Kaffe Fassett: A Life in Colour

 Yesterday evening Ed and I had the delightful experience of stepping off the grey streets of Bermondsey into the Fashion and Textile Museum's latest exhibition, Kaffe Fassett: A life in colour. Although the exhibition officially opens tomorrow we wanted to share our sneak preview!

I have long been a fan of Fassett's work; my mum purchased me a copy of Glorious Interiors  from a charity shop when I was teenager and it has since become one of my favourite books. Fassett has a unique sense of colour and print and although his textiles are wonderful I was most excited to see his interior set ups! The exhibition has been curated in collaboration with Sue Timney, another print hero of mine, and it was wonderful to see their two aesthetics meet. Fasset's quilts set against Timney's black and white striped columns created a wonderfully rich space; I particularly enjoyed the way they used the height of the space as it is so often ignored in exhibitions. There was a great mix of items from Fasset's quilts to his needlepoint cushions and the first jumper he ever knitted! It was lovely to see it all displayed in such a thoughtful and inspiring way. The second floor of the space included a garden set up complete with a table set for lunch and a beautiful needlepoint armchair. This space worked for me the best as it demonstrated the way in which Kaffe's work can transport the viewer to another space.  It can be hard sometimes being a colourist in this often grey world, so it is always a delight to meet and find like minded individuals. I found it hugely inspiring to be stood amongst all that colour, in fact when I got home I started painting straight away!

We both throughly recommend our visit to this wonderful exhibition, its a delightful way to while away a few hours. It left us with a spring in our step and a smile on our face for many hours following!

Kaffe Fassett: A life in colour runs from 22nd March to 29th June, tickets are £8.00 or £5.50 for students & concessions. More information can be found here & more info on Kaffe Fassett is available here

Folk Dress

 Lepage- Medvey, E. (1939) National Costumes. London: The Hyperion Press.

 Korshunova, Tamara Timofeevna. (1979)  Kosti︠u︡m v Rossii XVIII _ nachala XX veka : iz subranii︠a︡ Gosudarstvennogo Ėrmitazha =[Costume in Russia, 18^th- early 20^th centuries. Leningrad : Khudozhnik RSFSR

 Korshunova, Tamara Timofeevna. (1979)  Kosti︠u︡m v Rossii XVIII _ nachala XX veka : iz subranii︠a︡ Gosudarstvennogo Ėrmitazha =[Costume in Russia, 18^th- early 20^th centuries. Leningrad : Khudozhnik RSFSR

Sorry for not posting in such a long time! Edward and I have both been rather busy of late. I am delighting in editing my thesis currently and have just recently put on a Late event at the British Library, which was thankfully a big success. Anyway, these photographs were actually taken as part of the Late event. My endlessly talented mum, Penny MacBeth, made headdresses inspired by the British Library's Russian Archives (read more about it here). I collaborated with her and researched traditional Russian and Hungarian folk costumes and we took a few photos inspired by our findings! The dolls belonged to my great aunt, we have lots of them all stored away and we plucked these ones out as they were particularly fitting. I love their funny expressions, they look a bit cross and the first one is doing a very well executed bitch face. The costume I'm wearing we bought at Port Eliot Festival last summer, its comprised of a skirt, waistcoat, top, apron and pouch. The underskirt is from a charity shop, the undershirt is an old monsoon dress, my boots are from Bertie and the headdress was made by Penny MacBeth.


Lally