CONTENTS
INDULGE textiles to buy, collect or simply admire 11 WEDDING LIST Big ideas for the big day by Polly Leonard 37 GUIDING HAND Tuulikki Chompré’s lace collars 72 SHOP TALK NO 9 Jane Audas goes shopping at Merci
GLOBAL textiles from around the world 38 BLUE YONDER Flax takes to the skies by Hilary Burns 58 DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY Whirling Dervishes: a ritual in cloth photographed by Charles Fréger 68 CRÈME DE LA CRÈME The history of Calais lace by Genevieve Woods by Rhonda Brown 96 SWATCH Favourite Fabric no. 42: Honiton Lace by Sarah Jane Downing, illustrated by Thomas Radclyffe
ANECDOTE textiles that touch our lives 22 ICE QUEEN Vera Wang’s bridal wear by Kate Cavendish 26 TROUBLE IN PARADISE Liz Hoggard goes behind the scenes at Hand & Lock with Juliet Ferry photography by Alun Callender 78 SING FOR YOUR SUPPER What did history’s lacemakers think about their customers? by David Hopkin
ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends 12 LAZY, HAZY, CRAZY DAYS OF SUMMER Sarah E. Braddock Clarke finds this season’s collections a sheer delight 16 A HAT TRICK Christine Mathieu at Calais’ Cite Dentelle Mode museum 30 STRAIGHT-LACED Leather and lace an enduring relationship by Kate Cavendish 64 LIFT THE VEIL A cloth held hostage by the Western Gaze by Niloufar Haidari
INDUSTRY from craft to commerce 34 CURTAIN TWITCHERS The Democratisation of lace by Nicola Donovan, illustrated by Emmanuel Pierre 50 BLACK HOLES The Exploration of Absence by Amanda Briggs-Goode 56 WALK A FINE LINE A guided walk through a city built on lace by Chris Matthews, illustrated by Susy Pilgrim-Waters 74 POINT D’ALENÇON The lace of queens and the queen of lace by Sarah Jane Downing
Textile designer, maker and artist Mila Harris-Mussi creates beautifully knitted, cast and dyed works between her studios in Stroud and London. Blending a range of time-old craft techniques with her own style, Harris-Mussi specialises in shibori; the ancient Japanese art of indigo dyeing, and casting with resin. Daughter of renowned craftspeople in their own rights, textile artist Matthew Harris and ceramicist Cleo Mussi, Harris-Mussi has carved her own career path with an experimental approach to textiles since graduating with a degree in Textile Design from Chelsea College of Art. On the 5th 6th and 12th - 13th of May 2018, Harris-Mussi will be opening her Stroud studio to the public as part of Select Trail, an open studios trail presented by British arts organisation SITselect as part of their annual festival celebrating artists and makers regionally, nationally and internationally. www.milaharrismussi.co.uk, www.selecttrail.org
One of Singapore’s most exciting emerging artists, Ashley YK Yeo is a master of hand-cut paper. Engineering on a minuscule level with great detail, Yeo is shortlisted as one of 30 finalists for the annual Loewe Craft Prize. Founded in 1988, this prize promotes creativity, supports educational programmes and safeguards cultural heritage around the globe, in order to ‘reward those who have mastered traditional skills, transforming them for the contemporary age.’ Each finalists’ work will be exhibited at The Design Museum, London from 4 May - 17 June 2018. www.craftprize.loewe.com
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The city of Salvador is home to some of the world’s most dramatic, traditional lace dress, and German photographer Anne Menke has captured it in film. The traditional dress worn by the women of Bahia is called Baiana de Acarajé, and typically features a silhouette made up of a voluptuous, elaborate headdress coupled with a white broderie anglaise dress with many layers including white cotton pants worn underneath a long, voluminous skirt, and a bodice gathered at the waist that typically hangs over the skirt. Coupled with an abundance of colourful, statement jewellery, this ensemble is an homage to the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé. In a region of Brazil where many of its population are of African descent, this traditional white dress symbolises one of the Candomblé deities known as Oxala. In a culture historically ruled by the Portuguese and thus steeped in Catholicism, this religion was a way for slaves to combine their own African religions with Catholicism, while appearing to be abiding by Portuguese rule. www.annemenke.com
