BOW BOW ROW
DOBRIK & LAWTON
YOUNG BLADES SAVILE ROW BOUND
Morning Style Mongers. bias alert notification: I’m double digging these two, so expect gush from me, but zero blag. Dobrik&Lawton are the real bespoke deal (click). Both tailors who love the craft, the verve, the process and the results. They look the part because have trained the old fashioned way, while having walked other avenues of development . Kimberley did fashion at LCF, got degree, won awards for tailoring, then went Huntsman. Josh did medicine, switched careers, trained at Sexton then went Huntsman where they met.
I met Josh Dobrik working in Eduardo Sexton’s gaff some years ago. Then again last January from my favourite seat in (second) favourite pub The Prince George, Dalston. He was wearing wonderful wide leg black ‘Broadfall’ trousers with double rows of buttons up the high front and nail varnish. Quite a stance in a Hackney pub that still counts some working class old blokes as regulars.
JOSH DOBRIK
AINT NO PUSSY
"Growing up" on Savile Row as a woman and a queer was fucking tough at times, and we'd like to encourage those who aspire to be a part of the narrative of this street - but feel like outsiders- to join the changing scene”
I checked out their work and was sucked in. I’ve no doubt they’re precisely the right tailors to showcase for first phase of The Row Stance residency projects. And that’s before I found out they are (almost) pukingly well liked in the tailoring scene already. Their move to The Row for six months + is defo’ happening and I am double excited. They’re already making about 30 or so pieces a year, from suiting commissions and traditional finery to more avant-garde garments, with clients ranging from financiers to rock’n’roll guitarists. Having Dobrik&Lawton work and create on the Row is going to be clear positive- fascinating and chic.
" we're excited -as young turks- to be inserting ourselves within the history of the Row and to be working footsteps away from the founding houses of classic tailoring" they both told me in uncanny synchronicity. “its gonna be right good” added Yorkshire lass Lawton- “really good to return to where we began to learn or trade- and to start a new a chapter” surmises Dobrik.
D&L stalk around the Metropolis as elegant manifestations of their house look, check their instaglam (click). House looks contrive boldly sculptured silhouettes with vivid shoulders. Dramatic square padded shoulders with high rope in effect in fact, and their signature wide very pointy peak lapels taken from Hollywood cinema. Suppressed waists with wide straight of flared trews ratchet up the glamour, but the duos personal nuances layer into their work giving youthful dimension.
KIMBERLEY LAWTON
LOVES NOIR SHADOWS
“Our silhouette originates from the costume designers of the golden age of hollywood, Irene Lentz, Edith head, but most importantly Adrian Greenberg. Had we been around 40 years ago, we would have wanted to be dressing Sean Young on set and Sylvester on stage, today we'd love to see in our clothes Virgile and Elliott Arndt from Faux Real, Haydn Park-Patterson from the Ninth Wave and James Power from Walt Disco”
The pair are pretty strictly monochrome (includes peroxide hair, black nails). Even their in-synch cycling outfits echo house favourite Klaus Nomi’s black-white graphics. Work is inline with androgyny savvy zeitgeist, and I really dig their details, neckwear particularly neckwear which includes bolos, ribbon and lavallière ties (pussy bows to you & I). Also platform heels, which go with their penchant for flares, one stoked by going to Seventies disco clubs like Soul Train in Peckham.
TRUE TO BESPOKE
“Despite the odd nuances that set us apart a little bit, much of our work remains making what it is we were initially trained to make, that is classic tailoring, it's integral to every wardrobe, and we are adamant about setting solid building blocks in our clients' wardrobes before creating more contemporary pieces”
The pair are not even faintly frivolous about bespoke work even if some of their interests are lighter. ‘Long game’ projects involve protracted liaison with clients who really want to immerse in a creativity the cant get elsewhere. Take their ‘Battle Dress’ piece (click).
LONG GAME
MODUS OPERANDI
“We don't adopt a typical professional distance attitude with clients. It is fundamental for us to develop close ties to those who choose to support us and be dressed by us. Becoming familiar with a person for whom you're spending countless hours making a piece further suffuses the final garment with the care, knowledge and attention that person has come to you for. Making clothes for people you know and spend time with makes the clothes so much better”
I’ve been working with these youngsters,d scheming and creating an installation for them to exist and work within on the ground floor 31 Savile Row. They move in my atelier early July, we hope. Its gonna look aesthetically inspiring, functional and work as refreshing re-boot for a slice of The Row .
What strikes me about them is their authenticity in both old Row craft culture juxtaposed with innate flair, cool and panache. A god send for the project. Also the fact we need more pictures of Josh. And of them together. For now, check the film they friend & Journalist Faye Fearon made of Kim.
Stubbs out.
* (click) for BOW WOW WOW reference while we’re at it.