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ContentsCONCEPTtextilesinfineart18ConflictandCostumeJimNaughten’senigmatic images of the Herero tribe of Namibia capture the influence of a colonial past and the courage of a proud, independent country. 96 Pioneer spirit Sarah Burwash’s evocative watercolour illustrations are inspired by hard working women of the past and the rugged Canadian landscape.

INDUSTRY from craft to commerce 25 The Tailor & Cutter Promoting the principles of proper dress from 1866 to 1972 EricMusgrave, author of ‘Sharp Suits’ – a celebration of men's tailoring over the past 150 years – looks at the contributionthispopularmagazinemadetothetailoringindustry 48 COVER STORY Pressing matter Gail Kelly’s range of printed home textiles mirrors her signature style SeeGail’sworkandthatofotherBritishdesignersattheBritishCraftTradeFair,7-9April,Great YorkshireShowground,Harrogate,www.bctf.co.uk

GLOBAL textiles from around the world 54 COVER STORY Maine Line Writers Rinne Allen and Lucy Gillis take a tour of the craft communities that are surprisingly commonplace in the State of Maine IllustratedbySarahBurwash

ANECDOTE textiles that touch our lives 36 Forgotten Crafts A timely reminder from those who remember NigelLegge,MatthewWilliams, David Bragg andDavid Chubb reveal why they have dedicated themselves to keeping the dying craftsoflobsterpotmaking,longstrawthatchingandweavingbeeskepsalive 71 Fabric swatch No.15: Duck Canvas. Sarah Jane Downing tests the worth of this durable and hard working cloth Illustrated by TomFrost 75 Labour is not its own reward Editor Beth Smith believes small makers should get more defensive about copyright IllustratedbyMarkLazenby

COHABIT stunning interiors beautifully photographed 76 Home theatre Step back in time and glimpse the world of the Huguenot silk weavers in Dennis Severs’ strange and wonderful house in Spitalfields PhotographedbyRoelofBakerandwrittenbyClareLewis andBeckyJones,foundersofAdventureWalksforFamilieswww.adventurewalksforfamilies.co.uk 76 Luggage office Lisa Tilley, the designer behind the label ‘U old bag’, explains why she’s stuck on creating vintage bags and cases with decoupage decorations.

ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends 29 Golfing Glamour Fashioning an identity on the fairway Hannah Fleming, Museum &Heritage AssistantCuratoratTheBritishGolfMuseum,explorestheevolutionoffashiononthelinks 34 COVER STORY Labour party Nicola Donovan discovers that more and more people are adopting workwear as a trend and discovers how function became fashionable.

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Labour party HOW FUNCTION BECAME FASHIONABLE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT WISHART

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Crossing over the Orange River on an old and rusting 500cc motorbike, I felt as though I had been transported to a different planet: lunar, scorching and inhospitable. Barely a year out of college, I had only a rudimentary knowledge of Namibia and its people, but within a matter of days I had reached Lüderitz, a curiously out-of-place German colonial port, and visited Kolmanskop, nearby German ghost town.

I spent a few nights camped on the ominously named Shark Island, an island-turned-peninsula sandwiched between the dunes of the Namib Desert and the ice-cold waters of the Atlantic. (Years later, I would learn that it had been the site of a brutal concentration camp.) I was spellbound by the majesty and magnitude of the Namib, the world’s oldest desert, and bewitched by Namibia’s strangely elusive colonial history, little known or recorded, yet tantalizingly visible – superficially, at least – in the country’s architecture, street names and deserted settlements, the last preserved only by the aridity of the desert.

I rode north, past the highest sand dunes in the world, towards the seaside resort of Swakopmund and the shipwreck-strewn Skeleton Coast, known as ‘The Land God Made in Anger’ by the local San tribe, in view of its isolated, desolate and hostile environment. Over the course of my travels, I learnt more about this remarkable corner of Africa, from the extraordinary cave paintings of the earliest inhabitants to the nomadic Himba people; and from the first Afrikaner settlers to its brief period as German SouthWest Africa and the days of the diamond rush. The 4

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A CAREER AS A SAVILE ROW TAILOR SUITS KATHRYN SARGENT A perfect fit

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Blonde, be-suited, 30-something tailor Kathryn Sargent is on a roll. She was appointed head cutter in Savile Row in 2009, working for the seriously pukkha firm of Gieves and Hawkes; early last year she set up her own company and this spring examples of her work will go on show in the Rhode Island School of Design’s exhibition Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion in the US. She is also the recipients of the Hand and Lock Embroidery Prize for the second time. ‘I keep pinching myself – I’m living the dream,’ she says.

It’s a dream Sargent’s followed since she enroled on a fashion course at UCA Epsom in 1993 and realised that womenswear was not for her. Aware that she needed a job at the end of college, Sargent realised that out of about 60 students only 10% went into menswear and so took the unusual decision to specialise in this area; it wasn’t just any menswear, but the high-end, high-quality craft of tailoring that she was drawn to. ‘I was a bit of a Mod at the time and liked 1960s styling and sharp tailoring,’ she explains, adding, ‘It was a deliberate choice to make myself a bit different.’

