Hand and Lock are a company that I was recommended to research in to by Graham Hunter.
They have been producing the highest quality hand embroidered products since 1767, ensuring that the company maintains its place as the leading supplier of all types of embroidery. Hand and Lock are the main suppliers to the Royal Family.
"Hand & Lock, the world’s oldest gold lacemen, offer a wide range of military goods and custom services to suit your requirements. We have been providing the military with hand embroidered accoutrements since the company’s inception in 1767."
Hand & Lock is an embroidery brand created from the fusion of two great, long established embroidery businesses, M Hand and S Lock. In 1767, a Hugenot refugee known as ‘M Hand’ added embroidery to his range of laces and set up M. Hand & Co. M Hand continued through the next two centuries, crafting beautiful embroidery for the military, royalty, and tailors throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.
The company, based in Fitzrovia, was renamed S Lock Ltd. It reached new heights throughout the next 45 years working with couturiers including Christian Dior, Norman Hartnell, and Hardy Amies. Taking notices of S Lock’s success, the monarchy awarded him a Royal Warrant. Royal commissions have included gowns for the Queen, the Queen Mother, and Princess Anne’s wedding ensemble. Princess Diana added new glamour with her love of richly embroidered garments.
Show-business used the extravagance and showiness of embroidery and beading to full effect in many famous productions, from Barnum to The Lion King. In 2001, these two extraordinary companies; M Hand and S Lock merged and the Hand & Lock brand was created.
This prize started in 2000, it is very interesting to ready about as it is a competition that is was originally aimed towards students and is distributed to over a 1000 colleges and univerisites througout the world. It has become the world’s premier embroidery prize with entrants from hundreds of different countries, universities and colleges and is rapidly growing each year.
In early July 2013 the finalists will be chosen and introduced to major fashion, textile, or interior designers depending on their chosen style of embroidery. They will then have the opportunity to collaborate and produce exciting embroidery whether it be garments, accessories or soft furnishings.
I plan to look in to this further to get a better understanding of what is required for entrants; what sort of experience and skills are needed. I almost chose to do a research project on embroidery for my choice personal project module. It is a subject that I find very insteresting and would love to learn more about in the future.
If you are looking for quality over anything else, the obvious choice of purchase
would be Hand and Lock. However, it ultimately depends on variables such as budget, as well as authenticity. Personally, I would love to afford to purchase military braid from this company, such as
the gold mylar russia braid, however at £2.50 a metre x 20 is something that I cannot justify at this moment in time considering the money that I have already spent on my wool melton from Hainsworth. I've learnt that sometimes sacrifices have to be made if you are to a budget. I think that as my first attempt at a costume military tunic, I wouldn't be able to justify spending this money purely because as first attempts go, there is no garuntee of complete success. I think that in future if I should choose to construct another military costume I would consider spending more money knowing that I have already has the experience beforehand. As far as authenticity goes, it I choose to attempt to construct an authentic piece I will know that Hand and Lock are the best suppliers. I have learnt that for this particular project, authenticity is not really an option for me because of price as well as my lack of kowledge that would take many years training to achieve. The importance of planning is a very pivitol learning point for me here. In future I would like to think that I would definitely plan well in advance, and have researched prior to starting my project so that I know what is not achieveable and what is, and what are the factors that prohibit me from doing so, can the problem be solved? What are my other options? This is a very valuable lesson to have learnt, and alteast I have a better insight if I ever choose to do another project like this in future.
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