rodeo bill

^yes I'm really sorry these photos must have broke cover on the size 4! Please just let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

Thanks for this! I'm so sorry for the delay. Here are a couple of images: It's a lovely fabric- the cloth is new, woven in Ireland, but it was woven from deadstock 1960s cotton yarn. When the shirt was washed after sewing the yarns shrink slightly differently so you get a subtle seersucker effect, which I really liked and pushed a step further with the indigo Welsh check fabric in SS19, but here it's a much gentler texture. There's a size 1 and a size 4 in stock, and they're really special! Please just let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks so much for the photos! I'm so glad you're enjoying it, I particularly like the shirt and it looks lovely on you.

Thanks! I'm really pleased you've got these. S&S ordered these quite a while ago, but looks like they're warm rinsed, so they'll shrink a bit more with a hot wash and tumble dry, but if you hand/cool wash and hang dry they'll stay as they are. You can tell because the Elephant label is a bit puffy- it was sewn on flat bu the fabric shrinks behind it, pulling it in at the sides where it's stitched down.

One of the most exciting things about this Spring/Summer 2019 production has been making a striped warp. Up until now, all the fabrics have been woven onto plain warps, so all the stripes and patterns have been textural, through rigging the loom, or fed in as contrast weft yarns. This makes for some really interesting textures and allows me to experiment with short lengths of different designs, but there are some things (a check, for example) which can only practically be woven with a striped warp. The warp in a woven piece of fabric is the yarn which runs along the full length of the cloth (eg in standard denim you have an indigo warp, which goes up and down, and an ecru weft, which runs across). Weaving is the process of filling in the warp with weft, on a loom. The way this work industrially is that you have a big roll of warp yarns, on a 'beam' which looks like a gigantic cotton reel, on one side of the loom. The weft is fed though the warp across the width of the loom, and woven fabric comes out the other side of the loom, back onto another waiting beam. At the start of the process you have a full beam of warp on the back and an empty beam on the front; at the end you have an empty warp beam at the back and a full beam of woven fabric at the front. Unlike a cotton reel, where you have a single length of thread wrapped round and round and back and forward over the full length of the reel, for a warp beam there are lots of 'ends' (warp strands) of yarn rolled up parallel to each other. If you unwound a warp beam you'd have a set of parallel yarns lying on the floor, right next to each other. They mustn't get twisted or overlap each other, so setting up a warp is a very precise and extremely fiddly process. Here are some pictures: Yarn arrives from the spinners as 'packages', or cones of yarn, about the size of a mid-sized pumpkin. These get set up, on their sides, on a big frame called a creel: each one of the packages will get wound onto the warp beam until it runs out, at which point another package will be 'mended' (tied) on and continue to run through. The yarn is fed through a set of guides all along the length of the creel: then down through a set of stepped vertical pins called 'sheds': until you move from a set of stacked packages across multiple frames in the creel, down to a single neatly spaced horizontal plane of ends, ready to wind onto the warp beam: the beam gets rotated on its axis, winding the yarn through the sheds, until you have a full warp beam, which gets labeled with tailors chalk to mark what yarn count (thickness- this is single twelves, meaning twelve count yarn which has not been plied up): Now you have a warp beam, which could be woven from right away. But for this particular fabric I wanted to make a striped warp. I had assumed that this would be done from different yarns on the creel, but in fact to make a stripe you take a complete warp beam of each colour and combine them. A plain indigo warp was made up in the same way as the ecru warp above, then the two warps are set next to each other, at one end of long series of rollers and spacers: The yarn that will become the finished warp runs flat along the lower level of rollers in the photo above- to the left you can see the plain ecru, and to the right of the indigo beam you can see that the indigo yarn has been laid on top of the ecru, and they're almost mixing together. Note, too, that the ecru and indigo on their own are relatively loosely spaced, while the combined warp to the right of the picture is much more closely spaced. Here's a closeup: The combined warp yarns are still just raw spun cotton at the moment, quite fluffy and also fairly fragile- you could easily break the yarn with a firm pull. The next step is to starch the yarn, called 'sizing', ready for weaving. This is done to the whole warp, which gets treated as if it was a piece of woven cloth. The warp is drawn up, under tension, across a series of rollers and into a vat (under the red line): into which a slurry of hot water and potato starch is poured: you can see the size really changes the quality of the yarn- coming in steamy but unsized on the right, and leaving the sizing bath all sticky on the left: The sized yarn passes over a series of heated rollers (the big green drums), which sets the starch and lets all the water in the yarn evaporate: This next bit I found really difficult to get my head around, but even though the indigo and ecru yarns have gone through the whole sizing process together, one set of yarn (indigo) is still sat on top of the other set (ecru), and they can be split back out easily on the other side of the sizing machine: These two flat planes of yarn are pulled under tension across another open section (to allow the yarn to cool off the rollers, and thoroughly dry out), and are met at the other end by someone doing one of the fiddliest jobs in the whole process: Another set of sheds (the zigzag of vertical pins that allow the creel to be arranged onto the original ecru cotton warp beam) is set up above yet another slowly revolving warp beam- this is the beam that will finally hold the finished warp. Every end (thread of warp yarn) is arranged in groups through the sheds, depending on the width of the stripe: the hardest part of this, of course, is getting the stripe set up in the first place, which these images don't show. At this point, the job is to keep an eye of every single end coming through and spot if anything is broken or tangled. If it is, the whole process is stopped and the yarn is mended (knotted back together). This is one of the reasons you see those nice little bumps in traditionally woven denim. As the warp finally comes off the end of the process it's nice and even, crisp from the sizing, and all at a consistent tension: it gets wound onto the final beam, which will then be ready to be driven over to the weaving factory on the back of a lorry, to be filled with a plain ecru cotton weft (Indigo Welsh Stripe) or with alternating sets of ecru and indigo 'picks' (weft yarns) to make Indigo Welsh Check. The fabric names come from traditional Welsh woollen flannel shirt cloths, which were often woven in stripes or checks of quite small equal widths. The reinforced metal ends of the warp beams are traditionally painted with different colour combinations, to be able to tell the contents of the beams apart from the distance. This, I believe, is basically the same system that selvage denim weavers used to differentiate between different fabric qualities (eg red line selvage for Levi's, yellow for Lee, etc).

