the Trimmings Specialist Lawson
Barnett The musical Six Photo by Idil Sukan
Caroline Marx
Barnett Lawson proudly proclaims itself as the treasure
trove of trimmings, because you’ll discover braids, buttons, ribbons, tassels, fringes, feathers, cords and millinery supplies amongst the 12,000 items at their Central London showroom. We visited recently and spoke with owner and managing director Caroline Marx and manager Jacqueline Wharam. Caroline took over the business 15 years ago and has proudly maintained its six-decade heritage and style.
Caroline says: “We supply all the London and regional theatres and shows, as well as those in Europe, Scandinavia, the United States and even Australia. I think the longest-running show that we’ve supplied is The Phantom of the Opera and it’s always an exciting challenge to maintain the look of the costumes when there’s a cast change or they go on tour, as some of the factories that supplied the original trimmings over 30 years ago have closed or no longer produce
60 | the hat magazine #81
that particular item.” Fortunately, when that happens, Caroline manages to get the most important trims reproduced in China. “For big productions like this,” Caroline adds, “designers will often order a hundred metres of a particular trim to keep them going. In Phantom, for instance, there are dancers’ skirts made from cord that needs to be dyed the correct colour. As you can imagine, the cord gets worn from the dancing and has to be changed regularly.”
Jacqueline Wharam
interview by Elly Stemerdink
A more recent example of their material on stage is Six, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII. Many of its costumes are embellished with a metal studded braid of which hundreds of metres have been used for the London and Chicago productions. Barnett Lawson also provide trims for pantomimes that are staged every Christmas, and they have worked very closely with the costume designer of the Disney stage production of Aladdin creating bespoke beaded fringing and tassels.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
