rodeo bill

Today I received the first batch of new GS/TP Goliath watches! These have been a long time coming, and it's really exciting to finally get to hold the finished watches (I'd previously only had a rough case and loose dials). The case is 35mm diameter, but wears larger I'd say, as there's no bezel and the case is cylindrical, with no slope to the sides, and only a very small bevel to hold the crystal in place. The idea of this case comes from dashboard instruments, which had cylindrical canister-type cases so that they could be dropped in from the front. Making the same reference, the crystal is completely flat. The lugs are straight, and angled down quite steeply. Here are some photos: The dials are various riffs on mid-century military and tool watches, with elements of the 'Journey' dial harking back to earlier station clocks and 'Goliath' oversized pocket watches. Full stories up now on Tender Stores

Gorgeous! Here's a not so distant cousin, on a vintage Perlon strap with a Tender bracelet, over Whooper jeans:

ha! thank you. Very new to Instagram, and I'm treading cautiously... I'll certainly bear this in mind. By the way, I'm very much still around here- if it works out for everyone my plan is to continue to put more in-depth new product and making pictures and explanations up here, but more frequent general product pictures and worn-in things up on Instagram.

^good find! There were very few of these made in purple logwood, and this pair is looking lovely. To be honest at that price I'm tempted myself.... if anyone here gets them please post photos

On a completely different note, just in is this lost wax cast brass keyring. The first casting was taken directly from a real crab apple fruit, with the stem adapted to hold a keyring and an Plautus face engraved on the bottom before being re-cast as a keyring. Here it is back on the branch that the fruit came from (in a friend's garden). There's something a bit Roland Bartheish about destroying a perfect living fruit in order to immortalise it in brass...

Yesterday I spent the day doing a seminar with students on the MA Fashion Futures course at London College of Fashion. I've done this class a couple of times now and both time it's been a really interesting, thoughtful group of people to talk with. The course is loosely based around sustainability in the fashion industry and the philosophy and ethics implicit in the products we wear. I showed them all some Tender garments, and talked a bit about my approach to product design, and how important it is for me that the things become something new by the act of being worn and used by their respective owners. After lunch the students presented their early stage research into tracing the components of a second hand garment or accessory (mainly making the point that you usually can't, as illustrated by this deconstructed Dr Martens sneaker: ) At the end of the day the groups went back to sketch books to think about how what the guest (me!) had talked about could influence a new product based on teh deconstruction. They have several seminar days from people in very different parts of the fashion industry, and this project has only just started, with several weeks to go, so it'll be really interesting to see what they come up with! As before, sorry if this is a tangent from showing new Tender stuff, but I really enjoy teaching and working with students, and it's nice to share what they do here :-)

thanks for this. Jeans production is really backed up at the moment, I'm so sorry I'm not expecting to have space to make more jeans until the Spring... We have one pair of 130P with passenger pockets in a size 3, otherwise I can suggest going for 129s, possibly sized up to a 4, or we have various other fabric options. Please email me if you'd like more specific information.

many thanks for this. It's not really an issue- I've measured my size 4s at the hem and at 30" inseam and there's just over 1/4" difference, but anyone wearing these jeans rolled up (for example in these photos) and not hemmed is effectively wearing them at the shorter length (ie slightly wider hem) anyway. I've had various hemmed pairs back over the years for repairs and they always looks great shortened- there's no effect at all to the general fit, and I think the relatively shorter leg gives a really nice proportion. I decided to make long inseams to start with as a nod to traditional one-length-fits all jeans, and to allow owners to hem or cuff their jeans as much or as little as they like. I hope this helps! you should have seen the muddy state of his hands when he arrived at the pub! Rob more than does his clothes justice :-)

^aha! you caught me. It's a prototype for next Autumn, so nothing out in the wild for a year I'm afraid. I work about a year ahead, and always wear new developments right away to get a feel for them while there's time to make changes before production. All I can say is this is a really nice piece and technique that I'm very excited about, but it'll be a while before I have more to share I'm afraid, sorry.

