Background
Joshua Wilks & Jay Shipley founded The Orphan's Arms in the early summer of 2010 with the solid conscience to create a label that anchors itself uniquely within a context of English heritage and culture. This is a declaration stemming from what they saw as a lack of creativity and originality behind casual labels currently for sale.
From humble beginnings at East London's Brick Lane market The Orphan's Arms experienced a fantastic response to their poignant and reactionary motif; it seemed there were more than just a few similarly minded individuals jaded with the modern face of faceless manufacture. So, utilizing their own personal experiences and knowledge of literary tradition, historical interest, singular wit and teenage memories they set out to create a collection of totally unique prints, each perfectly indicative to the English heritage style they set out to preserve.
The intellectual palette of The Orphan's Arms now spans and juxtaposes the entire gamut of English society.
Inspiration
The Orphan's Arms collection is a wealth of uncompromising prints, heralding a renaissance of cultural appreciation, inspired by England and its startling heritage. Intellectually rigorous, each piece is inbued with the label's modern sentiments of nihilism and ironic humour. The Orphan's Arms simple yet classic shapes serve as an ideal canvas for display- all matched with equally classic colours. Innovative and experimental hand dying and bleaching is employed, culminating in a series of coloured garments seemingly resultant of the busy scrubbings of a Victorian Workhouse laundry. Each item demands to be washed in virgin tears.
The Orphan's Arms: For him, for her, for the dead, for the dying, for the condemned.
How does it make you feel?
Reactionary.
