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Hand & Lock

Fabric of Our Time

250 Years of World History

Hand & Lock have 250 years experience embellishing, embroidering and monogramming garments for the Royal family, the military and fashion houses including Dior, Hermes and Louis Vuitton.

 

The long history of Hand & Lock can be traced back to 1767, when a young Huguenot refugee from France named M. Hand came to London and began manufacturing and selling lace to military tailors. Having studied under Italian craftsmen, Hand and was exceptionally skilled in working with gold lace.

In 1898, CE Phipps began creating embroidered fashion items and selling them to department stores. On his retirement in 1956, he sold the company to one of his employees, a talented embroidery designer, Stanley Lock who renamed it S. Lock Ltd.  The Company moved into creating 'special order embroidery' for Christian Dior, Norman Hartnell and other prestigious fashion houses.

This association extended into creating embroidered gowns for Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales. In 1972 the company was  awarded a Royal Warrant.

With a wealth of history behind them Hand & Lock are now London’s premier embroidery house providing embellishment services to the Royal Family, top European design houses, the Royal Armed Forces, Savile Row and members of the public. Based in central Atelier, London they offer a range of services from hand monograms and bridal customisation to goldwork' blazer badges and machine embroidered logos for theatre and tv. 

 

Whether you are a top Italian designer or a parent looking to monogram your daughter’s christening outfit the process and service is exactly the same. Hand & Lock are committed to sharing the art of embroidery know how and inspiring the next generation of embroiderers, and since 2001 have promoted a programme of embroidery education and advancement by creating the annual international embroidery competition ‘The Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery’ and also establishing the ‘Hand & Lock School for Embroidery’ which now operates workshops and classes around the world.

 

The Sunbury Embroidery Gallery embraces this opportunity to collaborate with Hand & Lock and a future collaborative relationship to promote and share the values of inspiring and promoting the importance and enjoyment of embroidery as a fine art to a wider public and future generations.

To watch a short video click anywhere on the image below to open. Video produced by Steve Haskett with support from Arts in Spelthorne.

 

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