The youngest ever Production Director at Hand & Lock, Jessica Jane Pile, is an embroiderer whose skills have been sought out by Mary Katrantzou and Gilbert & George to name a few. Her new book is Fashion Embroidery: Embroidery Techniques and Inspiration for HauteCouture Clothing . £25, Batsford, 2018, ISBN: 9781849944748, www.handembroidery.com
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At the forefront of the tech industry in Silicon Valley is a new kind of lace that pioneer Elon Musk says will advance the future of artificial intelligence. Musk’s newest company, Neuralink , i s currently developing an ultra-thin mesh known as neural lace that can be implanted into the skull, forming a collection of electrodes capable of monitoring brain function, creating a new digital interface between brain and machine. www.neuralink.com
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ICE QUEEN Vera Wang’s bridalwear
Left; Figure Skating: 1992 Winter Olympics: USA Nancy Kerrigan wearing a Vera Wang dress Women's Free Skating at Halle Olympique. Albertville, France 2/21/1992
Vera Wang's story is as fabled as her exquisite wedding dresses: after almost 20 years in the editorial and accessories divisions of the fashion world, she designed her own bridal gown and launched her signature label that has elevated the traditional garment into a high-fashion event.
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A native New Yorker,Wang grew up on the Upper East Side with her Chinese immigrant parents: her father was a businessman and her mother was a translator for the United Nations. She studied ballet and trained to become an Olympic figure skater in the hopes of making the 1968 team before an injury intervened. Instead, she was presented to society that winter at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf.
As a child, Wang enjoyed trips to Paris with her mother, who educated young Vera in fashion: a memorable pair of leather Mary Janes at age 6; an Yves Saint Laurent couture show later. Paris, where Wang later studied art history, honed her eye and style. She wanted to go to design school but her father famously told her to ‘get a job’. Upon graduating from Sarah Lawrence in 1971, she worked at Saint Laurent in sales before joining Vogue as an assistant, being promoted to fashion editor – the youngest there – the following year.
Wang spent 16 years at Vogue, then moved to Paris for a year in 1987. When she returned to New York, she joined Ralph Lauren as the design director of accessories. She was not interested in weddings or marriage until she realised she wanted to start a family. And serendipitously, 4
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Hugely increasing acreage and yields meant that an enormous number of workers were needed to harvest a crop that had to be pulled by hand to preserve the length of the fibre. Hundreds of Boy Scouts did this in Yorkshire, and in other places thousands of women were
recruited from universities and colleges by the Women’s National Land Service Corps. Tented accommodation was also set up for the duration of the harvest, of between three to six weeks at the end of the growing season in June. In the area around Yeovil, where flax had
already been grown for fibre for centuries in soil well suited to the crop, there were several mills and many acres of flax being produced. A collection of beautiful images taken by Horace Nicholls, of young women ‘on a farm near Yeovil’, are held by the Imperial War
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Museum. They show the women, who were brought in to work at Bunford Mill in Somerset, pulling and collecting the flax in the fields, laying it out for retting, loading it on a wagon, breaking, scratching or scotching, and weighing the crop in the mill. Once the war ended,
flax production was returned to private hands. Imports were re-established, and the home industry declined. In the Second World War, the body of the aircraft was still fabric covered, though the wings were then aluminium – linen was also needed for parachute
cord. Women were once again recruited for the flax harvest, now using tractor driven mechanical pullers. Cheap Russian flax continued to drive down prices, and the last commercial fibre production in Britain eventually ended in the 1950s. Today, covering a vintage aircraft, 4
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