Gonfalon and vexillum

I just wanted to say we’ve received the banners and they’re beautiful. Thank you very much for working on such a tight time scale for us and producing them so nicely, it’s much appreciated.  I look forward to working with you again in the future.

A Vexillum is a flag-like object suspended from a horizontal crossbar; the Ancient Roman army used it as its military standard and a Gonfalon (from the early Italian confalone) is a type of heraldic flag or banner, often pointed, swallow-tailed, or with several streamers, and suspended from a crossbar in an identical manner to the ancient Roman vexillum.

Custom made - every one unique

Gonfalons come in all shapes and sizes AND all possible variations of fabrics.  We recommend mixing it up design wise and using matt and shiny taffetas, satin silks, linens, drill cotton, velvets and everything needed to make a sumptuous impression. 

Here we show two custom swallow tail gonfalons we made for St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, October 2021. Fully stitched, double facing (bagged) with appliqued taffeta detail and gold bullion braid and tassel detail. 

The mini gonfalon below is printed to Cotton lima fabric and then overstitched to give texture, then lined, weighted and finished with tab tops.

The 5x3ft gonfalon below is fully stitched, lined and finished with tab tops and a hidden sleeve to hold the fabric straight and eliminate curling.

The custom gonfalon shown below used matt black polycotton for the ermin, two tone navy and sunshine yellow silk taffeta on an optic white cotton drill base.  Tab tops and a hidden channel at the foot of the gonfalon through which to thread a dowelling rod and fully lined in more white cotton drill to give weight and a high standard of finish. 

School banners, Vexillum Gonfalon for Ysgol Dewi Sant, St David's, Pembrokeshire

The Head Teacher of Ysgol Dewi Sant in St David's Pembrokeshire commissioned us to realise the creation of school and house banners for the beginning of the academic year September 2018. 

Each banner measured 5x3ft and constructed in portrait style in the shape of a shield, fully interlined and backed with tab tops to hang the banner from the custom made pole and stand, and fully weighted to ensure the correct drape of fabric.

These vexillae were made using MOD spec woven polyester - this fabric is dense in colour and lightweight.  It is unlikely to fade over time and is fully machine washable without colour run. 

We manually trace all the detail to fabric then carefully applique the detail before trimming and finishing each piece by hand - this is the traditional way to make flags - from projecting the image to scale on a wall, tracing it to paper, then on a lightbox to fabric, then pinning the fabric sandwich (and in the case of the School coat of arms 17 layers of fabric), applique sewing, trimming back - repeated until the image is revealed with no margin for error.

Thank you so much for helping to make our special day extra special. The banners looked awesome in the Cathedral yesterday. David Haynes, Head Teacher, Ysgol Dewi Sant

 Ready to send us your flag design and description? Awesome.  Click HERE.