May 2013
3 posts
Welcome to the working week.
Hello, Brown’s the name, welcome to our modest factory floor.
Above the shop is a workroom, a small office/packing area and a tiny room for laundry. In total this is Old Town’s micro factory.
The workroom is quite nice since the refit and the week usually runs fairly smoothly, we have a routine, on Monday Beth is cutting out, Roberta is pressing and finishing. Tuesday Jane Sedgwick is...
Mrs. Wilberforce in blue.
Our popular cotton print fabric Mrs. Wilberforce is now available in a lovely petrol blue colour. It looks very well made up in our dress and smock styles. Please get in touch if you would like to be sent a cutting.
A small film.
Towards the end of last year we were out on the marshes making an image for Men’s File magazine with photographer Matt Hind. His assistant Rob was fiddling about in the background and we did actually wonder what he was doing. It turns out that he was making a small film which can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HLQRlVm4bM .
April 2013
4 posts
Designer collaboration.
One hears the phrase ‘designer collaboration’ a fair bit these days and it doesn’t usually refer to Coco Chanel’s activities during World War Two.
We’ve had a few calls lately from companies or designers wondering if we might be interested in a ‘collaboration’. Now that sounds nice, I like an interesting project but sadly their idea of collaboration runs like this; they have the...
Miss Willey's guide, part II.
Here are a few more suggestions for places to stay in North Norfolk. Driving a motor car might be an advantage for any of these.
Gunton Arms. Gunton Park.
This is a traditional pub with eight bedrooms set in a thousand acre deer park ten minutes from Cromer. Bought in 2009 by art dealer Ivor Braka it has been extensively refurbished and now makes for a very pleasing place to stay and...
Paul Bommer:
Beth Morrison:
Confessions of a minor designer.
The nice thing about designing and making clothes is the chance to reflect on imagery, consider current context, research historical reference and an excuse to trawl the memory archive.
By way of illustration may I present our new jumper, the Hemsby. This is a very simple example and I can’t claim to have done any hard work here but often the process can be quite involved.
I remember that up...
March 2013
5 posts
The long and the short.
I am often asked for advice on styles and fit in relation to height and build. This can be by email, over the phone or at our shop where alterations to sleeve or trouser lengths may be taken into account. It’s a very rewarding and pleasing experience helping someone put together several outfits and quite often it’s by men who have developed an aversion to clothes shopping, but I...
Berets
A few people have enquired about the berets worn by the models on our website, do we sell them? The answer is yes we do. Many years ago we bought half a dozen children’s berets from a stall on Portobello Road and have been looking for a source of them ever since. A couple of months ago I stumbled across a supplier who imports them from France. We prefer the neat look of the...
The Canvey Lady: Essex girl or feminist icon?
Neither Miss Willey nor myself had been on the Underground in over twenty years but engineering work on the Norwich to London line last week meant that trains ran only as far as Ingatestone. From there a coach took us to Newbury Park on the Central Line. The trains have changed a bit in the intervening years but I thought the stations rather well kept with a great deal of attention given to...
Miss Willey's Diary. Can a waiter be a gentleman?...
I took a phone call from a gentleman today, he sounded a little tetchy as he described the reason for the call. He was English, living in Austria and was looking for staff uniforms for a restaurant he ran. My immediate thought was aprons but he wanted an English country gent look which slightly took me aback , I couldn’t think of anything else we do apart from maybe a three piece tweed...
Miss Willey's guide: How to get here and where to...
Holt, the home of Old Town in north Norfolk isn’t particularly well served by public transport but it is possible to get here without a car and I am very happy to give travel directions along with recommendations for places to stay.
The nearest national network railway station is Sheringham from where a half hourly bus service runs to Holt and also from where the regular Coast Hopper bus...
February 2013
4 posts
Now cutting: 'Print Six'
Our new screen printed linen/cotton fabric is now in the workshop. A departure from our previous small scale designs, it’s big and bold in red and dark navy.
Named ‘Print Six’ it has made up very well in the styles: Jaywick, Bungalow dress and Apron skirt .
The exact position of motifs will vary with each garment but I will do my best to cut each one as artistically as...
Opera critic's cap in shocking underworld drama.
Reunited: Mr. Christiansen’s cap relaxing at home after its ordeal.
