THE LATE DESK SHIRT

A sand pinstripe borrowed from tailoring and cut into a shirt. Across the back, a cartouche of scrolling foliage frames Only the Blind, London, England in engraver's script, with a monogram set into the ornament top and bottom. The lettering is worked in chain stitch, the looped line standing proud of the cloth; the foliage is stitched flat around it; and the single rose at the centre is foam-filled, raised in three dimensions so one element lifts clear of everything else. The same crest, smaller, on the chest pocket. Three registers of stitch in one graphic, all in cream on sand - no colour contrast anywhere, so the whole thing reads in relief. Cropped and boxy through the body, dropped shoulder, straight hem with side vents. Chain stitch, foam-filled and flat embroidery.