Kaffe Fassett is full of Californian energy and it has a lot to do with his upbringing. He grew up in Big Sur, south of San Francisco, on a spectacular stretch of that beautiful, dramatic coastline in a house which had belonged to Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth.
At the age of nineteen Kaffe Fassett won a scholarship to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston but inspired by his conversations about England with Christopher Isherwood he left in for London. His timing was perfect. London was about to explode in colour with the arrival of the swinging sixties and Kaffe was in his element. On a trip to Scotland he took up knitting and results followed fast. He designed the knitwear for Bill Gibb, and Missoni of Italy commissioned his early collections. Private commissions for one off pieces followed and at about the same time Kaffe became heavily involved with Tricia Guild’s Designer Guild, one of London’s most successful interior design companies.
In Kaffe started to design tapestry kits for us and a couple of year’s later knitting patterns for Rowan. In Kaffe became the first living textile artist to have a one man show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. There followe
A snippet from the KnitRowan website:
Born in San Francisco, Kaffe studied painting at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston USA. Kaffe left the United States after just 3 months at art school and travelled to London in order to paint. He settled there in …
… Kaffe’s love of textiles led him to travel extensively. The international charity Oxfam asked him to work with poverty-stricken weaving villages in India and Guatemala, to advise on designs that would be more marketable in the West. As a result, a range of colourful hand woven fabrics have been produced for use as shirt fabric, bed throws and patchwork fabric. This is available on an international basis through Rowan UK and Westminster Fibres, USA. Other charity work has also taken him to South Africa…
… Kaffe’s current passion and idea of heaven is creating cloth for patchwork, yet he continues to lecture and tutor knitting workshops. His excitement for all his chosen crafts shines through and his company is exhilarating and exciting for knitters and non knitters alike. Kaffe says “being the dinosaur of patchwork and knitting guarantees that people will come and listen to me”.
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Kaffe Fassett
Kaffe Fassett is a leading textiles designer and practitioner of contemporary crafts. He has a loyal following of patchworkers, knitters and embroiderers all over the world. A Californian by birth, he moved to the UK in where through a series of collaborations, he built his name and reputation. He began by creating knitwear designs for Bill Gibb and Missoni. He became a leading light in the knitwear revival of the 80s.
Further explorations led him to needlepoint, mosaics, rug-making, tapestries, fabric design, theatre design and quilting. Kaffe Fassett’s first needlepoint design was commissioned by Pamela Lady Harlech for Lord Harlech. His work has been collected by Barbra Streisand, the late Lauren Bacall, Ali McGraw, Shirley Maclaine and H.R.H. Princess Michael of Kent.
In he became the first living textile artist to have a one man show at the V&A Museum. He has exhibited in countries including Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Canada, the USA and Iceland. His autobiography was released in (Kaffe Fassett: Dreaming in Colour) followed by a retrospective of his work at the Fashion & Textiles Museum, London in
Kaffe has written many books on colour and
Making Magazine, Christmas
What has happened to my eyes? I have the peculiar feeling that nothing is ever going to look the same again. I have just left the house of the quilter cum knitter, painter, rug-maker and mosaic master Kaffe Fassett, an artist widely considered to be a guru of colour, of all things bright and beautiful.
Earlier, on my way from the Tube to his house, rainy old Kilburn looked like any other part of northwest London, which had caused me to quiz him on why he&#;s settled here in the old smoke, when he could be &#;back home&#; on the stunning Pacific Coast in California. His answer didn&#;t quite satisfy me: &#;I want to be in Europe. I&#;m a European. This is where my heart is – in the old world.&#;
Okay, I thought, but this still doesn&#;t quite explain why Kilburn. But now I think I get it. Having spent a couple of hours in Kaffe&#;s studio and home engulfed by colour and pattern – flowers, fabric, mosaics, needlepoint, wool, quilts, rugs, tiles, Buddhas, paintings, china, wallpaper – I realise that Kaffe thrives on the beauty of whatever is around him. He draws out the colour. &#;Colour is the reason that I make stuff,&#; he tells me, &#;so that I ca
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