Continuing our Spring color story, today we're showing off our Spring reds.
Our Lychee and Tomato colorways take us back to an art exhibition in France that showcased the drawings of Henri Matisse. Although Matisse was known for his paintings, this exhibition was full of vibrant drawings that featured various color pops of red.
We felt like it was time to properly introduce you to one of our best colors from this season, Grass, and some of the inspiration behind it.
We made two different garments in "Grass" this season.
Pictures of his mom "Pictures From Home"
We went to see his exhibition at the MoMA a few year back and were blown away.
- Bunabhainneadar Tennis Court
This grass tennis court might be the most remote in the UK. Built in 1998 after a fundraising campaign by a local resident and located on the Isle of Harris
In April 1911, influenced by the Wiener Werkstätte and Josef Hoffmann's Stoclet Palace, which he had visited the previous year, Paul Poiret founded the Atelier Martine, a decorative arts workshop he describes in detail in his memoirs. He named the workshop after his daughter Martine, born in 1911. Situated at 107 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and initially run by the wife of painter Paul Sérusier, this exclusively female workshop gave young women the chance to express themselves in nature-inspired terms. Their spontaneous, highly coloured floral designs became printed fabrics for the boutique, also called Martine, that Poiret opened at 83 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the autumn of 1911. On sale were cushions, carpets, wallpaper, ceramics and trays, complemented by furniture made by the painter Fauconnet.
Garden of the Powis Castle in Wales, UK
Welcome to Studio Specials, a series to keep you up to date on what’s happening in the Gravel & Gold Design Studio.
Here we’ll talk about our development process for new garments, announce one-of-a-kind pieces and collaborations, and go into some detail about the special projects we’re working on.
Repurposing The Leda Tops: How we made four new products out of one impractical but well-intentioned shirt.
When we’re designing anything, our goal is to get that thing into the hands of someone who will truly love it. We hope you’ll wear any garment of ours into the ground, or use it for a while then pass it on as a gift or trade to extend its useful life. It’s always troubling when we put our creativity, money and materials into something that falls short—for whatever reason—and never finds a proper home. A style in particular that has kept us up at night is the Leda Top.
We made the Ledas from a fantastic, US grown and milled cotton spandex fabric that is printed with some early G&G patterns. We optimistically made a lot of these tops, but they came out way too small for a lot of grown-up bodies. We have been selling them off little by little at sample sales, and handing them out to our friends’ young children but we still have a healthy stack of backstock. We kept thinking there must be a joyful and more useful way to repurpose these shirts.
So deep into Shelter in Place, after three months of uninterrupted studio time, we put ourselves to the task and finally came up with a satisfying way to transform these tops!
Here are four new items, literally made from one old, impractical, but well-intentioned shirt.
*Due to the nature of this repurposing project, the clothing items are (currently) only available in one size. If you dig this style but it’s not your size, let us know! If we get enough feedback, we can take this experiment into development and explore a full range of sizes.
The Leap Tank - A delightful boob-binding tank for working out, dancing, sleeping, or lounging around.
Obvi Underwear - These cotton briefs lay low and are sturdy, not unlike the weight of a swimsuit. We’ve been using ours for laying out in the sun, doing yoga when it’s too hot to wear much else, and as normal undies when we are down to have a bit more material heft on our rumps and seam lines.
The Sleep Mask - Now we will sleep soundly. The Sleep Mask is made from the sleeves of a Leda Top and backed in organic cotton fleece. Stays put with an elastic band covered in G&G fabric.
The Lavender Pillow- This little sachet is made from the smallest Leda Top scraps. It’s stuffed with lavender and is the perfect size for your undie drawer, under your pillow, or tossed into your bag. We use ours as an eyemask *charging station* — ensuring our masks are lavender-scented by bedtime.
Now that we've had a couple weeks to wear our masks around and get some feedback, we've got some simple alterations that might make your mask a little comfier.
If your mask doesn’t fit quite right, we have some tips for easy modification.
Too Loose
If the mask elastic is too loose and slides around on your head, you can tie a knot or fold it over itself and stitch it down.
Too Tight
If the elastic is too small and tight around your head, you can add a length of extra elastic or other material
Behind the Ears
If you prefer a behind the ears style, here is how to alter it:
1. Cut the top (longer) elastic in the middle
2. Cut off the lower (shorter) elastic
3. Measure the correct lengths to fit nicely around your ears
4. Stitch down the two elastics to the bottom corners of the mask:
Now it fits!
