Raine Studios
Raine Studios is a clothing production, sampling, alterations and repair studio based in Penzance, Cornwall.
Services: Brand Voice & Tone / Creative Writing & Commission / Website Copy
Brand voice development, creative writing, and website copy for an independent textile studio offering repair and alteration to their community. My work with Raine included the development of deeply considered brand language and a series of creative commissions — seasonal writing pieces that brought the studio's textiles to life through sensory, literary prose for window display. The writing drew on the rhythms of the year, the materiality of fabric, and the quiet ceremonial quality of clothes worn and returned to across seasons.
“A square of silk, gifted in the dark of December. Reds like stained lips, deep sapphire blues, and pinks the colour of a winter morning sky. In this gift lies the offering of many seasons of wear to come: silk fed through fingers, looped and wrapped, tied at the nape of the neck. In winter, it is a bloom of colour on grey days and long nights, a break in the black and the bleak. Then spring emerges, and the silk is a sign of our reclamation of all that is bright and beautiful, tied like elastics around ponytails and buns. In summer heat, we brush each strand of hair from our faces, hold it all under a triangle of print, and let the sun bathe our skin. And as Autumn brings the cold, we pull the silks down past our chins and protect the soft warmth of our necks. Then it is winter again. A whole year of wear come full circle. And so it begins anew.”
“In the season of riches and adornment, often the smallest of gifts hold the most tender meaning.
As the studio moves through the year making and renewing beautiful garments, we collect the offcuts, giving life to every morsel of fabric.
From emerald greens to hazy neutrals, these ribbons of discreet or decorative remnants are stitched and scrunched into new form, made to wear as the final touches to an outfit, a gift to savour.
On festive nights in the warmth of a crowded room, we tuck spilling hair away from flushed cheeks; on slower days, we weave loose curls in a knot at the nape of our neck, wrapping strands between ruffles in a soft enveloping. In this, even the simple act of putting up our hair is an invitation for adornment, gently enriching our day to day.
This festive season, a percentage of sales from all Raine scrunchies will be donated to Little Princess Trust — gifting real-hair wigs to children and young adults who have lost their hair due to illness, and funding vital research into childhood cancers.
At Raine, we celebrate the small gifts of feeling beautiful, always.”
“Alteration — the art of tailoring clothes to custom-fit our bodies — was once a service at the heart of our high-streets, a hand-in-hand offering with new clothes.
Though we are buying and wearing more clothes than ever, the craft of alteration has become hidden, performed behind closed doors by a grandparent, a neighbour, a friend of a friend. Or, it has been forgotten altogether.
Our bodies are not mannequins; off-the-shelf clothes are not designed to fit all bodies perfectly, and sizing options don’t encompass all the individual quirks our bodies wear — the way our dominant hand may alter the angle of our shoulders; how height is not always proportional between leg and torso; the way we carry or lose weight in different areas. Our bodies also change, and what we need from our clothes may change too.
The world of fashion is big and beautiful, but without alteration services we are closed off from enjoying all it has to offer, or from fully embracing what we already have in our wardrobes. Through alteration, we are gifted entire worlds of wear.
Raine Studios is an alterations studio, championing a revival of this service as an essential part of buying and wearing clothes.”
“In summer, our town is awash with colour. Flags line the streets, hoisted on poles and threaded between buildings in celebratory displays. In these weeks, daily routines are made brighter as we walk beneath a canopy of textiles rippling in midday sun.
Flags are the markers of many occasions, their forms collaged together to offer decorative representations of people and places. In an ode to Midsummer, Golowan fills our streets with flags that bloom with colour and shape, highlighting different threads that make up Penzance, this year in appreciation of “our town, our planet”.
At Raine this year, we are honouring the Golowan flags, collaging our own from scrap materials accumulated from in-house projects and our community as a celebration of textiles and the commemorative role they play in this yearly festival.”
“This month at Raine Studios we are celebrating the art of repair.
This is the season of knitwear. In Autumn and Winter we unearth our woollen garments; jumpers, socks, scarfs, hats and gloves. Some may be moth-eaten or worn through — evenings are spent darning, partings in the yarn made whole again, the story of repair worn visibly in celebration or intricately hidden in discreet stitch lines. When cared for, these garments become pieces to last many seasons, years, even lifetimes, renewed in the ritual of repair.”
“A bow is the marker of endings and beginnings; the final touches to a gift, the first invitation to unwrap.
This month at Raine Studios we are celebrating gifts of quality and longevity; small treasures exchanged in the coldest season, made to last and be renewed for many years of wear and use. They are pieces to outlive trends and seasons, offering continual year-round joy and the lasting generosity of the gift-giver.
A pair of brushed cotton pyjamas for many peaceful nights; a hand knitted jumper; a pair of earrings to last lifetimes; a pair of socks to be worn and darned; a hat for each year’s coldness; a silk scarf for daily wear. These are pieces to wear, to use, to repair and renew.”
