This is the latest Laura Ashley husband doll, Marrakech Maurice. I wanted him to look a bit like Paul Getty in the famous photo by Patrick Lichfield of Talitha Getty on a rooftop in Marrakech:
I’m not quite sure where he came from, but he was great fun to make:
I had a couple of gos at his hairy chest. I tried colonial knots but they just looked like he had a nasty skin disease, and I tried little ties of stranded embroidery cotton, but they looked clumpy like a different skin condition and so, in the end, I fell back on free machine embroidery over some black net to fill in the gaps. Quite quick to do and a nice effect.
The reason that he is a Laura Ashley husband is that he is wearing trunks under his kaftan made from Laura Ashley fabric, with a belt made from the ribbon they use to wrap things up at Space NK and a small button with a Greek god or Emperor on it – which again seemed fitting:
The cotton fabric for his body was a remnant so I have no idea of the make, but gave him that toasty tan colour of a lot of peacock males, and the lovely green fabric for the kaftan, which I thought was just right is a Kaffe Fassett print which I bought in a sale in Bristol because I couldn’t resist it. Then it make the perfect fabric for Maurice’s kaftan with a good match of scale.
I am slightly troubled that I appear to be falling in love with these boys, and what that says about the state of my psyche, but they are really good fun to make. The Medieval Historian rather likes them as well, which helps. Maurice seems even more pleased with himself than Gorgeous George. I think it might be the moustache. I have another piece underway where there is no moustache (but a rather nice Laura Ashley shirt) and he looks a lot less smug. I think Maurice’s love affair with himself is infectious, though, he makes me smile whenever I catch sight of him.
