Hi all I wonder if you could help with a minor conundrum? I picked up an interesting lightweight trouser suit today, which was labelled ‘slimma group one David Bond’ (see photos). I did a bit of research and found a reasonable amount of information about David Bond’s work at Slimma, including winning ‘dress of the year’ in 1967 (see photos) for a considerably brighter trouser suit. But that was more or less it. There doesn’t seem to be much online material aside from the above and I couldn’t find anything much on eBay, Etsy or any of the usual platforms to give me a sense of how interested people are in this designer / these clothes. so my question is this - does anyone know of any other visual resources I could use to try and date the suit, and why is there so little of these Slimma / David bond floating around? Are people just not that interested in this label? any thoughts / information much appreciated! Jane PS sorry about the poor quality of the photos - just couldn’t wait to get input!
Not sure I can answer your question about scarcity, but here are a couple of tidbits I found: From a 1963 article about in the London Observer: "David (28 years old, born on Merseyside, two years' National Service, three years R.C.A., worked in Paris, then offered super job by Slimma) has the definite ideas on clothes that every good designer must have and is a striking example of the 'new wave' of young designers for the British wholesale trade." The article also notes that almost all his "Group One" designs are separates. Here's a pantsuit from 1966: And a 1969 article in The Guardian says that the 33 year old designer (who eventually became a director at Slimma) was responsible for designing most of the clothes to be shown at a new sportswear boutique called "Pzaz". It also specified that Bond's Paris stint was for Jacques Griffe.
Thanks so much! It’s really odd that there is so little of his stuff around, but it is quite small in terms of fit so maybe not that desirable? If anyone could help me identify the strange material - I know I’ve seen it before but for the life of me can’t remember the name - please let me know. thanks again, Jane
I think for some high street brands that were maybe not around for decades, and that have been gone for 30 years or more, it'll always be hard to find information unless someone who was directly involved steps forward. In the close-up, the fabric looks like a seersucker to me.
Hi there You’re completely right - but I was at little surprised to see so little for sale... And I think you are also totally right about seersucker - I suddenly realised before where I’d seen the fabric before and it was on an old duvet cover of mine! Many thanks to everyone Jane
