The UK’s recent heatwave has seen temperatures in London reach 34C or above for six consecutive days, the longest run of such temperatures since 1961. As this weather breaks, torrential rain approaches and we all reach for our umbrellas, we’ve been thinking about past methods of keeping dry. While the term raincoat doesn’t always conjure … Continue reading Mary Quant: The Wet Collection
Introduction To survive for fifty years in the give and take of the fashion world is no mean feat. To remain an independent spirit, plowing your distinctive furrow while the winds of change swirl about you is an extraordinary one. Dame Zandra Rhodes is one such designer. This exhibition celebrates the founding of Rhodes’s fashion … Continue reading Exhibition Archives: Zandra Rhodes – 50 Years of Fabulous
If ever there was an unlikely career path to becoming a fashion illustrator, it was that of Brian Stonehouse. Long before he joined American Vogue in 1952, the first illustrator to be appointed since the end of the war in 1939, he had lived an incredible life of espionage and incarceration by the Nazis. It … Continue reading Volunteer Voices: Brian Stonehouse
Introduction This exhibition tells the story of a pioneering manufacturer of women’s ready-to-wear and shows off some of the best examples of Horrockses Fashions’ production from the 40s and 50s. Horrockses Fashions was one of the most well-respected ready-to-wear labels of the late 1940s and 1950s. It was established in 1946 as a subsidiary of … Continue reading Exhibition Archives: Horrockses Fashion – Off the Peg Style in the ’40s and ’50s
As one of the world’s foremost interior designers, Tricia Guild has a passionate belief that the way we choose to live has a significant impact on our well-being and happiness. The homes that we live in, the things that we surround ourselves with, and the everyday choices we make, can profoundly affect our outlook and … Continue reading Tricia Guild: In My View
Introduction Kaffe Fassett’s career spans over 50 years in a life as rich and colourful as the textiles and artworks that he creates. His influence in knitting, quilting, needlepoint and mosaic is arguably the widest ranging in the world. From his childhood in California’s Big Sur to his life-changing relocation to London in the 1960s, … Continue reading Exhibition Archives: Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour
Designers Guild was conceived in 1970 when Tricia (b.1946) and Robin Guild (1938–2006) purchased David Bishop’s decorating company, based on the corner of Paultons Square and King’s Road in London, an area with a somewhat tarnished shopping ambience. Here they launched Proposals in March 1971, a showroom for contemporary Italian furniture by Saporiti. Meanwhile, struck … Continue reading Designers Guild: The Early Years
From embroidery and cross-stitching, to finishing a pile of forgotten clothing that needs mending, it appears that more people are turning to sewing as a form of self-care. With more free time, and the desire to switch off work-mode when working from home, it is unsurprising that home sewing is having a remarkable renaissance. Sewing … Continue reading Volunteer Voices: Sewing as a Form of Self-care
Dawn of a Decade The end of the First World War marked a new era. The borders of Europe were redrawn and the United States of America, along with Britain and France, entered a period of economic prosperity. Traditional values gave way to newer and more radical codes of conduct that were being established by … Continue reading Exhibition Archives: 1920s Jazz Age Fashion and Photographs
Anni Albers (1899 – 1994) was a twentieth century modernist artist and designer who worked in the medium of textiles, and is particularly known for using the method of hand weaving. Throughout her career Albers produced many forms of textiles including functional and architectural works. Albers began her artistic training at the Bauhaus in 1922 … Continue reading Volunteer Voices: Textile Heroines – Anni Albers
