London Fashion Brand Treddenick Shows that 125 Years On, Mouliné Spécial Is Still On Trend

DMC’s Mouliné Spécial is celebrating its 125th anniversary. This iconic thread has become the benchmark for six stranded embroidery thread, loved by professionals and amateur stitchers alike. It has a rich heritage and an exciting future.

When London fashion designer Jake Treddenick contacted DMC to invite us to collaborate we admired his creativity and brand ethos. In line with his sustainability aims, we sent him a pallet of deadstock for use in his latest collection. We went to interview him to find out why fashion designers still cherish this much-loved thread.

What is deadstock? Occasionally a batch of thread fails to meet DMC’s exacting colour standards. When this happens it becomes ‘dead stock’ that’s donated to schools or sold on for other manufacturing processes.

Embroidery is quite a traditional craft, what do you like about it?

I am incredibly passionate about craftsmanship. I'm a massive history geek and love YouTube videos about intricate, historical stitched pieces. We've lost a lot in terms of making and we need to bring that back. The making process, knowledge and intricacies of it. It’s something we want to create at Treddenick - that link to historical practices and tradition.

What does stitch mean to you personally?

My Grandma was an expert embroiderer and Mum used to make us embroidery gifts. They taught me to stitch. I remember my Grandma cutting like little bits of fabric and I'd stitch them together by hand. My Mum used to buy little cross stitch packs for me to do, I've still got some of them. Sometimes we’d do them together. It made me want to make and draw.?

Stitch is something that brought the family together. It helped to make something good out of some not-so-great situations. Throughout my work, there's a common theme of some type of embroidery stitch or technique that requires doing something repetitive, smaller, intricate, over and over.

Is hand embroidery still relevant today?

Absolutely, it's very relevant to us. It teaches us the value of taking time to stitch. I think a lot of what we do now in fashion is quite fast-paced and you're expected to really rush.

We need to make people understand the process behind couture and all these beautiful traditional techniques that people really do take time on. We need to say - give it a go, don't be afraid of it. Don't feel like you have to speed through something. You can take your time on an intricate square rather than making a whole garment, for example.

Jan Van Huysum’s paintings were part of the inspiration for this collection. Why these paintings?

When I was a teenager, my mum and my aunt brought me down to London. I remember going into the National Gallery and seeing this red room and all these really dark, almost black, paintings. Luxurious colours were set off against the dark pictures.

I loved the idea of switching that. Using very dark colours and the texture of the stitch to give that contrast. When you paint with oil paints it is the texture that helps to create light and definitions.? I thought it was interesting to do that with the embroidery threads and different stitch techniques.

We used something traditional and something a little bit more punkier and more abstract. Putting embroidery on the denim made sense to me because one of the things we looked at was the working-class subcultures of the 60s and that contrast, again, I kind of loved.

What was your inspiration for the dress?

The original idea was to combine 60s fashion subculture with 18th-century court dress. The shape of the dress came from the 18th Century. I was really interested in a lot of the tailoring.

18th Century court dress had loads of flower embroidery and what we were trying to do was to show this sort of symbolism of modern-day flowers and objects.

We’ve taken embroidery and made it a little bit more punky. The whole thing about the punk movement was having a piece of clothing and doing something to it yourself. It was all about the little details, what length your jeans were and what that meant about your whole image. If you had some little patchwork or embroidery that meant something else. Embroidery says something about symbolism and who we are as people.

What stitching techniques did you use to add embroidery to your design?

We used a traditional technique of cutting two different thicknesses of felt and then satin stitching over them onto a tulle which was then stitched onto the denim.

We created more abstract flowers by pinning loose loops of embroidery thread and stitching into the thread with a sewing machine to create a flatter texture that was just slightly raised in sections to create definition.

We are creating more pieces for next season and developing slightly different techniques using layers of embroidered tulle which looks great, almost looks like it is moving. We have also been working with a very talented milliner Vivienne Lake, who has incorporated the thread into some incredible headdresses as part of the collection.

Part of the Treddenick brand is challenging gender stereotypes, how have you used the embroidery to fulfil that aim?

We want to challenge the idea of gender conformity. We make pieces gender fluid so they can be fitted to a range of genders and work with a range of model types when casting. I like mixing traditional ideas of womenswear and menswear design and making processes.

?A lot of floral motifs and decorations actually come from menswear. 17th, and 18th century menswear pieces were heavily decorated with embroidery but it's something in contemporary times that is seen as too feminine for menswear. This is something we have to question and challenge our assumptions on.

What do you like about working with DMC Mouliné Spécial?

I love the technicality behind it, that you can split the thread into different thicknesses. If you use more strands, it creates more tension and fewer strands, it's thinner and finer.

I also like that it almost feels like it is coated. I think the colour ranges are always quite rich.

Why do you like to use deadstock in your designs?

I'm really passionate about using dead stock. It was something that as students, you get access to because lots of brands donate to universities. It was always a creative challenge when you had some mesh or some sort of really luxurious silk and you think ‘What do I do with this?’.

When I graduated I thought it would be interesting to carry on using deadstock because it's sustainable and loads of fabric manufacturers have access to it. It's also great in high-end luxury because everybody wants a unique piece.?

The variation in deadstock can help you create different things within the embroidery. With deadstock you might get three or four variations of a shade. If you're buying it off the rail you only get the carefully manufactured precise and consistent shades.?

About Jake Treddenick

Jake already knew at age 16 that he wanted to take a different route. Having been taught to sew by his mother and grandmother, he knew he loved making. So he went to Newcastle College to study fashion and technology. His talent, determination and a succession of scholarships and grants enabled him to continue his studies at the London College of Fashion and the Royal College of Art despite his working-class roots. He was the first from Newcastle College to receive a place at London College of Fashion and the first recipient of the final year BA scholarship from the British Fashion Council.?

The most recent Treddenick collection was shown during London Fashion week in Autumn 2023 and Jake has been inspired to create new pieces to add to the collection that will be ready in Spring 2024. You can find out more at www.treddenick.co.uk and by following treddenick_ on Instagram. To find out more about the milliner Vivienne Lake visit viviennelake.com/ and follow viviennelake_ on Instagram.

To find out more about DMC’s iconic thread Mouliné Spécial in this, its 125 year, visit www.dmc.com.