Old Town customer Rupert Christiansen writes:
Last Saturday evening, I alighted from a tube train at Borough (Northern Line): I was the only person walking along the platform towards the exit, when a sudden gust of wind from the tunnel blew my Old Town cap off into the trough which runs under the electric rails.
Damn...
David Bowie: Where were we then?
The image below is from LOVE magazine: photograph by Craig McDean.
A chap in New York made contact to say that a couple of costumes I made in 1979 are to be exhibited at a David Bowie retrospective exhibition at the V&A. One of the costumes was worn by Bowie in the promotional video for the single DJ.
The exhibition coincides with the release of Bowie’s first album in ten years, The...
Here's one I made earlier.
Thirty three years earlier.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-from-club-to-catwalk-london-fashion-in-the-80s/about-the-exhibition/
Gather round kids and hear how granddad served in the Punk wars.
Here’s a relic of the Post Punk era. A Regency/Bauhaus monstrosity that seemed like a good idea at the time.
I’m not ashamed of it nor proud. It was a job that had to...
January 2013
4 posts
Miss Willey's Diary.
It was an interesting week which was dominated by two things, snow and an urgent request for birthday trousers.
Tuesday Jan 15th.
It was my day off and I was at John Lewis in Norwich when I received a call from a customer who wanted to have a suit within a week. She sounded desperate, it was for a 50th birthday present, was there anything I could do? Existing customers will know that making up...
HOLD FAST: Made again in England
For the last year or so we have been working with a local factory to revive the manufacture of work wear bearing the Hold Fast label. The name Hold Fast has a long heritage being a well known brand for much of the twentieth century.
The styles have more than a passing resemblance to those made by us at Old Town but designed for factory production. The range is initially for sale in Japan,...
In the area (2) Cold Press Gallery
I have been a shopkeeper now for more than twenty years so I am quite familiar with the phrase “It’s different” being used in the shop. This generally happens when a customer feels the need to say something, anything, whilst making a valiant attempt to make sense of what they are looking at.
Occasionally it will be said in a positive way, i.e. it’s different from...
A future in British Stijl
We have a new dress fabric in preparation. Not the usual small scale repeat which one might associate with that type of material but big, bold and sort of, well, modernist. It is to be printed on flax colour linen union. The above image is a section of the design and to give some idea of the scale the visual shown below should offer an impression of how our Bungalow dress might look.
December 2012
4 posts
In the area (1)
Bluejacket Workshop and Gallery. Stiffkey Road, Morston, Norfolk.
One of the nicest walks in North Norfolk is from Morston to Stiffkey along the edge of the salt marshes and your reward at the end of it is a chance to visit The Red Lion pub. Low ceilings, solid wooden furniture, settles in front of open fires, it’s as good as it sounds and feels just like a pub should.
The beginning of...
Ad men
We were with Photographer Matt Hind on the marshes making a picture for an advertisement which is to be placed in Men’s File magazine.
I don’t think we will be using this image but it does give an opportunity to show our new short double breasted jacket which we will be making in the new year.
It is worn by Mr. Appleton my neighbour who is standing to the left of Dr. Tim Willey (no...
Bonny bonnets
It’s a Scandanavian design of beret (or Tam o’ shanter if you like) featuring anchor motif, knitted by our own Roberta Cummings whose prodigious talents are much admired here at Old Town.
I would have photographed Roberta modelling her creation but it wasn’t her day at the workshop so it is seen here on the head of her friend and colleague Beth.
Supply of the lovely beret is...
Beyond the fringe
As a youth I aspired to having a thick head of blue/black hair in the style of Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry. Several decades later my style is closer to that of Brian Eno.
The early Twenty First Century isn’t a terrible time to be a bald man with most shaving off the remaining hair which lingers around the back and sides or have it cut very short. I am however, a great admirer of those who don’t...
November 2012
4 posts
Flannel trousers
We are in the process of making more items from the Old Town range available in wool flannel cloth. The unlined jackets have been particularly successful, the Apron skirt is being tested and the Selsey hat is now in the shop.
For some time customers have asked about the possibility of flannel trousers. We have been a little hesitant as our flannel is more of a ‘Melton’ than a suiting...
Why not knock up a pop-up pub?
I’m sure you will be familiar with the concept of the pop-up shop. Why not a pop up pub?
A coastal town in November can be rather dreary especially when there is only one tolerable pub (not including the already mentioned lovely and anachronistic Hotel De Paris). Believe me I’ve given the others a fair chance. The time I’ve spent in any given pub thinking that if ninety per...
