A look inside the makeup of Liberty of London fabrics! Read on…
Most of you are familiar with Liberty of London fabrics right? The brightly decadent prints and quirky florally designs have made quite a big impression on the fashion set over the past few years. Liberty & Co. is a long-established department store on Regent Street in Central London, England, in the West End shopping district and Liberty of London is a luxury accessories brand which draws on Liberty’s heritage. Launched in 2005, it operates under the creative direction of Ed Burstell. They are not only known as one of the more exciting textile manufacturers, but for offering a wide range of products, like Vivienne Westwood Anglomania dresses, beauty products and home goods.
Liberty of London’s widespread popularity led them to appear in lines by Kate Moss for TopShop, Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony and Nike. They also launched a line for Target last Spring (I got a bedspread!).
Today you can find many different types of Liberty of London fabric online and in fabric shops. Pictured below are the most popular and most widely available types of Liberty fabrics: Tana Lawn, Silk Twill, Cotton Twill, Cotton Lycra, Varuna Wool and Corduroy.
Tana Lawn: Tana Lawn is 100% pure cotton and is the most widely utilized Liberty fabric. Tana Lawn is finely-woven, light-weight cotton— it’s ideal for dresses, blouses, tops, skirts, robes, lingerie and even fabric covered shoes! Care: Machine wash delicate-tumble dry low or hand wash cold – line dry.
Silk Twill: “Twill, put simply, is one up, two down, one up, two down… and in the next row the same, but offset by one, and by two in the next row. This produces a diagonal structure on one side which is hardly discernible on the other. If the offset goes to the right for some rows, then to the left, you get herringbone”. Silk twill has a wonderful drape, great luster and excellent durability for the weight of the fabric. Ideal for more tailored styled garments like dresses, blouses, pants and lined lighter weight jackets. Care: Hand wash warm water, line dry. (The above information in quotes was found on this very informative website, Discerning Fabrics.)
Cotton Twill: Made from 100% cotton, the twill fabric pictured above are damask prints and have a very English feel. Twill is a fabric characterized by its diagonal weave. This weave may be evident in tweed variants of twill, where several colors are used. More well known examples of twill fabric are chino, drill, denim, gabardine, tweed and serge. Care: Machine wash delicate-tumble dry low or hand wash cold – line dry.
Varuna Wool: A very fine wool fabric, ideal for clothes or shawls and scarves. Has anyone had the opportunity to read the book Maiden Voyage? If you have, you may remember Tanya Aebi’s boat, which she single-handedly sailed around the world, was named Varuna. Sigh. Care: Dry clean only.
Cotton Lycra: A Cotton/Lycra combo is the ideal choice for light-weight sweatsuits, t-shirts, costumes, even lingerie. It’s very soft and cool to the touch. Care: Machine wash delicate-tumble dry low or hand wash cold – line dry.
Corduroy: Corduroy fabric is woven with little ridges, called wales. Use corduroy for jackets, purses, trousers, and other casual garments. While being woven, the fibers of the fabric are normally twisted as they are woven, creating the wales. Care: Hand wash or cool machine wash not to exceed 40 degrees. Tumble dry low.
You can order Liberty of London fabrics in the US online at B&J Fabrics, and in the UK from Liberty of London.
Swatches pulled from B&J Fabrics and Liberty of London
Feb 1, 2011, 10.05 PMby lillybeeandpaul
purlsoho.com sells some of their lovely fabrics in the US. Their shop is in New York but their warehouse which is open to the public is in Tustin/SoCal- but beware those Liberty fabrics are addictive and pricy, thought I would treat my self to 0.25 yard out of a reminant box, that peace of “leftover” turned out to be $18- but I love it, even JCrew has done some stuff with the Liberty fabric in their latest catalogue. Back then I was living in the UK I needed to promise my husband that I would leave my credit card at home when I went to Liberty’s (pinky promise ha ha).
Feb 1, 2011, 06.19 PMby NuncaNunca
Wow, my creative brain is in overload thinking about everything I would like to make. I have never heard of this company before, so glad!
1 Reply
Feb 1, 2011, 09.11 PMby alisondahl
Really!? You’re in luck if you’re into what’s pictured above!
Feb 1, 2011, 02.28 PMby loulourosa
This weekend I’m in London, and as usual I will defently check the fabrics at Liberty’s, Jippiejei!
Feb 1, 2011, 01.58 PMby fuchsiamagellenica
I really love the Liberty fabrics designed by Lauren Childs the illustrator. She’s the author and illustrator of the Charlie and Lola books, which I absolutely adore (partly because of Lola’s amazing clothes!) and so in effect, a dress made out of her fabrics would be a Lola dress.
Feb 1, 2011, 01.55 PMby FabricUiPhoneApp
Emmaonesock.com also carries Liberty fabrics…btw, I’ve often wondered why there isn’t a smartphone app for Liberty fabrics…it’s such tremendous eye candy. I have a free app for Fortuny, but I barely look at it because it’s simply not useful for me. A Liberty iPhone app would be downloaded asap ’cuz I sew clothes and I need something to dream about on the bus, train and ferry.
Feb 1, 2011, 01.47 PMby violetsky
If anyone lives near Kingston-Upon-Thames in Surrey, UK, there is a shop called Calico near the river which sells rements of Liberty prints, It’s worth a trip there as they can make a small saving and they generally have a lot of prints in stock.
Feb 1, 2011, 01.03 AMby ladyshape
I can’t see the pictures either, but regardless of this I love Liberty. I just bought some Liberty silk velvet in vintage peach with a faded peacock feather print. It is destined to become a kimono lined in charcoal silk. There were also some offcuts of liberty leather in my local fabric store before christmas, embossed with beautiful art nouveau designs. If you like Liberty prints and whimsical dresses, check out Nadinoo.
1 Reply
Feb 1, 2011, 01.47 PMby alisondahl
That sounds amazing! Our picture host seemed to have gone down yesterday, the pictures with it— but they’re back.
Feb 1, 2011, 12.25 AMby toknowistolove
I wish fabricland sold liberty of london :( also, i can’t see the pictures
Jan 31, 2011, 11.05 PMby violetsky
I had the pleasure of drooling around Liberty’s haberdashery last week. My friend took my wallet off me to save my bank balance. There is so much choice that it would be very hard to pick out three goregous fabrics never mind limiting yourself to one. Sometimes I’m so glad to live near enough to london that I can go up just to drool over the sheer beauty of Liberty’s haberdashery.
1 Reply
Feb 1, 2011, 01.47 PMby alisondahl
Oooh, lucky lady, I need to take a field trip to London!
Jan 31, 2011, 10.47 PMby JillShe
These fabrics look lovely. I’ll check out B&J to see what they sell online in the US – the fabric selection in Oklahoma is dismal!
jill Brother XL2600I
Jan 31, 2011, 10.19 PMby hoorayforever
Loooove the patterns on Liberty fabrics, and the feel of them.
Jan 31, 2011, 10.18 PMby leahfranqui
Where can you buy their fabrics in the United States?
3 Replies
Jan 31, 2011, 10.33 PMby alisondahl
You can order from B&J Fabrics in New York. They are one of the only US locations I know of carrying many different styles.
Feb 1, 2011, 10.07 PMby lillybeeandpaul
purlsoho.com
Jun 1, 2011, 05.22 PMby ahilly
etsy and jonesandvandermeer.com (they have some liberty japan too).