CHILDRENS SUMMER NIGHTWEAR SALE – MORE THAN 40% OFF UNTIL 25TH AUGUST
Tatler front cover, Christmas 2001.
Damask childrens traditional cotton nightwear has been a popular choice with parents and children alike for more than twenty years. The enduring quality of our nightwear means they can become heirlooms to be passed on to the next generation.
When my children were young, I realised there was a lack of pretty children’s cotton nightwear so I looked to my children’s favourite story books and nursery rhymes as inspiration for our range of childrens embroidered cotton nightwear. Favourites include ‘Titania’ a fairy nightdress and ‘Margot’ a ballet inspired nightdress on white cotton. Boys pyjamas feature embroidery themes such as ‘Biggles’, using old fashioned aeroplanes and ‘Stirling,’ featuring brightly coloured racing cars. Boys pyjamas are made from a crisp pale blue cotton poplin fabric.
Damask use only fine quality cotton fabrics and all nightdresses are treated with flame retardant finish to comply with BS5722. Our nightwear is finished to a high standard using only the best quality trims and buttons and is machine washable at 40°C. Styling is traditional with generous sizing that starts from age 3 upto 8 years. The nightwear collection comprises nightdresses and pyjamas.
The origin of lullabies and nursery rhymes
The oldest children’s songs of which we have records are lullabies, intended to soothe and help a child sleep. The English term lullaby is thought to come from “lu” and “la” sounds made by mothers to calm children, together with “bye bye” as a term for good night.
For generations children have been entranced by nursery rhymes and it is thought that they were set to music to help in a child’s development and improve their vocabulary.
A favourite childrens nursery rhyme book of mine is called: “A Stitch in Rhyme” with nursery rhymes and embroideries by Belinda Downes, published by Methuen.
A former artist-in-residence at Hampton Court Palace and an artist widely exhibited around the world, she is an expert needlewoman. For the book illustrations she has stitched playful pictures of Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, Ring-a -Ring o’ Roses and nearly fifty other favorite bursery rhymes onto fabric with colorful patchwork borders.
‘Biggles’ aeroplane embroidered boys cotton pyjamas available from: http://www.damask.co.uk
Margot ballet embroidered girls nightdress available from: http://www.damask.co.uk
All designs Copyright Damask for the Home Ltd. 2017
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Summer memories of childhood – places to visit and activities for the school holidays
Whilst preparing a summer promotion for my childrens nightwear, I remembered some of the places I used to visit in the long school holidays with my children when they were younger. One of our favourite museums was the V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA. Open daily 10 – 5.45, admission free. www.vam.ac.uk/moc/
They have a programme of activities and exhibitions and children will love the range of toys, old and new including some lovely dolls houses and there are plenty of hands on activities.
The Museum holds a collection of around 100 dolls’ houses, models and shops, we can learn a lot about how people used to live by looking into these miniature worlds.
Mr Potato Head
The invention of New York born George Lerner, Mr Potato Head was launched by the toy company Hasbro in 1952. the original Mr Potato Head contained only parts, such as eyes, ears, noses and mouths, and parents had to supply their children with real potatoes for the head. Over the next three decades, a variety of Mr Potato Head products were sold including Mrs Potato head and two children, Spud and sister Yam.
They also have a wonderful clothing collection which includes over 6000 garments and accessories worn by children from birth up to their teenage years. One of my favourite is this beautiful smocked dress because it is reminiscent of the beautiful hand smocked dresses my mother made for my sisters and me – we have kept some of them as they are now heirlooms, our own daughters have worn them and they are now waiting to be passed down to the next generation!
Patchwork dress, 1942 V & A Museum collection
Another passion of mine is patchwork and quilting, a selection of quilts are available on the Damask website: www.damask.co.uk
One of the dresses in the museum’s collection is a patchwork dress made for a little girl called Jane by her mother in 1942 after an unexpected invitation to a children’s party. By this stage of the Second World War, parties were unusual as there were significant food shortages and many children had been separated from family and friends after being evacuated.
At this time, new party dresses would have been very difficult to obtain as clothing was rationed, and cost money as well as precious coupons.
The night before the party, after Jane had gone to bed, her mother collected every spare scrap of fabric she could find. In the morning, Jane’s patchwork party dress (pictured) was ready: her mother had cleverly made a dress using all the scraps of fabric.
This also reminded me of some of the classic children’s books by Mary Cicely Barker my daughter Lucy used to enjoy, featuring fairies and wood land creatures – a perenially popular theme with little girls. Inspiration for the embroidery on my nightwear designs, ‘Titania’ and ‘Tinkerbell’ came from some of these delightful books and illustrations including:
‘Wee Forest Folk – Fairy Circle’
‘The Fairy Orchestra’ by Cicely Mary Barker
‘Titania’ fairy embroidered pure cotton nightdress available from: http://www.damask.co.uk
Until the end of August, Damask have a 30% off sale on their traditional childrens nightwear.
Damask specialise in beautiful childrens nightwear. Our exclusive embroideries feature perenially popular themes such as fairies, ballerinas, racing cars and aeroplanes.
We use fine quality fabrics in white cotton lawn for girls and wovens for boys.
All nightdresses are treated with flame retardant finish to comply with BS5722. All nightwear is finished to a high standard using only the best quality trims and buttons and is machine washable at 40°C. Styling is traditional with generous sizing that starts from age 3 upto 8 years. The nightwear collection comprises nightdresses and pyjamas.
Another museum dedicated to children is:
The Museum of Childhood. 42 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TG.
Open 10 – 5 Mon – Sat, Sun 12-5pm. Free entry.
The Museum of Childhood is a fun day out for the whole family. Young people can learn about the children of the past and see a fantastic range of toys and games, while adults enjoy a trip down memory lane.
