Y Harness — Arbutus on Cotton Percale (William Morris)
Y Harness — Arbutus on Cotton Percale (William Morris)
William Morris's Arbutus, drawn in 1881 — the strawberry tree, cantering across a chalk-cream ground in long branches, small red fruits, and white blossoms. The warmest palette in the Morris collection, on a Y Harness in the Alpha 30 Archive.
Arbutus is the William Morris archive in late summer — a three-colour print on cotton percale, with deep bottle-green leaves and stems carrying long branches diagonally across a chalk-cream ground, small clear-red fruits dotted at intervals, and soft cream-white blossoms filling the negative space. The Y silhouette holds the print openly across the chest — the longest, most flowing of the silhouettes, the one that lets the cantering rhythm of branches carry continuously rather than cutting cleanly. White stitching keeps the lines clean against the print. Sourced from Parlour Made in Beccles, Suffolk — the founder's hometown supplier, working with the V&A's licensed William Morris archive range. V&A-licensed provenance: Morris archive prints produced under the museum's licence.
Specifications
| Fabric | William Morris Arbutus — three-colour print on 100% cotton percale |
| Origin | Parlour Made, Beccles, Suffolk (the founder's hometown) — V&A licensed Morris archive print |
| Stitching | White thread from G and A Haberdashery, Queens Market |
| Hardware | Silver — rings and buckles from F Martin & Son; rivets and eyelets from Trimming Shop |
| Construction | Hand-finished in East London at the Harnessed LDN studio, sewn on a Singer Heavy Duty 4423 |
| Weight | ~0.45 kg |
Sizing
Adjustable across a 34–50 inch chest. Universal sizing across the Alpha 30 Archive — broader than most fashion harnesses cap at.
Care
Spot clean only. Hand care preferred. Do not machine wash.
Once this is sold, this exact configuration — Arbutus on cotton percale, white stitching, silver hardware on a Y Harness — won't be reproduced. Future drops may revisit the V&A-licensed Arbutus print with different finishes; this combination exists once.