Terry B: The Fabric I Have Loved Since the 1970's

Terry b: The Fabric I Have Loved Since the 1970's

There are fabrics you discover as a designer, and there are fabrics that somehow seem to have been with you forever.

For me, terry towelling is definitely the latter.

My love affair with terry started long before Laundry b, long before I understood anything about textile construction and certainly long before I understood why I was so particular about how clothes felt against my skin.

It started with a pair of brown terry towelling shorts that I wore almost daily during my 1970s Ibizian childhood.

I absolutely loved those shorts.

It wasn't because they were particularly fashionable or because somebody had told me they looked good. At that age I couldn't have explained it. I just knew they felt wonderful.

They were soft. They moved. They stretched.

And stretch was quite a revelation in the 1970s.

This was long before elastane became something we expected to find in our everyday clothing. Clothes generally didn't accommodate you in the way we've become accustomed to today. But my little brown terry shorts did.

Given the choice, I would have happily had my entire wardrobe made from the stuff.

Funny how things come full circle!

The Fabric I Understood Before I Understood Myself

I now know there was probably another reason I loved those shorts so much.

At that young age, I had no understanding of my own sensory issues. I knew there were clothes I could tolerate and clothes I couldn't.

Today, tactile quality is the very first stage of my design process.

Before colour.

Before print.

Before I've decided what shape I want to make.

I touch the fabric. I scrunch it. I stretch it. I see how it falls. I see what it does when I let it go.

If a fabric doesn't feel and move amazingly, it isn't getting into Laundry b.

So perhaps it isn't surprising that decades later I've returned to the fabric that instinctively made sense to me as a child.

Only today's Terry b is on another level.

So What Exactly is Terry?

Let's get one thing out of the way.

We haven't made you an outfit from a bath towel.

I know the words terry towelling immediately conjure up towels and dressing gowns, 

But other than that recognisable looped construction, the terry we use for Terry b and an ordinary bathroom towel have very little in common.

Terry refers to the loops that create its distinctive textured surface. Terry fabrics can actually be woven or knitted.

Ours is knitted terry.

That distinction is important.

Knitted terry is generally softer, more flexible and more comfortable against the body than traditional woven towelling. The knitted construction also gives the fabric natural mechanical stretch. In other words, you don't necessarily need to add elastane to a fabric to make it move—the structure of the knit itself can provide considerable give.

Our Terry b fabric is 100% cotton, medium weight, incredibly soft and with an enormous amount of natural stretch.

We've deliberately used the looped texture on the outside and the smooth surface against your body.

So you get that fabulous, tactile, slightly retro terry appearance on the outside, but beautifully soft cotton against the skin.

And because cotton is naturally breathable and absorbent, it's brilliant for those of us whose internal thermostat occasionally appears to have developed a personality of its own.

I'll leave it there. Women of a certain age know exactly what I'm talking about.

Terry Has Been Around Much Longer Than You Think.

The story of terry is actually rather fascinating.

Loop-pile textiles have a very long history, but the development of modern cotton terry in Britain is associated with the 19th-century textile industry.

Samuel Holt, a British weaver working for Christy, developed machinery capable of producing cotton terry commercially in the late 1840s. The distinctive loops gave the cloth greater surface area, which helped make it wonderfully absorbent. Terry production subsequently became industrialised and the fabric became synonymous with quality towels and bathing.

But fashion being fashion, it wasn't going to leave something this comfortable in the bathroom forever.

Terry moved into beachwear, leisurewear and sportswear, and by the 1960s and 70s it had acquired an entirely different personality.

Suddenly terry wasn't simply practical.

It was cool.

And that is the terry I remember.

From the Swimming Pool To The Wardrobe

The 1970s were a turning point in the relationship between fashion and sportswear.

As the decade progressed, clothing became increasingly relaxed and athletic clothing began escaping from the tennis court, golf course and gym into everyday wardrobes. By the end of the 70s, tracksuits and trainers were being worn as ordinary casual fashion, setting up the huge sportswear influence that followed in the 1980s.

That's where Terry b sits in my head.

Not gym kit.

Not a tracksuit.

And definitely not a bath towel.

It's retro racquet club, done in 2026.

There's something about it that also takes me back to the Benetton I loved as a teenager: fabulous colour, clean sporty shapes, casual clothes that somehow looked incredibly pulled together.

If Benetton had made my dream terry collection, I like to imagine it might have looked a little like this.

Meet Terry b

There are four pieces in the collection:

The tank sweatshirt. The lantern-sleeve sweatshirt. The tapered jogger. And the neckerchief.

Everything is Made in Italy from our beautiful 100% cotton knitted terry and garment dyed to create those gorgeous tonal colours Laundry b does so well.

We've created sixteen colours, divided across four tonal colour stories, so everything works together.

And then I've put the Laundry b handwriting all over it.

The shapes are relaxed and slouchy. There's a beautiful lantern sleeve on the sweatshirt. The tank has a hi-low split side hem. The tapered jogger has our soft elasticated waist and ribbed cuff.