Some more Type 444 Boomerang shirts and jackets have just gone up on the Stores, and will be at stockists over the next few days. Here's how they work: This style is cut quite long, and the bias fabric means they stetch into shape really beautifully, especially across the shoulders. I have one in rinsed Carding Cloth, and it's a favourite.

Thanks very much for this. Yes, new 126 side-cinch Oxford trousers are now in stock. Here's how they work: I've been wearing a pair of these in indigo/indigo broken twill Taunton for about 6 months, and I'm really pleased with them. Here are some photos: Here they are new, in indigo/indigo Taunton (as above) and in the same fabric woven with ecru cotton yarn: Standard jeans have indeed been out of stock for a while, sorry about this. I'm expecting a full restock around the end of June, although if it's of interest I do have a pair of 136s in Unborn denim in a size 2, which are the same style as 132, just wider in the leg. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Just through dyeing and appearing in the outside world any day now, type 933 Zoetrope Coats are an experiment in pleating from the neck, starting from the look of military jackets with chest darts into the collar, working through more abstract ideas of snapshots of movements fanned out across a piece of fabric, and Edweard Muybridge's use of the zoetrope technique of animation (zoopraxiscopy!) Here's what it actually looks like...: Along with various iterations of the season's fabrics and dyes (including the really lovely English-Woven double indigo cotton Taunton above), I've got a single piece made in ecru cotton Taunton (a simple 11oz cloth, this one's broken twill) which was put into rinse with a batch of double indigo garments. It's come out pale blue, but rather than being actively dyed it's coloured entirely from dye lost by other pieces of clothing. Here are some pictures: because the big pleat in each side pulls the grain all over the place it's going to be really interesting seeing how these wear in.

