This is the textile artist Kaffe Fassett at home in London, pictured by the FT How to spend it. What a treat to get a glimpse of his world through this article from a few weeks ago. There are plenty of young creatives with a love for bold colour at the moment that inspire people with their work and lifestyle. I am pretty sure that they in turn have all been inspired by Fassett at some point. He famously fell in love with some brightly coloured wool yarn on a trip to Scotland in the 1960s and bought a bunch to take home. On the train back to London a fellow passenger taught him to knit and his first creation appeared in Vogue knitting. He later became a long term collaborator with Missoni and Bill Blass and still has links with the fashion world, most recently working on runway pieces for Stuart Vevers at Coach. I know a lot of people are taking up embroidery, knitting and other crafts right now so it seems timely to revisit Fassett and his work.
Kaffe Fasset knits, does needlepoint and paints but it is the quilts that I love most. I have been dreaming of making my own quilt for years and perhaps if I didn’t have the garden and home schooling duties at the moment, this might be the time to make that project happen. It would be a labour of love for sure, not a quick fix. Vintage quilts sell as investment pieces at The Apartment and they have some really gorgeous ones, but I think it would be so amazing to make your own. Even if the bright, bold Kaffe Fassett look isn’t to your taste, you can’t help but be inspired by his work simply in terms of what is achievable.
Kaffe Fassett and his partner Brandon at home. Don’t know about you but I would love to hang out with these guys. Have a cup of tea and do some knitting, listen to stories about the good old days. That sort of thing.
A super fun master class in visual references, Art-lexachung was set up by Spanish sisters María and Beatriz Valdovín. They delve into the huge archive of photos featuring the world’s favourite fashion muse and pair them up with works by Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Klimt, Goya and others. The resemblance is astonishing and there are so many examples! Not sure what it all means except that nothing is ever truly new, but that doesn’t matter – this is just a bit of fun.
Ben Pentreath is an architect and interior designer who also runs the completely gorgeous shop Pentreath and Hall in Bloomsbury. Every instagram user with a remote interest in interiors will recognise images of the Dorset rectory where he lives with his partner Charlie McCormick, about a million Dahlias and a handful of dogs. But perhaps not everyone knows about his lovely blog where he shares weekly accounts of country walks, village fetes and windswept visits to their Scottish bothy. Pentreath writes in the most soothing, gentle way and it feels like a privilege to get to share some of his experiences through his photos and words. You can find his blog here. A perfect evening read when you have reached boredom with the regular Netflix scroll.
