Wrapped in Marwood

Marwood has become the unofficial toy for Steve of Style Salvage and I to fight over.  We rarely bicker about content but Steve's discovery of Marwood's beautifully crafted ties and bow ties, designed by Becky French, has had us throwing a few bickering punches.  "I saw her in bSTORE FIRST so I want to post about her new collections FIRST!"  "Ok, but leave me the pic of the SHAWL! Dudes don't wear shawls!" 

As demonstrated in my last post about Marwood, Becky's ties and bow ties are totally women-friendly even if I've personally got zero know-how about how to actually tie a bow tie.  Still, Marwood's growing following has mainly been concentrated amongst dapper guys who want a point of difference in their dapper neckwear.  For S/S 12 which I saw because Steve took me to the showroom in Paris back in June (ergo why he gets first post dibs…), I found that my fingers no longer have to fumble tying the perfect knot as she has made a beautiful rectangular lace shawl fringed with a swash of olive silk tassels.    

It seems Becky is keen to grow Marwood's scarf proposition for both men and women but it's clear that a shawl this size is definitely intended for the gals.  I don't want to sweep a generalisation across a sex but if you're like me, then any length of material that's over a meter long and you'll instictively want to hold it up in the wind, let it blow about a bit in manner of a cheesy 90s pop video and maybe do a Kate Bush-esque bit of dancing.  

After that primary urge, the immediate thing about Marwood's S/S 12 shawl is that you'd want to show off the texture and pattern of this English lace, that Becky has so carefully sourced (apparently they're quite a secretive bunch – so my hope for a lace tour around England were immediately dashed…).  I normally take scarves to scrunch up and obscure into some odd formation but with this Marwood shawl, I'd rather just let it fall simply and revel in the sheer amount of lace used… 

The shade of vibrant olive also made me dig out any more subdued trace of green to go underneath with the spotlight firmly on the fringing that contrasts quite nicely the dishevelled and weathered layers underneath, save for this 1930s tea dress which I bought from Merchant Archive.  I feel like Marwood's shawl would pretty much sit well with much of Merchant Archive's vintage selection as they all seem to have the same sense of oldness with something contemporary knocking about.  A trip up to this Queen's Park spot never fails to leave me empty handed on the Overground train back.  

The shawl is probably a simple start to what Marwood can do with the materials that she has coaxed out of the lacemakers.  Her specific focus in bow ties and ties is decidedly admirable but it's also exciting to see where she can go with her dedication to her method of storied fabric and technique sourcing.  

(Worn with Dries Van Noten jacket, vintage sleeveless trench, vintage 1930s tea dress, Nicholas Kirkwood shoes)