It’s time again for our creative team to start putting new
ideas on the table, thinking about the new collection and working closely with
our manufacturers to ensure they can turn our visions into beautiful product!
A couple of weeks ago ‘The creative team’ took a trip to the
countryside to visit our silk weaver whom has been weaving silk since 1704. It
was time to work on the new Penrose collection; the ‘pre-mill’ process includes
endless research from an abundance of sources. It may sound like a cliché but
we really can draw inspiration from anywhere! Our surroundings, travels,
exhibitions, archives, sifting and sketching the entire time – and this process
never ends, we are continually collecting images and ideas. It is important to look around and absorb your
surroundings; you never know what you might be missing! We had plenty of ideas
to bring to the table so sat down with some of the designers and the technical
team in order to realise our designs.
One of my favourite things about this trip is indulging in
the archives, there is such an extensive collection of hand drawn designs,
weaving patterns, silk swatches and much more that it is a serious treat for
the eyes. All of Penrose London’s collections are designed by our team in house
at our showroom in Soho, but routing through archives always sparks ideas for
construction and textures.
 |
| Endless Archives! |
For each of our designs we discuss the scale and placement
of the design, the way in which the ground of the tie should be constructed and
of course the colour palette!
 |
Putting together our tie collection initial designs and
initial woven silk for design approval
|
 |
| Colour selections |
From this stage, we leave our designs and colour palette in
the hands of the manufacturing team, our designs will first be put into a ‘CAD’
format (computer aided design) and then transferred into a weaving pattern. The
weaving pattern calculates how the loom will weave the silk to create the
correct design, the correct construction and texture – it is an extremely
complex process and best left to the professionals! The mill then send us a
patchwork blankets showing each design in a series of colour ways taken from our
palette – firstly we approve (or occasionally discard) the design and finally
select our preferred colours!
Once we have done this for every design we hand it back to
the mill to let the weaving process commence in order to give us a sample
collection. The weaving takes approximately 3 weeks before it is passed on to
the tie maker and a further 4 weeks down the line…. we have a sample tie
collection. The entire process from idea to sample takes approximately 3
months, each design has a story, is coloured with love and finished by hand.
Our AW14 collection is now in working progress, take a look
at some of our sumptuous ties for this Autumn/Winter now available online.
