. So elegant.

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London’s art nouveau Tulip print ‘Ten Six’

It’s always difficult to decide what to do with a favourite print in a favourite colourway. Some red piping might have been nice, but I really wanted to see those tulips bending in the breeze, so I have gone with my first instinct – to cut the yokes on the bias.

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London’s art nouveau Tulip print ‘Ten Six’

The shirt has short sleeves, which I have faced with plain pale blue fabric to match the leaves in the print. The pocket flaps are faced in the same fabric, but that will be the wearer’s secret till he lifts them to put something in his pocket. The topstitching is in the same pale blue colour. The pearl snaps are grey.

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London’s art nouveau Tulip print ‘Ten Six’

It has turned out so sharp and snappy, I just had to photograph it with that top pearl snap done up!

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London’s art nouveau Tulip print ‘Ten Six’ front

Short Sleeved shirt in Liberty London’s art nouveau Tulip print ‘Ten Six’ back

April 16, 2016
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Variations on a floral theme…

Lorna Simes’ shirt with yokes in Liberty’s ‘Ciara’

My second bespoke order in a row that uses a vivid Liberty of London floral against deepest black, with bright piping for accent. They work so well!

For details of how to order your own Dandy & Rose shirt, click on the SHOP tab above.

March 18, 2016
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Girl Power

My lovely customer Jacky, whose second shirt this is, gave me the brief to create something ‘girly’, then picked out this riot-of-flowers Liberty print, ‘Tresco’.

Accustomed as I am to making and studying menswear, I managed to connect with my inner girl and have come up with this pink-piped, jewel-snapped party piece.

Enjoy, Jacky!

February 14, 2016
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“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”

This shirt is made from another print from Liberty’s recent Alice In Wonderland themed range. ‘Philip Clay’ is based around Alice’s encounter with the Queen of Hearts and her entourage, who, if you recall, are accused by Alice of being ‘nothing but a pack of cards’.

“You’re Nothing But A Pack of Cards!” Sir John Tenniel, 1865. Wood-engraving by Dalziel

The design was lino cut.

As I have worked, I have noticed the tiny hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades hidden within its filigree pattern.It’s beautiful. Because of its delicacy, I haven’t added any contrast colours; instead, I have turned the pattern cross and bias ways to distinguish the yoke and pockets. There’s a little more detail on this in my previous post, Cross Ways.

Christophe Rivet’s shirt in Liberty London’s print ‘Philip Clay’

The pearl snaps are grey.

This shirt was ordered by a customer who had received a gift voucher: for details of how to buy one, or for how to order a bespoke shirt of your own, click on the SHOP tab above.

January 29, 2016
by dandyandrose 2 Comments

Cross Ways

Bias and cross cutting are a traditional way to add interest to western shirt yokes.

Usually when you cut out a garment, you do it on the ‘straight grain’ with each piece lined up vertically against the edge on the fabric, along the warp thread that runs the length of the fabric. But if you turn the pieces so that they line up either at an angle (bias) or horizontally to the edge, along the weft thread that runs across the fabric (cross grain), any design that’s on the fabric will go in a different direction on the finished garment. It’s one of those things that’s easier to do than explain. That was probably as clear as mud, but don’t worry, here’s the Wikipedia entry on it.

Grain

It’s a great technique for stripes and checks, like these two vintage shirts from Steven E. Weil and Daniel DeWeese’s Western Shirts book.

1950s shirt by Ranch Man Western Wear of Denver

I don’t work with very many prints that lend themselves to being turned and turned about, but this Liberty design ‘Philip Clay’ was calling out to be realigned.

It’s got a look about it of Moroccan tiles, I think but it’s actually inspired by playing cards. But more of that when the shirt is finished!

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To find out how to order a bespoke shirt of your own, click on the SHOP tab at the top of the page.

January 23, 2016
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Man in Black Ruffles

Front right with label

Back in 2013, I paid a visit to the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville and, perhaps predictably, lingered in front of this shirt. As I have mentioned before, I think, I love to see a man in ruffles.

JC Museum

I just found my post on Facebook for that day, 21 September 2013. I say “While I was photographing this ruffled shirt in the Johnny Cash Museum, a young man next to me said ‘Look at those ruffled cuffs. Why can’t you get ruffled cuffs like that any more?’ So I gave him my card.”

