Page 61 - The Bite Magazine - Spring Summer 2013

eum educate and inspire the next generation of
creatives. In partnership with Newham
College, the museum is now a hub
of learning, ideas and networking
for the fashion and jewellery
industry.
Every month, The Fashion
and Textile Museum run a full
programme of exhibitions and
talks, including courses such as
‘Draw Like A Designer’, ‘Fashion
Sketchbook’, ‘Snowball Quilt
Workshop’ and ‘Photoshop
Tricks and Tips’. From
29th March to 29th June
this year, one of their
major exhibitions, Kaffe
Fassett – A Life in Colour
celebrated the work
of one of the great
practitioners of
contemporary
craft and
his long
a s s o c i a t i o n
with internationally
renowned hand-knitting
company Rowan. Kaffe
Fassett, a San Francisco
native is an accomplished painter and
designer of textiles whose work has
been exhibited in Denmark, Sweden,
Norway, Australia, Canada, Holland,
Finland and USA, plus gallery shows
in France, Germany, Iceland, Japan,
New Zealand and Australia. He is also
a dedicated teacher who travels the
world lecturing and sharing his work
for up to five months of the year, and
a best-selling author of 18 patchwork
books and seven hardback knit books,
all of which explore the role of colour
in design.
The show was the first in London
since Kaffe Fassett’s record-breaking
presentation at the Victoria and
Albert Museum in 1988 and featured
over 100 works within a dramatic
installation. The highlights of the
exhibition included extravagantly-
coloured 9-foot-wide knitted shawls,
coats and throws, patchwork fabrics
shown in a glorious selection of quilts, as
well as items especially created for the
exhibit and not seen in the public before.
A ‘feeling wall’ allowed visitors to touch and
better understand the textiles on display
and their construction, and a 224-page
autobiography Kaffe Fassett Dreaming in
Colour published by Stewart,Tabori & Chang
accompanied the exhibition.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of
The Fashion and Textiles Museum, Zandra
Rhodes Unseen will be showing at the
museum from 12th July until 31st August
this year. This will be a rare opportunity
to explore the creativity of one of the
bitefashionexhibition