If Monty Don was a woman....

[WeirdArchitecture]

Where would he shop?

I really want some lovely cotton or linen stuff, in my mind I see a loose fitting linen jumpsuit with scrappy straps and a side zip. It wouldn't be 'fashion' or ridiculously wide or show a silly amount of side boob. Simple and not humongous.

I search everywhere and can never find what im after, I can't be fussed with trends, but want some more choice. I used to like toast but they fit me horribly and the colour palettes don't suit me.

Are there any shops I don't know about that can do me a Monty style wardrobe? Natural fabrics that could see me gardening or walking by the lake, etc...

Excellent idea to revive this thread. It's still one of my all time favourites, and I feel very honoured to see they've got a Flo blouse on the Skall website. I quite like the shape too but unfortunately black does nothing for me.

Egg trading for the ultimate lady monty with money to burn

www.eggtrading.com

Wowsers!!! The prices on that egg site !!

I mean - I guess there is a lot of fabric in there but who the heck is buying it!

Oh - I had an email yesterday with the news that the founder of Egg had died.

I only went into the shop once, decades ago when I was perhaps twenty something. It seemed a strange experience as all the clothes were constructed to sit very far away from the body beneath - which held no appeal for me at all then. (I admit I designated it a place for ‘rich middle aged women who’d lost their figures’.)

And now I’m on MN, with an insatiable craving for staggeringly well made and expensive knitwear …

lucyandyak.com

Organic cotton clothing

www.peopletree.co.uk/about-us/organic-cotton

I've got a Cabbages and Roses white linen dress, it has seen a lot of abuse, been covered in food dye and other such horrors and comes up beautiful each time.
I also had some of their trousers which were a bit meh, they had a metallic thread in the weave and caused thigh chaffing.

In the 90s (98 maybe?) a friend of mine who lived in Doncaster wanted to go there when she was visiting me in London, she had seen it in magazines.
I recognise what you say about wafty trews, there was a pair a bit like a nappy with legs, you wrapped and tied them and the sides were completely open. They were insanely expensive but I made a pair from blue linen I'd bought in Portobello Road.
Weirdly satisfying seeing it here, I couldn't have told you the name of the shop if I tried.

yarmouthoilskins.com/collections/all popped up for me today. Edmontina probably shops here for her boating holidays, and continues wearing her oilskins at home as they're so well-made and practical.

OMG - that woman in the green sea cape is everything. I’m curled up on the sofa snivelling with a cold and avoiding deadlines, hugging a blanket and contemplating a hot water bottle - and all I now want is to throw away my life and become her.

Such is the power of clothes (and the photographing of …)

She is truly glorious, Edmontine, and I am wishing you better, but...

imagine how many hot water bottles one could fit under a Sea Cape? Countless.

A good friend who is very Monty (and a vicar) used to get a lot of her clothes from here pre Brexit www.detoujours.com/en/content/9-de-toujours-spirit

Some of the photography is a tad revealing for Monty style but there are some nice things.

I scolded someone for giving that name away earlier, @BestIsWest ! Although I haven’t attempted to buy anything from them post-Brexit.

Was your friend from a wealthy parish?

@Edmontine haha! I’m sorry, I must have missed that one . Pre vicar-ing she was a computer engineer which probably paid better!

oh that shop is amazing @BestIsWest - thank you so much!

I'll give you this one in exchange, which I think I've bored everyone on the Toast thread with already. They will custom make you any size and colour for the same price and send it duty free (not sure how). I did and mine's lovely!

https://www.donegalknitwear.com

@faustina Oh I wish they did cardigans. I need one in the light blue.

Only hats and jumpers I'm afraid - they are beautiful though! Mine is navy

Community Clothing, a UK-based manufacturer of unfussy clothes

communityclothing.co.uk/

The items are photographed very plainly on their website, they don't create a lifestyle around them like Toast.
But the chore jackets, for example, would be twice the price on the Toast website.

This post was so excellent it deserves repetition. (And I’m ill at home with nothing better to do.) One or two more brands / shops have been added since then, but it’s pretty comprehensive for any aspiring Edmontina Don dressers.

I can't seem to find the quality and fit that I am searching for these recent years.
I want a slouchy, simple yet good quality cardigan with pockets, tapered cords without a ginormous sack-like waist up to my tits.
I want the quality and low key ease of the nineties with a spirit of bohemian luxe (and I don't mean hippy, I mean Dora Carrington, the Bloomsbury group, etc).

No middle ground, whether pricing or quality now, I don't think. It is either overpriced mass production on the one hand or prohibitively expensive nouveau-artisan on the other.

I wanted an aran cardi or jumper, below bum length, pure merino, and could only find in Ireland with warnings of hold ups at customs. The market in the UK is literally stuff with cropped, massive sleeved, tiered flounces (if you venture away from trousers) and overpriced cashmere. I don't want flimsy wool!

I have found Finisterre to hold up well, but sadly they only sell outdoors items.

I want to dress a bit like Monty on the one hand, Julia from Press Gang on the other, and maybe a bit of Dora Carrington thrown in too. Neither formal nor informal, twee nor conservative, just comfortably and with good fitting things..

I might prefer to avoid the Toile de Jouy and heavy florals of Cabbages&Roses. Not fond of the whole syrupy Peaches Geldof (RIP) meets British BakeOff vibes and don't trust the quality of the knits. And this trend for stuffing alpaca into everything makes me sneeze.

I'm lost at sea, aren't I?

#SnowyPheasants - delurking to ask if I can join you in your boat?
Am looking for similar things - a merino Aran cardigan (have fond memories of one from around 1984) and a long slouchy but not droopy cardigan with pockets.
I want to dress like a character from Swallows and Amazons but grown-up - ready to leap into my motor-car or biplane (or vegetable plot), not think about what I am wearing, but then emerge looking and feeling comfortably elegant (or elegantly comfortable).
Finisterre do have some indoor clothes - jumpers, cardigans, trousers etc - is that what you meant?

Very cute Arran jacket. Probably too short?

Glorious, unfortunately cashmere pocketed cardigan.

I’m picturing the two of you, lost at sea, huddled under a green sea cape.

@SnowyPheasants I bought a jumper from this company last year, and was really impressed with it.

www.glencroftcountrywear.co.uk/product-category/jumpers/

They do sell a long Aran cardigan. There’s a load of information about their wool on the website. It’s all from sheep local to their workshop in Yorkshire. However, it doesn’t specify Merino. I suspect if you emailed them and asked them for specifics they’d be very helpful though.