This piece was originally written for the Tender Stores newsletter. If you would like to sign up for our occasional mailing list please
On Spring / Summer 2024
This production of clothing is a little different from previous collections. It consists of remixes of past designs, fabrics, and dyes, recontextualising ideas with updates to patterns and construction details. Fabrics woven in the UK and lying deadstock in the sewing factory, some for more than a decade, are given new life in edited forms of clothes that have been particular favourites of mine and which have been tested in daily life over many years.
Befitting the process-focussed nature of this collection, studio photographs were taken by Rory Cole with a large format camera directly onto 10×8” black and white photographic paper. The images are therefore inverted and reversed. The cover photograph, taken in the same way, shows prints hanging too dry and is an inverted and reversed image of inverted and reversed images.
Included below are some videos made in the stock room, showing how garments work and fit.
Type 453 Double Cuff Mandolin Pocket Shirt
The Double Cuff Mandolin Pocket Shirt came about because the loom on which the fabric was woven is wider than the table on which it was cut. Because of this problem the ends of the roll were cut off, leaving a wide roll of fabric suitable for standard cutting, and two narrow rolls, too small for most pattern pieces.
The Mandolin Pocket Shirt is cut with seams along the front body and sleeve, and the back body and sleeve, with a single very long narrow strip that runs from the cuff, up the sleeve, down the side of the body, zigzagging back on itself to form a side hand pocket. This panel piece makes good use of the narrow rolls of fabric, and creates a minimalist pocket, similar to 2018’sTesseract Shirt, and reminiscent of the traditional mandolin vegetable slicing tool.
The seam ends at the cuffs and hem are split open, so the shirt has a double cuff, with two buttons and two sets of pleats on each hand, and four side splits.
Type 497 Open Shoulder Floor Shirt
Combining the shape and construction of 2020’s Floor Shirt with the shoulders of 2014’s Driver’s Jacket and classicTender shirt cuffs,the Open Shoulder Floor Shirt is constructed with elongated front and back panels which overlap, forming a double thickness open yoke at the shoulders without any additional seams.The back yoke is held in place by the size label, which is sewn all the way through the back and fronts.
Cut from Tricolore Weft Cotton Canvas, this can be worn as a heavier shirt or, very nicely, as a lightweight summer jacket.
Shirts are sewn with ecru 100% cotton thread and fastened with black melamine Savile Row tailor’s fly buttons.
Here’s a special jacket, that was made up after the main season’s production. Using the 916 single breasted Common Coat pattern from Autumn/Winter 2023, the 1½ Breasted Common Coat is pulled in slightly at the front, with a wider wrap somewhere between single and double breasted. The jackets are fully lined, depending on the different versions either in the exact same fabric as the outer, or the striped version, or a plain calico.
Paired with mismatched colours and patterns of the same Casement fabrics in Type 122 Pleat Back jeans, these make up a relaxed suit, a first from Tender.
Type 499 Double Breasted Pullover Dress Shirt
The Double Breasted Pullover Dress Shirt is adapted from the type 413 shirt, cut extra long with deep side splits, to be worn as a dress or long shirt. The neck opens with an extra wide front placket, overlapping with double buttons. The back is cut flat, and the front has two extra large hand pockets. The sleeves are pleated into false cuffs cut into the seams.
Type 434 Buggy Back Shirt
The Buggy Back Shirt takes its unusual shape and name from a traditional British tailoring technique for lining casual sports jackets. Rather than fully lining the jacket, the fronts are lined but the back is ‘buggy lined’ with triangles of lining fabric set into the shoulder seams, overlapping at the centre. Here’s a bespoke jacket with a buggy lining:
Large front hand pockets allow the shirt to be pulled down and worn as a jacket. The high back allows easy access to back jeans pockets, and can be layered with a Tshirt or a button-down tail shirt. The type 435 short sleeve version has the same shape, and wears really nicely as an open summer shirt jacket.
Type 478 Square Tail Yoke Pocket Shirt
The Square Tail Yoke Pocket Shirt is constructed with bias-cut yokes running from a seam at the back of the neck over the shoulders, and down to the lower chest. The front yokes are open from the centre as large pockets.
The true shoulder seams are reversed, leaving a clean finish inside the garment. Based on the type 476 shirt from 2019, this version uses softer and lighter weight fabrics, with pleated false cuffs and side splits.
Type 122 Pleat Back Trousers
Adapted from type 122 Pleat Back Jeans, Pleat Back Trousers and Shorts are constructed without back pockets or a back yoke- the seat is shaped by two ‘English’ pleats, facing towards the middle, and adding roominess for free movement without the structure of seams. The diagonal side pockets will curve and stretch with wear, and the six belt loops are fully lined.
The pleats give these shorts and trousers a cleaner look and feel than Tender jeans, while also harking back subtly to vintage formal trousers, often made without back pockets to give a cleaner line under a coat tail.
This piece was originally written for the Tender Stores newsletter. If you would like to sign up for our occasional mailing list please
