Who actually wears Cabbagees & Roses?

[PaeoniaPlease]

*please excuse the typo in the title!

Newbie here. I'm from the US but love British style and follow British fashion and culture. There's one question to which I can't seem to find the answer - who is actually wearing Cabbages & Roses clothing?

I've really loved Cabbages & Roses lately, but few in the US seems to even be aware of this brand. I know it's a very small brand. I'm also aware that it is not "in style" or even very practical. It would be considered really "out-there" in the US.

My question is - is this brand something that is actually worn by British women? If so, who is actually wearing this brand? Is it 25 year old "Fashionistas", "Cottage Core" girls, the so-called "Turnip Toffs?"
Rich middle aged women? Younger girls with good jobs and large available balances on their credit cards? Mom types?

Have you ever seen someone wearing one of their signature flowy/billowy dresses in public? What type of person were they? How would you describe them?

Thank you for any insight!

There goes my evening 🤓 @Tinymrscollings
I definitely had an immediate bleurgh-ick response when I first looked. And Google tells me...
Johnny Depp owns many items by Magnolia Pearl

That article was what started me off collecting C&R rather than trying to make similar things. I was a big fan of Kate Davies, do you knit @MmePoppySeedDefage ?

Amazing post @Tinymrscollings , Thank you so much! Have never heard of magnolia pearl, here goes!

The Magnolia Pearl website hurts my head. And I don't think it works.

C&R are working a Tess of the Turbervilles (Nastassia Kinkski version) / bucolic pre-WWI /L P Hartley/ E.M Forster vibe. Their models are fragile and traditionally beautiful, with little obvious makeup.

Egg also ploughs the pre WWI bucolic dream. See the short films on their website with beautiful young people wandering through huge empty, somewhat dilapidated country houses, cycling through woods and picnicing in the fields.

Oska women could be music or art teachers but equally could be engineers or physicists.

Gudrun women keep goats and make cheese from their milk.

But all of these sites look right. It might be an imaginary world but the aesthetic looks plausible on the models.

Magnolia Pearl looks fake. The models are too clean, too much obvious make up for the crustie/ Levellers (the band, not the political movement) aesthetic. It's terribly obviously contrived in a way the others aren't. I mean I know the others are contrived too, but they seem authentic.

Magnolia Pearl

Oska women could be music or art teachers but equally could be engineers or physicists.

I was thinking about Oska today because I liked it ooh, maybe twenty years ago as a newlywed living in Munich, Germany. Didn’t have any pieces though as I was early thirties and the ‘lagenlook’ seemed to be for a much older set,(about the age I am now!). I didn’t think it was still going now. Back then (2005-ish) I loved wearing Noa Noa - before it was bought out and ruined.

I’ve never liked Gudrun sjoden, for some reason. I think because I’m not a fan of brightly coloured cotton and block print patterns, and the last time I looked it reminded of People Tree! I’m sure done right it looks great but it wouldn’t work for me.

Cecilie Bahnsen is lovely, and Veritecoeur is a delightful new discovery on instagram, but I think only available in Japan?

Scarlet Jones (A boutique in Australia) is nice for inspiration, I just wish I could get the shoes!

I have one dress, this one by Metta Melbourne.

I'm not keen either on Gudrun Sjoden.

Oh my goodness !

Veritecoeur
Veritecoeur

I see the Veritecoeur site, like Egg, stocks their own products but also similar brands like Casey Casey and Album de Familia and Exile de Curiousite

Ecole de Curiousite

You can get Veritecoeur from:

Rendezvous

Not much - but some every season as far as I recall. (Only, I emailed the store once to enquire about a Veritecoeur shirt and had no reply, so I’m slightly less of a fan than I was previously.)

Also from the rather appealing (and similar)

Rennes in the US - though that would presumably make little sense from the UK. (Doesn’t stop me wasting hours and hours browsing, though.)

Beautiful dress..And again - the model looks plausible.
Google quite often suggests Scarlet Jones to me. It has Album di Familigia, Daniela Gregis, Pas de Calais, Casey Casey , Apuntob and is covering the same ground as Egg and Veritecoeur.

Dick's of Edinburgh and Envoy of Belfast are in the same ballpark.

Beautiful dress..And again - the model looks plausible.

Interesting. Won’t have time to look at Magnolia Pearl tonight, there seem to be two sets of triplets on the cards (for the sheep, obvs) but will tomorrow. A bit worried what I might be letting myself into!

I don't think you'll like Magnolia Pearl but the others mentioned, Scarlet Jones, Egg, Rennes, Veritecoeur, Dicks and Envoy- well , you may well get sucked in.

@OooScotland I hope all goes well with the lambing. It's hard work.

Some pictures of new lambs would go well with this thread if you've got a minute.

