Daydress: New Heritage Series
I could live in these clothes.
Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of The Bell!
I’ve missed you, and apologies again for taking an unplanned and unannounced summer break from writing. Life is so full-on right now and I’m re-learning the balance now that my baby is no longer a newborn.
This week I’m pleased to bring you a profile on a craftsmanship-centered brand I adore: Daydress.
Founded by Gabby Deeming, formerly of House & Garden UK (my favorite magazine), Daydress is a brand with limited scope and perfect execution.
It does what it says on the tin: They make joyful block-printed cotton day dresses (and a handful of other homewares and accessories) in collaboration with small producers in India.
Here’s how the brand came to be:
“Happily overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and colours of Jaipur’s old city, my head was turned by the piles of brightly coloured block printed cottons for sale.
I picked up a pretty one, took it to a tailor and asked for the perfect shirt dress: pockets, tidy little collar and buttons all the way down the front. The first Daydress.I had always loved block-print and began developing my own print patterns for dresses in 2017. I was working full-time at House & Garden magazine and Daydress was a side project which stealthily became more demanding, so in Summer 2021 I began full-time Daydress.”
— Gabby Deeming
My own daytime wardrobe mostly consists of pants and shorts, shirts and sweaters, but there’s a special pleasure in putting on a dress during the day. It makes you feel like you’re going somewhere, not just running errands. Or doing something even if you stay home. But no matter your lifestyle, a day dress must be breathable, generous enough to move in, and washable. And why even bother if it’s not also beautiful?
Daydress makes soft, comfortable dresses that you can wear running errands, to work at an office, on a flight, or to a family holiday. Some are even suitable to wear as a wedding guest!
I own the Dakota dress in red, and it truly is such a versatile staple. I’ve worn it everywhere from walking to and from Whole Foods in Boston, to Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s apartment in Chicago.
On my wishlist are this beautiful sundress with a fig print and this feminine, checked number.
P.S. They’re running a summer giveaway supporting their new collaboration with Scribble & Daub, and you better believe I entered it!
The art of block printing
I dove a little bit into block printing when I featured Jamini Design, one of my favorite Parisian textile brands. Daydress reminds me a lot of Jamini, in that the founder splits her year between the UK and Jaipur, India and personally knows the artisans making the dresses.
The cotton fabric for each Daydress product is hand block printed in Jaipur by a team of skilled printers.
“Block printing is a centuries-old craft and still continues in many workshops across India. It might be the simplest and slowest of all textile-printing methods but it yields some of the most beautiful results. While this method of pattern making has its inherent limitations, we love to push the boundaries of what is achievable through block printing, often playing with scale and types of pattern placement.”
Each color in a design has its own block which should line up perfectly with the others to build up the pattern. Daydress’s designs have anywhere from one or two to up to 14 blocks!
What makes Daydress different?
I pulled this section from the “Our Values” section of the Daydress website and didn’t edit it much, because what they say in their own words speaks volumes. So many companies give lip service to values when those values have no bearing on the day-to-day of their business. With Daydress, it’s clear that their values define them as a brand.
All produced in one city
Every one of the hand-block printed garments is produced from scratch in Jaipur. Apart from the cotton base cloth, which is woven in south India, the fabric is dyed, block printed, cut, stitched, finished, and shipped from their small workshop in Jaipur.
Small-batch
Small-scale production is very important to Daydress. Keeping their quantities small means more exclusivity for the customer, very little waste, and the ability to support independent craftspeople. It also gives them full control over the quality of each finished piece.
Supporting independent makers
Independence is highly important to Daydress. Both their own, and that of the craftspeople they work with. They support and promote skills, and in doing so, hope to make them appealing and viable for the next generation to learn and practice.
Original designs
All the block-print patterns are designed in the Daydress Studio. While antique textiles provide us with endless inspiration, it is very important to us that we do not use pre-existing block-print designs. This is how they stay unique.
Artisanal details
When you turn a Daydress garment inside-out, you will see how beautifully finished it is. Seams are French, embroidery is produced by hand, buttons are sewn on by hand.
Transparent production
Their block-carvers and block printers are totally independent, so they keep whatever they bill Daydress. They have no middlemen. The founder uses the same small production unit that she discovered in 2017 on her exploratory sabbatical to Jaipur.
Are you a Daydress customer yet? Are you about to become one?
Talk to you Friday with this week’s recs.
xx Jane