They're holding up really nicely all over, with just a few repairs to stitching. Rob's certainly not babied them, either- I think they've been washed fairly regularly, which certainly helps. Thanks for this- the biggest selection is probably at Nestrobe, but there are nice things at Pheb, Brown & Seedling, Dan, Hag-Le, Ware-Mo-Ku, Maiden, Post 78. Links here: https://www.tenderstores.com/contact/ for all the stockists

Had a catchup with a couple of old friends yesterday. Rob Newman (who was a student of mine, then an intern, and is now working on various exciting things while being an accessories designer for Stone Island) was wearing his pair of woad dyed 130s. 6 and a half years old, worn twice a week for that whole time and with 3 or four rounds of repairs. They look amazing! special mention also to his belt- I introduced Rob to Morten, of For Holding Up The Trousers, and Rob worked with him in Copenhagen. This is a belt he made during that time:

ps if anyone's interested I've just created an instagram account @tender_co Of course I'll keep putting everything up here, but for a few images and the odd new product I'll try to keep on top of that too!

Thanks redragon! 131 were quite a bit slimmer- they were a special (more than a couple of years back, in 2011!) and were 130s with a straighter leg, quite similar to 129s. These are much wider altogether, but, as you say, very comfy! Thanks for this. I was quoting, from memory, what the trouser-maker who worked in the same tailor's shop that I learned coat making in told me. But I didn't put it at all clearly, and also may just be wrong. What I was told was that plus fours (or as you say twos, or sixes) were cut wider by that measurement but then brought in under the knee (that's the bit I missed above). So 2s 4s and 6s would all be the same length but of varying bagginess above the knee. Wikipedia agrees with your understanding, though, about plus fours, and the inference is indeed that 2s and 6s would have been shorter or longer, rather than tighter or looser. I'll see if I can find out any more!

Thanks for this! Very sorry that production is running a little behind- a lot of the fabrics have been developed from the yarn stage this time, which takes a little longer than using stock yarns. Coats are being sewn at the moment, and I hope to deliver them to shops, and have the on the Stores, around the week after next. In the meantime shirts and knit are online, together with new 136 jeans: this style is 'Oxford' jeans. Here are some 'Oxford Bags' which the cut is based on: Story has it that in 1924 the University administration outlawed knickerbockers, specifically plus-fours (wide shooting trousers cut at a normal width plus four inches), gathered tight at the knee. In rebellion, students continued to wear their plus-fours, but concealed by an even wider pair of trousers over the top. This sounds a bit unlikely... a more credible account has it that the Oxford rowing team took to wearing wide woollen trousers over the top of their rowing shorts on cold mornings.These trousers could be quickly slipped on and off over shoes and shorts, without using a changing room- a precursor to track pants. The picture above is of the Oxford Rowing crew in 1928, Later Oxford bags were cut even wider, with lots of pleats into the fronts, to add in extra fabric, but these original, slightly more modest bags were flat fronted like jeans. Type 136 are cut pretty much straight down from the hip and crotch, with no taper inside or out. They're a standard Tender 36" inseam so that they can be worn with jeans cuffs or hemmed a bit shorter more like trousers.

a few words about the Ryeland wool used in knitwear and doppler striped shirts: Wool for woven and knitted garments in Autumn/Winter 2018 was shorn from a small flock of Ryeland sheep raised in the Scottish Borders.Their wool was offered exclusively to Tender and has never before been used for clothing. The Ryeland breed is one of the longest-established in Britain, thought to have originally descended from Spanish Merinos. Mediae- val records show a flock of 300 Ryeland sheep at Dore Abbey in Herefordshire, where the wool was collected and processed for shipment overseas. Ryeland wool was particularly prized in Italy and Flanders, for spinning into the finest yarns which were used as the standard for other wools. In the 16th Century, Elizabeth I is said to have received a gift of Ryeland wool stockings, and thereafter insisted on wearing only clothes made from the yarn.The ‘Wool Sack’ on the Chancellor’s seat at the House of Lords was originally stuffed with raw Ryeland fleeces. Today, Ryeland wool is unusual as its varied colours and relatively slow growth make it unsuitable for commercial farming, however its texture, weight, and natural colours are second to none.