Tamasyn Gambell has taken the iconic preserve of high-end fashion houses – the silk scarf – and has found a completely new approach to them. Her scarves are the opposite of those that are shinily new and mass-produced in garish designs; rather, her scarves are reclaimed, sourced from a textile recycling unit in the north of England and then hand-printed with her own designs using organic dye.

The fact that they are reclaimed should not give you the wrong impression – Gambell’s scarves do not feel like moth-eaten jumble sale finds. Instead they are quietly luxurious, chosen with great attention to detail and carefully printed to coordinate with the original pattern. This union of old and new gives each scarf a new identity and a new life.

Tamasyn does, in fact, have a background in the larger fashion houses. She trained in printed textiles at Chelsea College of Art and worked at Louis Vuitton as well as Sonia Rykiel and H&M. She left these larger, fast-paced businesses in favour of working in more innovative, considered and responsible ways – both socially and environmentally.

We buy a selection of Tamasyn’s scarves each season, available both online (from 7th February 2011) and in our shops. However, on Thursday 24th February (between 6pm and 8pm) Tamasyn will also be at our Islington shop re-launch to talk to you and offer you the opportunity to re-invent your own scarves – bring along a tired silk scarf of your own and for £10 Tamasyn will over-print it and bring it back to life…