Thank you for this! It's a one-off piece, from Spring/Summer 2015, hand painted by a canal-boat painter and sign writer. This jacket is currently on display at Neighbour, but will be coming back to Tender Stores at the end of their popup, unless they decide to keep it. Please email me if you'd like more information- it's a size 3. Here are a couple of photos: Thank you, and sorry not to be able to help. I haven't been able to visit Neighbour yet (I've never been to Vancouver) but would really love to- they're a fantastic shop to work with and I'm really excited with what they've done at this popup. thank you! I love seeing the 921 jacket, looking forward to more down the line- it's one of my favourites, for its simplicity. thank you for this, and I'm so sorry for the delay getting back to you (I think we may have emailed though?). Very glad @snchz was able to help though! ---- More generally, I'm so sorry for the lack of updates over the last few weeks- it's a very busy time. More depth soon, but in the meantime here's a link to a really lovely (very flattering!) piece that Daniel Jenkins put up on Purposeful Activity, which is well worth a click-around in general, for a slightly different perspective on clothes and other good things. https://www.purposeful-activity.com/posts/2019/5/3/william-kroll The best creative work is a product of worldwide influences filtered through personal experience. A mix of the old and the new, hand made and cutting edge. World influenced and local. That is one of the reasons why the UK, a melting pot of world culture, is arguably pound for pound the most creative country. At our very best, we embrace culture from across the world and create something new with it. One of the best at this is William Kroll, who runs Tender Co, otherwise known as the most emailed about brand I’ve ever retailed. Tender is much more than simply a clothing company, making ceramics, furniture, clocks, glassware etc etc, in fact anything Will has an interest in. Alongside this, Will also runs a number of other clothing projects, sold here in the UK and in Japan. Prodigious, talented and well, Will is one of the nicest people you could hope to meet. So earlier this week, I hopped in my car and made the hour or so journey from my house to Will’s, partly to catch up, chat about life, discuss the industry and weirdly take some photos for Purposeful Activity. Towards the end of our afternoon together, I mentioned that it’s nearly 10 years since Tender launched, something to be cherished in any industry but particularly one which is ever changing like the clothing game. The funny thing is, I think you can tell if a ‘brand’ is going to last, sometimes there are circumstances beyond anyone’s control which skew that, on the whole though it’s fairly clear from first interaction. I knew the first time Will emailed me, prior to his first season, that Tender was around for the long haul. Something which has been confirmed in each meeting since. There is an artful intelligence coursing through Tender’s clothing, it’s been there from day one. That mixed with business sense, a willingness to communicate plus exceptionally good customer service, is a winning combination. Lots of new brands contact me each season, and many of them would benefit from analysing what Will does. I don’t mean his design ethos, there can only be one Tender, but how he engages with the industry and his customers. How the story and world of Tender grows with each season, without losing integrity and what made it special to start with. So what does make Tender special? It’s just workwear? It is, and then it’s not. People speak of a link to antique workwear and machinery and I see that, just look at those buttons. At same time, that’s far too easy a description and one which does the product a disservice. Tender to me, is a collection of well thought out items, beautiful solutions to problems in cloth, glass and leather. A perfect example of this is a blue brushed cotton ‘Type 915’ coat I’ve had since 2012. A coat which has been admired and tried on by more fashion industry heavy hitters than I care to embarrass. A piece of simple, elegant design, in a beautiful cloth, far removed from the usual design expectations of boxy workwear, but like the best workwear it happens to be utterly indestructible. That’s Tender. The same strand which runs through everything. A desire to simplify and elevate any item they produce. But these aren’t simple products. This isn’t of the moment cliché minimalism. These are items where the bells and whistles are removed, allowing the shape and make to triumph. From beautiful hand blown tumblers, simple but heavyweight jeans, washed cotton shirts and knitwear, through to hand thrown and painted red clay espresso cups. Each item is texture and colour rich. Each item exists to be a showcase of the best. As a brand or art project, Tender is a product of the world as much as the UK, made here in Great Britain and particularly respectful of this nation’s ancient crafts. Never revisionist though, this season includes a jumper which will over time flip, what is dark will become light and vice versa. It’s a play on colour, on texture, on what can be done with fabric and how anything we own ought to improve with use. It’s very much an image of