Nicholas Daley Hand Knitted Roots Shawl

Almost everything else this house makes is made by a machine that somebody set up. The tartans are milled, the waffle knits are knitted in Portugal, and the trousers are cut and sewn in factories in England and in Japan. This is knitted by hand, in England, one stitch at a time. Hand knitting cannot be hurried, it cannot be scaled, and it cannot be made identical twice, so the surface of it reads as made rather than as manufactured. Almost everything in this shawl is hours, and there is no way of making it that is not.

The colours are orange, green, and yellow, which sit close enough together to read as a run rather than as a collision: warm, loud, and not at odds with each other. Acrylic is what holds them. It takes dye at a saturation the natural fibres cannot reach and it does not give the colour back to sunlight or to washing, so a piece whose whole appearance is three strong colours stays as strong as it started.

It is called Roots, which is the name of the deepest strand of reggae and also the plainest word for what a designer is doing when he works his inheritance into a garment. The form is generous and unstructured, worn over the shoulders rather than fastened. It is the least gendered thing Daley makes.

Why we selected it

We bought this because it is the largest hand-made thing he does and by a long way the most labour-intensive. The hand-worked side of this house runs through the hats, the bags, and the knitted vests, and the shawl is where it stops being a detail on an object and becomes the whole garment.

Hand-worked pieces run through Nicholas Daley’s collections alongside the milled cloth and the factory production, and the shawl is the one where the hand-work is doing all of the garment rather than part of it.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent acrylic, hand knitted in England. Colours: orange, green, and yellow.

Sizing and how it is worn

A shawl rather than a garment with a fit, so it is one size and adjusts by how you wear it. Over the shoulders and open is the default. Folded to a triangle and pinned it becomes something closer to a wrap. It has enough weight to stay where it is put, which is the failing of most shawls.

Styling

Over the Fonte Tailored Jacket in the evening. Over anything black or oatmeal, which is what three colours this warm want underneath them, and nothing patterned. It suits a man and a woman equally well, and there are not many pieces we would say that about without qualifying it.

Care

Acrylic washes easily and hates heat: cool water, gentle handling, and dry it flat, never hung, because a hand-knitted piece of this weight will stretch out of shape under its own wet weight. Do not press it. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Messenger Bag is hand knitted in red, black and yellow, and the Neck Bag is the small hand-knitted pouch. The Hand-Crocheted Bucket Hats and the Knitted Vest in light blue are the rest of the hand-worked pieces. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.