Sigh …

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/tokyo-fall-2024/tao/slideshow/collection

🤣 I like the clothes! The head-sponges, on the other hand ...

Seconded 😁

OK….No photo from inside the sheds for various reasons, but at the risk of derailment here’s a nice snap of the first texel lambs that we turned out into the ‘triplet’ field next to the house. Eight sets so far!

Tao is beautiful @BlossomBlossomBlossom , thanks for that. The quilted skirts and dresses especially and I love the cream on cream fabric choices. The head sponges are a bit distracting but I don’t hate them. Plenty of inspiration there.

Popping into town this afternoon in this slightly vintage C&R ‘Patch’ jacket. I’m wearing it with dark Toast jeans and dms. (If I click on the image in my post I can see the whole thing, does that work for everyone?).

95 year old nana is my whole look, basically. Lovely fabrics, a great cut but loose and forgiving. I don't understand agism, especially when it comes to clothes - imo women literally ALWAYS dress better over 70 than under 40

95 year old nana is my whole look, basically.

Cool!

I generally manage Mad Great Aunt …

@OooScotland are you on the Archers thread? Ed Grundy could probably do with your advice on texels …

That jacket is glorious. It looks like the perfect combination of softness and crunchiness. I’ve had my eye on this for aeons, though missed out on the dark brown version with a more extravagant lining. (Scroll.)

https://www.lafetiche.com/shop/bianca-reversible/

But actually the rosettes on yours remind me of … Bode. (Which I generally try not to think about because it would just make me dissatisfied with the world)

https://bode.com/

Earlier Men’s collections had t shirts and blazers (iirc) adorned with rosettes and horsey nonsense. As with past Casey Casey collections I wish I’d thrown caution to the wind and just given them all my money. The more recent stuff and the Women’s collections are all too normal.

@BlossomBlossomBlossom No, I’m afraid I’ve never listened to the Archers and what I know about Texels is strictly limited to our own needs (ours are mostly crosses - mutts, basically!)

You’re bringing so many lovely brands to this thread. Bode is new to me, and looks interesting - especially the brocade coat and trousers (pictured). It reminds me a couple of ancient NoaNoa brocade skirts with frilly tiered ‘bustles’ that I’m very fond of. Must dig them out.

The C&R jacket above (winter 2006) was second hand, its a Harris Tweed men’s jacket and I suspect it was vintage even then - the label says 36” Large and its a modern 12 at the most.

It wasn’t quite this fancy to start with, I refreshed a lot of the embellishments with some handmade and vintage trimmings as C&R didn’t go far enough in imo!

This is the kind of thing I wish they still did. As a crafty person I often think about collecting Harris Tweed (in the north of Scotland it wouldn’t be hard!) and doing a few more from scratch, as it were. 🤔

Thank you.

I think my all time favourite item of clothing might have been an ex-partner’s thick and crunchy Harris tweed jacket. It got so shabby (several sets of elbow patches worn through) he didn’t mind having it stolen by me.

Harris Tweed is a wonderful fabric - I used to be able to pick up second hand jackets for tuppence and now they're more covetable, I'm torn between feeling pissed off that they've become harder to find and pleased for the company.

Re inspiration, I have some old family photos dating from the late 19th/early 20th century that could have stepped straight out of a C&R / D&B catalogue. There's one in particular of a wedding, around 1915, where the bride's wearing a suit with a fitted jacket and long, full skirt in a beautiful oyster colour (I think - black and white photo, obviously). Sorry but I'm not going to post it.

Clearly these aren't their everyday clothes - photos were for special occasions so, even if it's not a wedding, they're wearing their very, very best. But I think C&R captures some of that vibe albeit in a very heightened, romanticised way, so maybe that's part of its appeal for me. It certainly makes a change from designers recycling the mid-late 20th century yet again.

Who can wear these? You seem to think any age can style them but do you need to be super slim or ethereal to make them look good? I could imagine looking like a pre-Raphaelite elfin-shepherdess / Violet Baudelaire The Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes (costumersguide.com) but in reality I would look like I got entangled in my cosplay outfit / too old / too busty?

I think several posters have already answered this more eloquently then I can but to try and summarise:

1. There's a lot more to them than voluminous dresses. My own solitary purchase (link somewhere upthread) is a very fitted, beautifully tailored wool jacket with distinctive detailing but not remotely cosplay.

2. The website at the moment is largely given over to the tail end of the sales which yeah, is the more extreme stuff and not entirely representative. Unfortunately in my case this is about the only time when their clothes are affordable for me so I end up spending most of the year looking and dreaming but rarely buy.

And 3) what does 'can wear' actually mean? In my personal opinion, getting dressed is a lot more fun if you let go of all that stuff about trying to look younger and thinner.