They will enjoy finding out about growing up through the ages, from toys and games to health and school days. Hands-on activities, including a puppet theatre and dressing up area, together with our fantastic museum shop, help to make your visit a memorable one.
The Museum of Childhood’s costume collection contains over 2,500 items of clothing. These range from dainty christening robes to sturdy sandals and dressing up costumes.
The costume collection covers baby clothes, boys’ and girls’ ‘best’ clothes, school uniforms, society uniforms and all sorts of other clothes and accessories.
Visitors to the Museum can see ‘children’ dressed in their party clothes, school uniform and fancy dress. These outfits are only a fraction of the collection, which covers everything from sailor suits to cowboy hats.
They have lots of baby clothes from the period 1880 to 1930, including beautifully-made christening robes. Baby clothes were often kept for sentimental reasons, and many of their christening robes have been passed down through families for generations.
Amongst clothes for older children, there are lots of party or ‘best’ dresses for girls and Highland outfits or sailor suits for boys. They have more girls’ clothes than boys’, as they tended to last longer, and their prettiness made them hard to part with.
In 1997, the Museum acquired a wonderful collection from a former television costume designer. It is made up of childrens everyday clothes and shoes from the early to mid-20th century – the sorts of things that weren’t kept, and so have become rare.
They don’t just have clothes in the collection. Their accessories collection includes fans, bags, purses, jewellery, muffs, parasols and hair ornaments, many of which reflect adult fashions.
A model aeroplane made from Meccano and inspiration for our boy’s pyjama called ‘Biggles’
‘Biggles’ aeroplane boys pyjama http://www.damask.co.uk
- The National Trust Museum of Childhood is a delight for all ages with something for everyone. Children can discover something new, or relive nostalgic memories by exploring the childhoods of times gone by, make stories and play with toys. You can be a chimney sweep, a scullion or a Victorian pupil, and enjoy interactive displays.
Damask – Our Story
Damask was started in 1987 by Carolyn Dunn. With a background in fashion and textiles, she used her knowledge of handicraft skills and textiles to make an exclusive range of classic pure cotton nightwear for ladies & children.
Damask derives its name from the finely patterned fabrics produced in Damascus in the middle ages and introduced to Europe by crusaders in the 11th century.
It is woven using a jacquard loom to produce high quality fabrics in cotton, linen and silk and its qualities makes it suitable for garments, table linen, bed linen and home furnishings.
Over the years Damask have established a loyal following for its ultra feminine white nightwear. Front button openings make the styling popular for maternity, nursing mothers and hospital stays. Cotton is a soft and absorbent fabric making it ideal for wearing in bed.
*”With the right birth partner, massage with essential oils and a new Damask nightie, I too could have an earth-mothery, drug free delivery.”
*Quote from The Daily Telegraph, ‘The Mummy Diaries’ by Rachel Johnson.
Using only the best quality pure cotton lawn, Damask’s designs are enhanced by delicate embroideries where flowers often offer inspiration. Hand- made laces, details such as pin tucking and Mother of Pearl buttons all give the designs a feminine look.
One of Damask’s most popular styles for the maternity and nursing mothers featuring a front button opening is ‘Eleanor‘
Our History…
Carolyn’s background in fashion included working for ‘French Connection’ and ‘Monsoon’, sourcing handicrafts, garments and textiles in the Far East. As a result of this experience, she worked as a consultant for The Indian Handloom Export Council travelling around Southern India by train visiting handloom mills. The mills were mainly run by people who had never travelled outside of India and had no idea what the western market wanted. Indian domestic taste was for bright colours, and those exporters who did travel outside of India, usually arrived to see buyers with a suitcase full of all the samples they had ever made. Carolyn’s job was to advise the Council how they could tailor their offer to appeal to the Western market.
With £2000 earned from this trip, and the knowledge she had gained of the home textile and clothing markets, she set about starting her own business sourcing products from the companies she had met in India, many of which were started by entrepreneurial independent women.
Back in 1987 the Victorian heirloom look was very popular for nightwear and this provided the inspiration for the first range inspired by a book on Victorian nightwear and pieces bought at antiques fairs.
Over the years the company has built up a loyal following for its cotton night wear including members of the royal family. Each style is given a girl’s name to suit the design. A customer purchased a “Lolita” to wear as a wedding dress on a beach in Antigua, and a photograph of “Desiree” in The Daily Telegraph brought a flood of men wanting to buy it for their wives.
When Carolyn had her children, she discovered how practical the night dresses were for maternity and added a range of children’s nightwear featuring embroideries of favourite pastimes and nursery rhymes. Grandparents and parents still like to see little girls wearing demure white nighties with delicate embroidery. Favourites include ‘Titania’ a fairy embroidered nightdress and ‘Margot’ a ballet inspired embroidery on white cotton. Boys get to choose from more robust embroidery themes, popular styles are ‘Biggles’, using old fashioned aeroplanes and ‘Stirling,’ featuring brightly coloured racing cars. Boys pyjamas are made from a crisp pale blue cotton poplin fabric.
The company opened its’ first shop in 1995 in the New Kings Road and was one of the first stores to offer a lifestyle brand. Everybody thought the location was dreadful because it was on a busy stretch of road by a set of traffic lights. However, it had a great frontage which allowed for good window displays and a captive audience caught by the traffics lights. The shop had a loyal customer base as well as a French and American clientele and many celebrities who saw it as a quintessentially English range.
In 2005, Carolyn took the decision to concentrate exclusively on an online shop. The website was recently updated to reflect the move towards online shopping and features the most popular ladies and children’s designs and a selection of quilts. A vintage clothing section has been added to reflect her continuing interest in fashion, vintage clothes and accessories.