And we've used cotton ribbing throughout, even around the edge of the little neckerchief.

It's sporty, but it's not sportswear.

It's relaxed, but it doesn't look lazy.

And it's incredibly comfortable without shouting, I've dressed for comfort.

That distinction matters enormously to me.

Why Should Comfort Mean Compromising on Style?

One of the fundamental ideas behind Laundry b has always been that comfort and style aren't opposites.

Somewhere along the way women have been sold the idea that looking smart means being restricted.

A fitted waistband. A tailored trouser. Something digging in somewhere.

No thank you.

Particularly as we get older.

I don't want to spend my day thinking about my clothes.

I want to put them on in the morning, feel fabulous and then forget about them.

That doesn't mean I've stopped caring about fashion.

Quite the opposite.

I want to look modern. Individual. Effortless. Cool.

I want somebody to stop me and say:

"Where did you get that?"

I just don't want to be uncomfortable while I'm waiting for them to ask.

And Then Out Bodies Change ....

This is where Terry b becomes particularly interesting for our ladies. 

Bodies fluctuate.

Mine certainly does.

After children and then into menopause, I gradually stopped buying traditionally sized clothes because my body simply wasn't staying the same size on any given day!

And I neither had the wardrobe space nor the financial inclination to maintain what I used call my fat and thin wardrobe.

Or, depending on how I'm feeling about myself that day:

my fighting-weight wardrobe and my all-inclusive-holiday-weight wardrobe.

We've all been there.

There was also something much more emotional going on.

My mood could genuinely be affected by whether a particular item fitted me that morning.

We've been taught to give an extraordinary amount of power to a little number sewn into the back of our clothes.

That's one of the reasons one-size clothing became so important to me.

I wanted my clothes to fluctuate because my body fluctuates.

Clothes Should Fit Your Body - Not the Other Way Round

Terry b is one size, fitting approximately UK sizes 8–20.

That sounds like quite a feat until you understand the fabric and the shapes.

The knitted construction gives our terry an extraordinary amount of stretch, while all four designs have been deliberately cut with relaxed proportions.

Nothing is clinging.

Nothing is trying to restrain you.

The jogger has a wide, soft elasticated waist that's gentle against the tummy. The looped outer texture is also wonderfully forgiving over underwear and layering pieces.

But I don't particularly like the idea that we're designing clothes to hide women's bodies.

That's not the point.

Terry b isn't camouflage.

Have you seen the colours?

The point is that the clothes adapt.

If your weight drops, the fluid relaxed shape still looks fabulous.

If your weight increases, the stretch and cut accommodate you.

If you're a little more bloated today than yesterday, you don't need to negotiate with your trousers before breakfast.

Your clothes have one job.

To fit you.

Not the other way around.

The Perfect Fabric For a Fluctuating Body

There's another reason I think terry works so beautifully at this stage of our lives.

Temperature.

Pure cotton breathes. Terry's loops create additional surface area and its construction is naturally absorbent—the very characteristic that historically made terry such a brilliant textile in the first place.

For autumn and winter, we've chosen a luxurious medium weight that feels cosy without creating that horrible trapped-in feeling.

It's why Terry b works particularly well when your temperature changes throughout the day.

Layer the tank.

Throw on the lantern-sleeve sweatshirt.

Take it off again.

Put it back on ten minutes later.

You know the drill.

And It Travels Brilliantly

If I were travelling tomorrow, Terry b would be one of the first things going into my suitcase.

Actually, I'd probably be wearing it to the airport.

It doesn't noticeably crease through wearing. You can roll it into your case, pull it out and put it on.

Trainers or Converse. Terry jogger. Tank. Neckerchief.

Add a trench, our Madison or Dutton denim jacket and you're done.

And because it's pure cotton, it's straightforward to care for too. Our Terry b is soft from day one; you don't need to wait six months for it to become lovely.

As with all garment-dyed clothing, however, I recommend washing separately initially and following the care instructions.

Maybe I Was Right at Seven Years Old

It's strange to think that so much of what I now believe about clothing was sitting there in those little brown terry shorts all those years ago.

Softness mattered.

Movement mattered.

Stretch mattered.

How something felt mattered.

I just didn't have the vocabulary for it yet.

Now I do.

Terry b takes that wonderful nostalgic fabric I remember from the 70s and 80s and brings it right up to date.

Beautiful Italian knitted terry. Pure cotton. Garment dyed. Six fabulous colours. Relaxed one-size shapes. Loads of stretch.

It's retro racquet club without the membership.

It's sporty without requiring you to do any sport.

It's cosy without being frumpy.

And it's designed for a real woman's body that might be one shape this month and slightly different the next.

Because whether you're currently at fighting weight, all-inclusive-holiday weight or somewhere happily in between, I stand by what I'd tell you on a live:

You're wrong if you think this isn't for your body.

Put it on.

It will look—and more importantly, feel—fabulous.