Dressing Ed O'Brien for the Second Record

I first saw Radiohead at Field Day Festival in June 2003 for their Hail to the Thief tour. There is something about their music, when the five of them get into a room together, that I have always admired. The willingness to go against the current — creatively, beautifully, on their own terms. Charlotte and I had left London for Blewbury, a quaint village in Oxfordshire, back in 2010, and at some point it dawned on me we'd moved into their neck of the woods. A few years later Ed got in touch — first about a knitted cardi we'd made in Wales, which led him to our denim and a pair of 007s. We've stayed in correspondence ever since — discussing product, fabrics, tours, and, eventually, his second solo record.

In April 2025, when Ed walked into our new Chiltern Street store, the conversation moved from screens into a room. And from jeans, to something a little more exciting.

Ed is very tall, with long arms. The fashion industry was not built with him in mind, and most off-the-peg pieces struggle to give him the right proportion and silhouette. That's the gap The Atelier was always designed to fill — a garment designed for a specific idea, or a solution to a specific wardrobe problem. We talked about tour outfits and he described what he wanted in the way good clients tend to: by reference. Something with the ease of Dries Van Noten. Something that would last a tour and take a beating. Clothes that moved with him.

His wife, he mentioned, preferred how he looked in TWC. I've learned to take that kind of observation seriously.

Ed in the Made to Order Birch Denim Jacket — indigo floral jacquard.

The Cloth

If you've followed TWC for a while, you'll know we have a long-standing passion for Japanese fabrics. Back in April, I'd just received a new selection from a friend of mine at one of my favourite mills, and I added it to the edited group I was going to show Ed — Japanese and Italian, chosen against a specific brief. Stage-worthy, which for me means comfortable, not heavy, with enough textural life to read under lighting without shouting about it.

Ed has always worn denim. Look back through any of the Radiohead archive and it's there — a quiet loyalty to a fabric that doesn't lie. So the first outfit landing in denim felt right. We built it in a jacquard woven with a subtle floral pattern that only surfaces once the cloth has been washed down — barely visible on the loom, then drawn out by the wash. Given the record Ed was making, it was a coincidence neither of us drew attention to at the time.

We cut it in our Birch jacket silhouette, his preferred shape, with the 007 Relaxed Fit Jean. A full denim outfit with a twist. Unshowy. Built to last a tour.

Fabric swatches from the Atelier. The floral pattern surfaces only after washing down.

The Radley

The second piece was a relaxed suit in midnight navy linen — the silhouette we call the Radley, which happens to be a place not far from where Ed grew up. The Radley comes with a pleated trouser, cut full through the body, because a man on a stage needs to be able to breathe.

Ed wore it on the cover of The Times when Radiohead announced their return to touring. I didn't put a press release out about it. We don't tend to shout — and maybe we should, but it doesn't come naturally. For us it's always been an 'if you know, you know' sort of thing.

Ed in the Radley Suit on the cover of The Sunday Times Magazine.

He's since commissioned a second Radley in a khaki green herringbone cotton I found in Okayama and brought back — three rolls of it in my luggage. That's not a flourish; it's just how we tend to do it when the cloth matters.

The Record

Blue Morpho is out on 22 May via Transgressive Records, produced by Paul Epworth and Riley MacIntyre, recorded between Wales and London. It's Ed's second solo album, and it carries the weight of both places — and, I think it's fair to say, of the period that preceded it.

It's accompanied by a short film, Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play.

I'm grateful Ed asked us to dress him for it. The Atelier exists for exactly this kind of work.

— Adam