Jamie Freeman, who co-owns Union Music Store, Lewes and fronts the band The Jamie Freeman Agreement commented “Janet, I photographed that shirt the other day *specifically* so I could commission one from you!!”

In the event, and I admit it’s taken a while to get to it, Jamie has opted for a black shirt. Instead of a central ruffle, we have a band with jewel snap fasteners, and we have put a single red jewel snap on the right cuff, which we are thinking will sparkle as he plays guitar when his band backs the Nashville singer songwriter Angaleena Presley at her Lewes gig tomorrow night.

front square on

Sparkle and ruffles. What more could a man in black need?

Find out more about my custom made ruffled shirts in my etsy.com shop

January 20, 2016
by dandyandrose 2 Comments

On angels’ wings

eben back

This print by Liberty of London, Eben, was inspired by the wings of angels depicted in fifteenth century manuscripts, like this one in the margin of Les Grandes Heures de Rohan.

Angel, Grandes Heures de Rohan, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Circa 1430.

All power to the monk who painted the angel above, he did a great job and everything, but I think he forgot to colour in the wings.

Still, we’ve put that right now.

Jim Lauderdale’s shirt in Liberty London’s print ‘Eben’

I think this might be the most colourful shirt I have ever made. It’s winging its way to Nashville and its new owner, Jim Lauderdale.

January 11, 2016
by dandyandrose 1 Comment

Mortal After All

Back in the early 80s, my then boyfriend and I were walking through Covent Garden when he told me that we were in a street where, a few weeks earlier, a friend of his had seen David Bowie.

Bowie in his ‘Liberty print meets A Clockwork Orange’ two piece suit designed by Freddie Burretti for the Ziggy Stardust tour

I couldn’t get my head round it. I just couldn’t imagine David Bowie doing anything as prosaic as walking down the street.

Whilst he was very clearly flesh and blood, he also seemed to be from another world. Universe even. An artist so great that he transcended even his own music.

Like most people of my age, I’ve been listening to and looking at Bowie since I was a young teenager. I don’t think I’ll ever forget just how gobsmacking it was to see him on Top of The Pops, doing Starman. Or the time that I helped my friend Andrea shave off her eyebrows in homage to Ziggy. We used her Mum’s Immac, and her brow became so red and angry that we abandoned the task halfway through. Andrea walked around with one eyebrow for quite some time, I remember.

But it wasn’t until the V & A’s wonderful ‘Bowie Is…’ exhibition a couple of years ago that I understood that his Ziggy Stardust costumes, which he designed with Freddie Burretti, though inspired by A Clockwork Orange, were made from Liberty fabric, like my shirts. I believe he described them as ‘ultraviolence meets Liberty print’.

Quilted two piece suit designed by Freddie Burretti

But anyway, when the radio alarm went off this morning, I discovered that David Bowie was only mortal after all.

That’s sad. Very sad. RIP.

January 10, 2016
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Spring’s Harbinger

Jim Lauderdale in Dandy & Rose snowdrop shirt. Photograph by Scott Simontacchi.

Once, many, many years ago, a suitor asked me what my favourite flower was, and promised to present me with a bouquet of whatever I chose. I am always truthful, so I told him that I love snowdrops. It was June.

Jim Lauderdale’s shirt in Liberty of London’s snowdrop print ‘Hesketh’

Nevertheless, the gallant young fellow sent to some swanky London florist and a few days later, he presented me with a tiny bunch of exactly the flower I had asked for. It really didn’t help his case, to be honest, and, now that I am no longer young and careless, I feel a twinge of guilt every time I remember the lengths he went to, and how fruitless were his efforts .

I still look forward every year, once Christmas is over, to the moment when the small clump of snowdrops in my garden blooms. I love to see them bravely nodding their tiny white heads, hiding their freshly green-splashed faces as if they don’t quite want to look at the still-grim January sky.

And right on cue, they have arrived this year, just as I finished this shirt, commissioned by Jim Lauderdale, in Liberty’s graceful art nouveau snowdrop print, based on an 1896 print from their archive.

Any minute now, Spring will be here. I just know it.