Night Garden · Adele Palmer Raw Silk Beaded Blazer
100% slubbed silk · allover glass seed bead floral embroidery · shell buttons · shoulder pads · hem vent · Adele Palmer · 1980s · 83cm front length, 45cm waist flat · tagged a vintage 10
Every leaf on her is drawn in glass, hundreds of seed beads strung close enough together that the outline reads before the silk underneath ever gets a say. Tonal black on black, so the vine only declares itself when the light catches the curve of a stem.
The silk itself has a slub running through it, small irregularities in the thread that catch and hold a bead differently than a perfectly smooth weave would, which is part of why the embroidery reads as hand-guided rather than machine-neat. This one carries Adele Palmer's own name rather than JAG, the Melbourne denim label she founded on Chapel Street in 1972 and built into one of Australian fashion's genuine export successes, a rare local label that made it onto Steve McQueen and Bianca Jagger before it ever made it onto a department store rack. Structured shoulder pads hold the line at the top, the era's answer to a jacket that needed to be noticed from across a room.
She closes with heavy, pearlescent shell buttons, substantial enough to balance the weight of all that beadwork, and two flap pockets sit at the hip, embroidered to match rather than left plain. A single vent opens at the back hem for ease of movement, and the shoulders carry their own pads, giving the silhouette its structure independent of whoever is wearing her.
Material
100% slubbed silk, glass seed bead embroidery, shell buttons
Care
Dry clean only. Do not press the beading directly, light steam only if needed.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: Measured buttoned up, she runs 83cm along the front and 76cm at centre back, with a 50cm bust and waist when closed and a 45cm waist through the flat measurement. Sleeves run 60cm, 18cm through the bicep and 14cm at the cuff, and the front crosses over with a 26cm drop at the neckline before it closes. Tagged a vintage 10. Translates to a modern AU 10 to 12, international size S to M.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Excellent. Every bead has been checked by hand, three times over, and sits fully secured with nothing loose or missing. No marks to the silk, and the shell buttons are all intact. Exhibition condition for a piece carrying this much handwork.
Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.
Before it reaches you
Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.
Somewhere underneath all that glass a real vine is still trying to grow, and the beads are the only proof it ever gets to leave. She holds her shoulders the way a hedge holds a fence line, whether or not anyone asked her to. Every leaf was placed by a hand that is long finished with the work and has no plans to explain itself. Wear her into a dark room and let the vine do the introducing.