Earl Of Bedlam

To celebrate the terrific talent of @mrneilforsyth who wrote not only #Legends but also #TheGold (the story of other acquaintances of @misterwesley2020 ) we have created today “The Gold Standard” tee for Tom Burke, @gothicallyinclined777 who plays to such great effect in the former. Embroidered in gold on an unbleached soft white, “stone” coloured, drapey bamboo (oh! Hello! Antibacterial!) tee, we are doing a limited edition of 25. Available in small to XXL. If you’d like to go larger than that, we can oblige, but they will be organic cotton. £80 + £10 tracked & signed postage (£25 r.ow.) Watching as I type episode 4 of Legends, trying “not to fall over in those f’in shoes” while punching the air that @johnnyharris has done the right thing. Or has he?? I remember like yesterday hearing that Olivia Channon had died. Mister Wesley remembers going into the Heygate Estate at The Elephant, into a flop flat like the one in Glasgow, where the delivery driver gets shot, one bulb swinging, stepping over nodding bodies, saying to his mate who’d gone to score, “We need to get out of here”.

You know you’re old when you wait a week to open your presents! That’s the kinda boring grown up discipline six decades delivers. It’s only two days since my actual birthday but a whole week already since the Death & Life party. It was quite an emotional stew to digest, going from funereal mode to fête, hence I’ve only now got to savour many of the fabulous offerings. So much to cogitate, so many seeds to germinate! And the Caroline rose to plant next to the Evelyn rose protected by our white picket fence. Many DIY artworks created; some thoughtfully curated. I am slathered in serum and liberally sprinkled with Chanel, but more than anything I am extremely grateful. And also relieved, as a great gift from the hospital was my biopsy result which finally arrived this week. The blob was indeed a carcinoma but they hope they got it all. The posh SPF 50 was, therefore, a particularly clever cadeau. Chateau Caroline and the script that scuppered two careers 🤣 . Kind and witty friends with long memories - here’s hoping we make many more. I hope to write to every one and there may still be bags yet hiding, please forgive me if I’m doddering slow.

Netflix showed a gratifying appreciation of the mass scarfing of their cast by releasing “Legends” on my birthday yesterday. As the artist behind the burnt match / lighter graphic printed on the lush silk accessories, Tom Burke gets top billing in the tense faction series. We have created scarves for his cast mates in The Seagull and the director & producer of Mad Max Furiosa, too. It takes a while for projects to make it to screen of course so it’s been some time since these were finished. It was only whilst watching two more episodes tonight that I realised the “Gerald” whose favourite colour is Klein blue for whom one scarf was requested, the one where the green pea made its debut as a border feature, is playing the chaotically charismatic Mylonas. The phenomenally convincing @amlameenbaby has his golden Chinese Emperor’s stole; and at some point before the end of time, lovely @johnnyharris will actually get his claret coloured scarf. Dried blood. How chillingly moving his performance was tonight. Will he switch sides? Don’t tell us!!!!

If I make it through the night I shall turn 60 years old tomorrow. If I’m allowed another 40 years of life on earth, God grant me the chance to do a single thing to which #SirDavidAttenborough might give an approving nod. Surely he’s been allowed to keep on going as long as this because even Heaven realises he is indispensable here. Watching the vainglorious vacuous nonsense parading up the blood soaked carpet of the Met Ball across social media today, it made us resolve to try to be a bit more useful during our time on this planet. Imagine if all that effort and $$$ were put to… saving armadillos. We make clothes. We get that it’s not curing cancer, but it is more than simply clothing the naked ape. We try to give people confidence, to entertain a little, to start conversations. Sir David has a couple of these tees, that’s the least we could offer him having quoted his words on the back. To celebrate his centenary TODAY (of course he’s a Bull!!), we have a half price offer to spread these tops like pollen, a little wider across the land. But only these sizes, these quantities: For £30 instead of £60 (+ £10 UK track & signed postage, £20 r.o.w.)… In short sleeve organic cotton, yellow with the silk screen print in black ink: 6 in large fitted In organic cotton, black with silk screen printed yellow ink: 1 large cut straight up n down / 2 fitted 2 extra large cut straight up n down / 2 fitted Wear the wise words of the greatest living human about your person and let’s all try to be more like Sir David Attenborough. Happy birthday To YOU!!!! #GodSavetheQueen #Bee #tshirt #100

