Silk Bow Ties on the Rise

Handpainted silk bow ties were my staple until Rupert Lycett Green at Blades made me a long tie pattern, and then a waistcoat to make.  A retired octogenarian tailor called Rex Lawrence oiled up his sewing machine for the first of his 3500 waistcoats that he made for me.

I later discovered that he photographed most of them on his tailor’s dummy, and also if he ever saw them on the TV.  Magicians, pop stars, snooker champions, Hollywood deities and royalty were all seen wearing Dunford Wood handpainted silk waistcoats.

I found two wonderful painters, mother and daughter – the latter still officially at school.  Silk bowties were still the main currency.  Then in 1989 the Royal Shakespeare Company invited me to be their Artist-in-Residence at Stratford-upon-Avon – remember, I was a painter.  I had never stopped painting and the RSC gave me the chance to set up an etching press in the Swan Theatre Gallery.

I would have closed the silk tie business down, as I was so engrossed by the theatre, but Prue and Andrew Hardwick offered to buy the business from me.  They built it up with fashion shows and selling trips to Japan, Europe and the US, until we had a team of 23 painters in all, and three in the office.

Silk bowties had grown from a little kitchen table cottage industry to a legitimate business.  Even The Clothes Show ran a TV program on Dunford Wood Designs.

Tags: artist, bow, bowtie, celebrities, Clothes, coat, craft, dunford, hand, handpainted, hugh, painted, RSC, shakespear, show, silk, swan theatre, tie, ties, waist, waistcoats, wood