Queen of frivolity and excess, Marie-Antoinette led Rococo fashion with huge, poufy hairstyles, enormous pannier skirts and all manner of decorative frills, feathers and bows. The Austrian-born royal was thrust into the heart of Versailles from a young age, and quickly learned how to dress to impress as the country’s new Queen. Often portrayed throughout…
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The rich, vivid hue of ULTRAMARINE Linen came to define French painter Raoul Dufy’s art, filling coastal scenes across the Riviera with the entrancing, deepening shadows of night. Known today as one of art history’s greatest colourists Dufy embraced a joyous, technicolour approach to art, colouring paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles with tones as fresh…
“No one has been more important to this history of power dressing than French King Louis XIV.” Ciara Fitzgerald, writer The visionary French King Louis XIV staged a clothing revolution in the 17th century, which would forever alter the fashion landscape. A great aesthete, Louis focussed on indulgence and luxury, seamlessly blending his ideas into…
Dazzling turquoise blues like that of CERAMIC Linen sparkle across Armand Guillaumin’s canvases, lending them the sparkling vibrancy of the French countryside. A leading Impressionist painter in nineteenth-century France, Guillaumin is world-renowned for his luminous colours which capture the glistening light of his native France, from the rural scenery around Paris to the dappled Creuse…
Notorious King Henry VIII had a voracious appetite for life. During his reign over England from 1509 to 1547, he was married six times, divorced twice and his love of fine foods and wines saw his waistline nearly double throughout his lifetime. But of all his heady excesses, clothing was the most outwardly indulgent, leading…
Cold, sharp, and fresh, the pale green tinge of SEA BREEZE Linen billowed and danced through Mary Cassatt’s brightly lit scenes, forming zesty ribbons of dazzling brilliance. As one of only a handful of women associated with the French Impressionist movement Cassatt’s vision was devoted to the female realm; she silently observed the women of…
With her huge, dramatic collars, ghostly pallor and flaming curls of red hair, Queen Elizabeth I’s image is etched in royal history. Trained from a young age to see power and strength in public image, she cultivated a persona that was both pure and powerful. Unwed and without children, she portrayed herself as the chase,…
Blushing crimson reds like that of Tawny Port Linen pulsate across Dorothea Tanning’s fantastical paintings, lending them the passionate turbulence of erotic dreams and nightmares. One of only a handful of female Surrealists to find success in mid-20th century Europe and America, Tanning conjured up brilliantly bizarre scenarios where strange creatures inhabit curious realms beyond…
Mary Queen of Scots is one of the world’s best known and instantly recognisable icons, with her austere clothing and heart shaped headdress. Crowned Queen of Scotland when she was less than a year old, her tumultuous life was filled with uncertainty, but the way she dressed, from her early years in France, to her…
NINE IRON linen’s steely, dramatic grey with just a hint of crimson became great swathes of deep shadow in the hands of the painter Thomas Cole, sweeping across America’s epic mountain ranges and forming wild, turbulent skies laden with thunderstorms. His momentous landscapes are a celebration of America’s sublime wilderness during the mid-19th century, before…
“Early in history, it was important to impress your subjects with your wealth and your bling.” Lucy Worsley, Historian Grand, eccentric and flamboyant, Monarchs have embraced the wondrous power of fabric and clothing since medieval times. From dresses weighed down with jewels to suits covered in gold lace, theatricality and drama has defined the clothing…
Dark, brooding and dramatic, the intense blue of COBALT linen was ideal for Renaissance painter Jacopo Vignali’s heightened, operatic scenes. A leading painter in the Florentine seicento, Vignali’s Baroque paintings were defined by flowing swathes of jewel-toned fabric in midnight blues and crimson reds; set amidst theatrical, directional light, these richly toned colours amplify the…
“Quilts stimulate memories of warmth, security and home, yet their layers can also conceal hidden histories and untold stories.” Sue Prichard, Curator of Contemporary Textiles, the V&A, London Quilts hold a special place in today’s culture, adorning the walls of museums and galleries as totemic mementos of the past. From abstract patterns to personal or…
The creamy tone of ANTIQUE WHITE Linen glistened across the great Realist painter Gustave Courbet’s canvases, investing them with the sparkling vibrancy of the French coast. Courbet’s trademark palette was warm beige, sandy or golden tones, applied with a knife to the canvas in thick slabs as rich and heady as buttercream. These streaks came…
“The history of America can be seen in the history of quilts.” The National Monument of America When pioneers set off for a new life in the United States, many carried with them the great tradition of quilting. Each family came to the New World armed with comforting quilts, some purely practical, others patched together…
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