Guernsey boys
People are often drawn into the shop by the Guernsey sweaters we have on display in the window. “Where do they come from?” they ask. “Guernsey ” I reply. They say this because apparently there are many versions around with fake credentials.
The Guernseys we sell are knitted in the Channel Isles and were traditionally worn by seamen who needed a warm hard wearing garment...
Bed and Breakfast
Every day is like Sunday
I’ve always been a bit wary of B&B’s ever since I had the misfortune of staying in one run by an ex copper and his wife in Settle, Yorkshire. He was newly retired and his helmet and truncheon took pride of place on the coat rack in the hallway which was a little off putting to say the least. The evening meal still haunts me to this day, packet soup,...
October 2012
3 posts
Alight Here For St Leonards Warrior Square.
Recently I received a tip off from a friend about St Leonards on Sea, she was convinced I would like it so I decided to take a look. She was right, it reminded me of a visit I made to Hastings about thirty years ago when they still had a Woolworth’s with a self service cafeteria serving fish and chips with baked beans and there were masses of second hand book and junk shops waiting to be...
Wool flannel
Now that the nights are drawing in and the wind is blowing straight off the North Sea (well it certainly is in Cromer) it’s time to start thinking about a new snug winter jacket. Our wool flannels are proving to be a popular choice at the moment. Woven and dyed in Yorkshire this fabric makes up into an excellent mid season jacket. We have selected a few styles for your perusal, all have...
Hotel De Paris: Cromer
We aren’t overburdened with decent pubs here in Cromer, actually it boils down to two plus the Hotel De Paris which is where we are sitting this evening sipping a well deserved G&T (me) and a bottle of Newcastle Brown (Will). It’s Saturday night and apart from the Latvian barmaid we are the only two people in the bar. The residents are in the dining room having their evening meal but...
September 2012
4 posts
A Jerkin Isn't Just for Christmas.
Many of you will be familiar with the Jerkin which has been in the Old Town range for a number of years. It generally languishes in the background until a few weeks before Christmas when there is a sudden rush in orders. I suspect that the Val Doonigan style sweater is no longer an acceptable present for male members of the family. Available at the moment in wool flannel which is woven and...
Chatham pockets
May I introduce our new style of men’s jacket which we have named ‘The Medway’ in honour of the prolific and increasingly brilliant artist Billy Childish who lives and works in that area. He might like it or he might not. I dare say he will tell me how it can be ‘improved’ but there you are. It’s a five button workman’s jacket with turn down collar...
Stay in Spitalfields
Have you ever wandered round the streets of Spitalfields at dusk peering into windows and wondering what it must be like to live in one of those splendid town houses? Well now you can. If you fancy a few days living in full Hogarthian splendour I suggest you hurry along to The Town House, 5 Fournier Street Spitalfields because it is now possible to stay in the upper part of this house while the...
Meet Beryl
Here’s a preview of Beryl our new unlined ladies’ jacket and coat. It’s not on the product page at the time of writing as I’m having a bit of bother taking decent photographs.
Not the fault of lovely Beth from upstairs who cuts out Mondays and Fridays here seen modelling the Beryl jacket in 12.5 oz. denim. Below is the coat in navy medium weight cotton drill. I shall try...
August 2012
3 posts
Voewood Festival
A big hats off to Clare Conville and Patrick Keogh for organising the magnificent Voewood Festival which Old Town was delighted to be a patron of. I don’t know if it was the setting or the people but there was a certain Great Gatsby feel to the long weekend, certainly an other-worldness about the place. Speakers and performers such as Hanif Kureshi, Martin Parr, Stephen Frears, Rowan Pelling,...
Holt's Voewood Festival
Just two more days to go before the start of the Voewood Arts Festival and it’s all looking good. Last minute additions to the programme include a showing on Saturday evening of the Julien Temple film London The Modern Babylon. Recently screened on BBC 1 there is some remarkable unseen footage of people living and working in London, a great opportunity to see this film on a big screen. Also...
London Outlets.
If you feel the desperate need to purchase a pair of drill Vauxhalls and are too impatient to wait for them to be made you could pay a visit to Labour and Wait E2 or Dover Street Market W1 both of which are carrying a limited amount of Tin House items available from stock.
Borough jackets and Bungalow dresses can also be found on the racks in E2 while W1 have plumped for Raglan...