On Saturday, May 2nd, we celebrated my mother, Evelyn Mary Butler 16.1.1935 - 2.12.2025; the marriage of my parents (wedding day May 3rd, 1958); and my sexy-th birthday, May 7th. Amongst the precious kernel of special guests - half the original number - was Dave Westlake who travelled the furthest of anybody. When I managed the musical combo Sneaker Pimps for whom he hit things, hard, a significant amount of my time was spent telling people to ditch the “The”. Whether this subliminally influenced my choice of name for our label Earl of Bedlam, who knows. Now sometimes I wryly refer to “The Earl” meaning my beloved Mark @misterwesley2020 but “Earl of Bedlam” the company, the entity, is TWO people, him’n’me. For those who praise Mark alone by name for work that is mine; who tell me “They’re speaking to the Earl” not me; who jump to conclude that the birthday referred to in Carolyn’s picture post of the two of us is him, him who I love dearly, but still, hello, we live in the year 2026. I’m sixty in a few days, I ain’t taking no mo’ miso‘ (gyny). And I have to use up limited words to even say that in the “modern” age. Sheesh. On Saturday as people continued to fall out hour on hour and the skies darkened, I started to feel the day was doomed. As “the garden party” became a crowded house; and cushions, cucumber sandwiches and cakes were scrambled under cover it was hard to maintain esprit de corps. Then the rain eased, oh my, it’s stopping, then came the cry, “We’re doing this!!” As the prodigiously talented @montsecb04 sang, Mummy smiled down through the clouds, a shining golden disc. Thank you Lynton @hurncourtopera My mother trained as an opera singer. Her cousin Patsy, my only blood relative, was present and told how Mummy would play the piano and sing in the hotel when they visited Patsy’s family in Wales. People would stand in their droves outside in the street to listen. She was offered a recording contract, turned it down. For my birthday portion, no one has ever gone to such lengths on my behalf as the Sisters Carr @akc4000 & @htc3003 who assembled the best pix ever taken of me, unlike the wide angle fairground mirror cameras handed out Saturday.

It’s the May Bank Holiday Weekend offer… there’s only one available now at this incredible price, the barrel bag suit carrier of legend, The Wonky Weekender in black faux leather, vegan friendly, embroidered with our coronet in gold… Good Lord! £90 instead of £180, (+ £20 UK postage, £30 r.o.w.), a clever bit of kit if ever there was. Masterfully demo’d here by Goldie. Holly Johnson kindly called it the greatest travel bag ever, takes it on tour. Dimensions are 31 x 54 x 26 cm Pack up your troubles, smile, it’s a half price holiday!!

On this beautiful evening we bring you Good Goldie, the Lonestar Cowboy. If anyone has earned the soubriquet “Earl of Bedlam” with their past life shenanigans, and the right to wear that tshirt, hot damn it’s him. I can state that with authority, I was there. Past and present, a head long collision of the two, it was a proper Back to the Future experience for us both when I motored over to Beaulieu to see him at his temporary lodgings. We swapped my ride for his so he could play me some of the unmixed tracks from his new album that is being created here in the Enchanted Forest. The one armed bandit drove us round twisty roads where ponies grazed the hedgerows that turned into ancient gnarled trunks, across a glade with a flash of sapphire water, then through the open heathland where cattle stood impervious to the privilege of hearing this new music. All the while @mrgoldie was punching my arm with his elbow for emphasis as the hairs stood up on his, then squeezing my hand so tight I thought he’d snap a bone. “You break my fingers I’ll break your nose!” My old friend was in enough agony already with his excruciating shoulder injury and he lessened his grip. As the car surged forward across the landscape of my new home, I felt the familiar drop of my stomach as the bass plummeted like an elevator in a thriller; the wrench on my heart as vocals that matched Diane for emotion but have a quality all Mica’s own; the explosions in my brain as I tried to identify what even WAS that sound, before recognising a guitar being played by a great musician, Noel, not a machine. Then the volume hit 1.21 gigawatts and triggered the flux capacitor. The DMC DeLorean was now back on the A1 running between London and Stevenage, as we drove back into town late at night listening to the raw mixes of Timeless. Goldie drove so fast and the music was so otherworldly, completely new, nothing anybody had ever heard. I was hearing it as it happened, 30 years ago but now, today. I remember thinking, if I die now here in this car, well, I got to hear this. It changed how people made music, it changed how people danced. EoB MC long Go Faster sleeve tee, £80 + p&p Cowboy tees, £60 +p&p

Saturday’s shimmering offering from the Bedlam Vintage Vaults is - believe it or not - a second bag from Ma Butler made by the god of leather goods, Salvatore Ferragamo. Not only is it in its duster bag but in the original carrier bag, with tags, and detachable strap, it is so entirely pristine that I do not think it has ever been used. For this reason, and its sacred provenance, we are asking £800 for this beautiful piece that dates, we suspect, from the early 2000s. Love yourself a little. SOLD grazie Cara.

Keeping it in the family, Simon’s daughter @scarletbyscarletbyscarlet is the Apple of his eye in the Earl of Bedlam Forbidden Fruit “A is for Apple… bite me” tee. Visit her page to see why the pomme is so a propos. #girrrlofbedlam

Spot the difference!

Saturday night is movie night! The dishy film star stepped down from the silver screen to feature here is the actual real silver wolf Simon Willis, in the #NorthbyNorthWest suit we made him in a cloth by @huddersfieldfineworsteds We tried to be true to all the original details - reasonably narrow lapel; button two, show one construction; no pocket flaps; three button cuff; turn ups on trousers etc but what seals the real is the client’s own charisma. @simonpeterwillis

Beautiful belles of blue bursting through the grass at the front of the house that I won’t let Mister Wesley mow until May! Made especially for lovely Liz because she asked (try it, that’s what we do, make to order, one off, bespoken), the new bold typography in gold on a dark blue organic cotton tee. Her second choice was the new super soft bamboo tee in a soft grey, embroidered in the tricoleurs. @curdliz styled it up with her new EoB linen cap in Springy grass green. Photos outside with dazzling beams bouncing off the gold threads were grabbed in between pellets of ice falling from the sky. “Both t-shirts fit a treat & are lovely & comfy,” wrote Liz. “Would you order some sunshine & warmth so I can wear them?” Embroidered brushstroke tees £80 + postage.