Palmer//Harding, aka The Shirt Boys, aim to dress women in everyday life with the same enthusiasm and consideration as though it were a night out. Taking their inspiration from the shirt, they strive to balance elegance and attitude to achieve “simplicity, but dramatic simplicity” as they put it.

During this project my approach has been to apply their concept and aspiration to capture elegance. To explore it, I have based my research on the life of my grandmother, as she epitomises elegance to me.

The focus of the collection became even clearer when I studied old photos of her; I told her that she looked so elegant in these classic pieces, whereas if I wore them today, I would look vintage, , rather than elegant. And she explained that this was because the pieces weren’t classic at the time, they were modern, they expressed an attitude.

So, my intention with this collection is to capture the elegance of her style, in pieces that could be worn today and make you feel as elegant as she did in the 1950s, but modern enough to be relevant.

Special thanks to Levi Palmer and Matthew Harding