We first discovered Egg at the top of Dover Street Market, where it greeted summer 2019 with substantial dresses in the largest bright pink and green gingham prints I had ever seen. After that, I never have been able to climb to the top floor without going over to the Egg section and touching the cottons and cashmeres to gain a sense of the quality of these clothes that are obviously made to last a lifetime. They feel comforting, protecting, relaxed, certain.
Designer Maureen Doherty launched her line in 1994 after training under and working with the brilliant Issey Mikake as a pattern cutter. Doherty has since travelled all over the world looking for inspiration and has found it in purposeful garments such as Rajasthani milkmen’s overalls and Japanese monks’ trousers. Nothing at Egg is tight or constrictive; nor are there any zippers, as the clothes are giving, or forgiving – easy to move in.
It felt a bit like a pilgrimage when Sonia and I made a recent visit to Egg’s painted white shop on quiet Kinnerton Street, all ready for autumn and its rustic browns and silvery nights. Again, the fabrics begged to be handled, and we delighted in the discovery that there are regular sales. Over a century ago, the shop was a dairy with pretty blue tiles that still speak of steady, useful labour, perhaps in smocks that might have borne some semblance to Egg’s creations. The shop, like the clothes, seems to have stepped outside of time, holding a kind of stability and perfection.
Fashion Tours London finds Egg at Dover Street Market on our Latest in Design tour.
Cindy Lawford