the future. Outward looking but understanding of the beauty of home. Which in many respects is the whole point. When I first met Will he was a single man living in West London, now a father in Stroud. Those fundamental life changes can be viewed as a progression, one which is mirrored in his design work. There is a confidence which comes from contentment mixed with a desire to provide for your kin and further your artistic reach. Visiting the houses of the creative is always interesting, as it offers a proper insight into their creativity. Is the work from the heart or just a carefully choreographed illusion? Because the objects with which we surround ourselves at home, the things we keep close, they cannot lie. Is your work an extension of you? In Will’s case, entirely. Those cleverly thought out details? that’s Will. The use of intriguing fabrics? that’s Will too. It’s all borne out of a desire to solve problems and a life filled with natural curiosity. There is always a depth, to our conversations, but this isn’t mere artistic posturing, nor theorising with hot air. More an understanding of what surrounds us but a willingness to see more, to keep on learning. To in some ways seek perfection. First we had coffee, beans from Colona & Smalls, ground and then made using apparatus I don’t want to talk about as, well I don’t need any more coffee kit, but, I want it. Then, we broke bread, bread Will had recently baked, bread I would happily have bought in some of London’s trendier bakeries, bread which Will talked with passion and knowledge about almost as if it were a new Tender product. Kombucha was taken, it is Stroud and well don’t knock it, all the while talking about books, coffee roasted carrots, vegetable gardens, Cotswold cafés, price of a pint (£6 somewhere last week…), local characters, local chancers, costume jewellery which isn’t paste, knife sharpening, that weird hook knife thing they use to open wheels of Parmesan. Then we rooted round his studio talking some more, discussing packaging, lack of packaging, perfume packaging, perfume, the future of retail – not as bad as we all think, new season buttons and fabrics. All the good stuff. More coffee. That Colonna & Smalls, the one that’s not the espresso but used as such. It’s good, the berries were ripe and some. Photos and then home. Cross country as Bath Road was shut. Invigorated, possibly the caffeine, but also the conversation, the clothes, life. Below we have Will’s answers to our set people questions, along with his choice of 4 British things he loves. As ever, much thought was given to the selection, one ‘thing’ dry stone walls, struck a chord as I grew up in Wales surrounded by them, as you might guess by the photos. Wiltshire and London aren’t a hotbed of dry stone wall building so I’ve substituted with a photo of an ‘orse looking over a dry-ish stone wall and a painting by Elizabeth Thomas of “West Wales Walls”, 1/3 of a triptych which lives on my walls at home. Hello. Why do you do what you do? The opportunity to understand how things are made, and to dip into lots of different disciplines. Where’s home? Stroud, Gloucestershire. What do you collect? Food, books and walks. Any heroes? Patience Gray. Favourite dish? Paula Wolfert’s Armenian cauliflower with raisins and pine nuts. Hidden Gem? Stroud, Gloucestershire! What’s underrated? Keeping a business small. What’s next? Exploring products away from known brands- in a larger context I think people are (or perhaps just should be) more open to trying something that doesn’t have a big name on it, being able to judge something on its own merits. I think the same goes for seasonality in clothing. You probably won’t wear a heavy coat much in summer, but a cotton shirt doesn’t need to only be relevant for half the year just because the fashion industry tells you it’s Spring/Summer. From a personal perspective this means making sure that the things I produce can be enjoyed in different climates and at different times, and selling in a way which places less emphasis on constant reinvention. Four items which sum up the UK…. Milk bottles Garden snails Dry stone walls Railway nails

Polishing Sunday (been a while). Alden cordovan boots, I don't remember the style name or the last I'm afraid. These are twelve years old I think, currently on Dainite soles:

anyone in Vancouver, the excellent Neighbour store is doing a pop Trestle Shop installation and SS19 preview, which I couldn't be more excited about. Here are some photos: Special mention to the cyanotype photograms in the last picture!

Wow! This looks fantastic, and lovely to see this shirt again. The buttons are melamine (similar to bakelite) which is organic compound set as a resin, widely used before oil-based plastics took over. I prefer how hard it feels (try tapping a button against your tooth) compared to most plastic buttons (usually nylon or polyester) which feel slightly duller.

Here are some bonuses of normal (non molleton) denim jeans, showing the selvage pocket bag, and again the difference in tone between inside and out:

@oomslokop thank you so much for the jeans pictures! These are easily among the best looking I've seen, and hands down the best pair of molletons. Great KFC link, too. @Broarkyour best bet is Maritime Antiques &, in Copenhagen.