This choice was the start of a love affair that Sargent has pursued passionately. Her degree course hardly covered tailoring so she taught herself. ‘I bought old Burberry suits and took them apart to learn how they had been made, photocopied the pieces and then put them together again,’ she says, adding, ‘I wanted to make everything myself and to understand the process.’ Another study aid was the second-hand tailoring books she collected published by Tailor & Cutter, see pg 24, which were full of arcane tips of the trade, illustrations on how to draft traditional patterns and analysis about how classic clothing was constructed.

After graduating Sargent was taken on as a trimmer by Gieves and Hawkes. And this is where she honed her skills: tailoring, like any craft, is all about hands-on experience. ‘I got my head down and got on with the work and practised and practised and practised,’ she says. This dedication clearly paid off as she rapidly worked her way up the tailoring tree, winning the Golden Shears Award in 1998 and becoming a cutter with her own clients in 2000. And although Savile Row is very much a man’s world, run by men for a predominantly male clientele, Sargent managed to avoid hitting a tweed ceiling on her way up. She attributes this to her professionalism, but I suspect her undoubted talent and steely determination also helped. ‘I didn’t want my gender to hold me back so didn’t let it become an issue,” she explains briskly. And the result is she now runs her own company, Kathryn Sargent Bespoke Tailoring.

So what exactly is bespoke tailoring? It is the intricate process of making a personalised garment for an individual client from scratch. The process starts with Sargent meeting the client to discuss their needs, tastes and lifestyle. ‘Communication is really key,’ she says. The client is then measured and from this set of measurements the cutter, ‘the architect of the suit’ according to Sargent, makes a unique paper pattern which is then used to cut the actual cloth (which will have been chosen by the client with Sargent’s input). This is lightly basted, or tacked, together for a further fitting and then details such as pocket position are decided on before a final fitting and hand finishing. A bespoke suit can take up to 50 hours to make in a process that involves eight different specialists including cutter, trimmer, coat and trouser maker and presser.

The starting price for a Sargent suit is £3,200 plus VAT, but for this the client gets exactly what he or she wants and a garment that they will look and feel good in: an experienced tailor will be able to disguise a client’s physical imperfections and subtly flatter their physique. It’s this individual approach that appeals to Sargent who, in spite of the relatively limited range of clothing she makes, never gets bored with her job. ‘Everything I make is different as every client has a different personality,’ she says. In fact her range is constantly evolving and is no longer limited to the traditional business suit or dinner jacket as clients are now ordering more casual wear. Womenswear is also becoming increasingly important and now accounts for 15% of Sargent’s business, an increase probably due in part to the elegant tweed jackets she makes for herself to wear at work – a great advertisement for both her skill and commitment to the world of bespoke tailoring. Diana Wolf in d u s t r y s e l v e d g e . o r g

When, from our positions of relative ease and comfort, we look back on people who had to create by hand every necessity of life – food, shelter and clothing – the effort they expended is almost impossible to imagine. But from artist Sarah Burwash research and imagination comes a series of images that capture the day to day struggle of pioneer women and the central role that textiles played in their lives.

She explains: “My point of departure are stories gathered from journals, memoirs and biographies by those who were brazen and persistent in forging for a new social order. My research turns to past generations who lived rurally and relied on community, resourcefulness, ritual, spirituality and tradition for survival to create narratives.”

Historically quilt making gave women an acceptable outlet for creativity while fulfilling their household duties. Sharing the labour of quilting through quilting circles, relieved the isolation of women's lives. Sarah explains: “I’m interested in this sense of community as well as the act of repetition, daily domestic tasks and the philosophy of the fold. Deleuze writes, ‘repetition changes nothing in the object repeated, but does change something in the mind that contemplates it...(repetition) is not carried out by the mind, but occurs in the mind which contemplates, prior to all memory and reflection’. I’m investigating how repetitive and laborious tasks allow us to transcend our imagination, blurring the lines between present and past, reality and fantasy, neither time or place fixed.”

Another important element in Sarah’s work is her physical environment. “I am4

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The bedroom décor reflects the fashions of the 1760s by which time the Gervais family had anglicised their name to Jervis. The bed is fur nished with hand woven textiles; an extravagance only afforded by the wealthy. The monkey climbing the rope is a mechanical toy. At the time goods from around the globe, including exotic animals which became favoured pets, were flooding into London’s thriving port.

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Inspired by Charles Dickens’ descriptions of a visit to a weaver’s house in Spitalfields, (published in his weekly jour nal Household Words in 1851) Severs set up this attic room as homage to Dickens. The props setting the scene include: Ebenezer Scooge’s bed and his top hat, coat and money box; Oliver Twists’ empty gruel bowl; Bob Cratchit at his desk; Tiny Tim’s crutches; a picture of Bill Sykes with his dog Bullseye and Little Nell’s basket.

The Regency Room represents the end of the wealthy Spitalfields and the demise of the family. The pretty embroidered fabric and lace from Elizabeth’s wedding dress, woven by her husband’s weavers, decorate the dressing table. The little etching propped up against the mirror depicts Elizabeth as a young woman. A small portrait (not shown) by the window has a black ribbon hanging over it to show that the subject, her son, is deceased.

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