The role textiles play in contemporary art is a hot topic right now, one that countless galleries and publishers around the world are keen to pick up on. Some of the most publicised, recent examples include Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate’s Entangled: Threads and Making in 2017, Tate’s stellar and widely popular tribute to the masterful…
Fabric and Fibres in Contemporary Art: An Introduction
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do. I’m Gurusurya I work as a professional photographer and spend pretty much all my free time with friends or crafting or both. I have always felt a strong pull to create things with my hands. I love the magic in a thing that was created by hand…
British based painter Tomma Abts chooses retro, in-between shades that are hard to place, particularly the dusty, vintage pink of SHADOW GREY Linen. Woven like strips of found fabric into her abstract designs, ribbons of these unusual colours fold over and intersect with one another, creating complex visual puzzles that shift in and out of…
“Elegance is the balance between proportion, emotion and surprise.” Valentino Garavani, known worldwide by his first name alone, had an immaculate, Italian touch, one which earned him widespread, international acclaim. Finding his voice in the 1960s, his old-school, Hollywood glamour was an antidote to the proliferation of androgynous, tomboyish styles that were rising around him,…
When working with natural dyes many dyes need an additional substance or mordant to help fix the dye to the fibre. Mordant comes from the french “mordre” to bite, a mordant will help the dye bite to the fabric or fibre. When people first start experimenting with plant dyes this step can often be overlooked…
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do. Ma Ma Osa is a handmade clothing brand that offers heirloom quality garments, made by a mother. We celebrate the cherished craft of sewing and seek to honor the art of slow fashion in all our practices as a brand. Each one of our garments are…
SPHINX linen’s exotic jewel tone unfurls across Inka Essenhigh’s evocative paintings, investing sublime oceanic depths or mysterious forests with a haunting, glowing aura. Fantastically surreal, her exquisitely detailed, atmospheric scenes collapse together natural and synthetic worlds, conveying lush, fervent landscapes populated by sprites and fairies, scenes painted with supernatural colours and the emanating light of…
“My job as a designer is to make a woman feel her very best.” Dominican designer Oscar de la Renta brought sleek, Spanish tailoring and European elegance to the United States in the mid-1960s, forever altering the country’s fashion landscape. Making his name in New York, he attracted high profile clients including politicians, models, actors,…
Hemming used to be one of my least favorite parts of sewing. The main structure of garments come together quite quickly. Then all the finishing details such as hemming and sewing buttons, etc. take just as long as it does to construct the whole thing! It can be highly frustrating. But recently my views on…
Tell us abit about yourself and what you do. My name is Masha Karpushina and I am an illustrator, for the past five years however I have also been the editor of the thread, helping my father run the business he set up some 20 odd years ago. Perhaps some of you may not know…
With the weighty indulgence of port wine, EARTH linen’s warm, rich darkness swept across Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio’s canvases, lending them an entrancing, dark opulence. Set against dark shadows and pale flesh, Caravaggio explored how this colour could bring heady notes of sinful decadence into his paintings, heightening their passionate tension and trembling tenebrism, inducing…
“My obsession is to make women beautiful. When you create with that in mind, things can’t go out of fashion.” Famously private and mysterious, Tunisian-born, Parisian designer Azzedine Alaia remains one of the fashion world’s most enigmatic figures, one who rebelled against the structures and conventions of the industry to follow his own path. Known…
When I first stated natural dyeing I found it daunting & somewhat intimidating. There was so much to learn and remember however over time I have come to see the simplicity in a process that first felt overwhelming. Just like anything when you break it up into small sizes it becomes much easier to grasp….
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do. I am a former London Primary School teacher who picked up dressmaking later in life after getting inspired on a trip to West Africa. What started as an escape after a busy day with the kids at work has ended up changing my life. My…
Bold, powerful and intoxicatingly bright, POPPY Linen’s candy hue can bring a snap of life to everything around it. British abstract painter Howard Hodgkin saw this colour’s vibrant, sparky potential, layering it into his evocative arrangements of colour, texture, shape and light as a foreground flare of colour that jumps towards us. He also saw…
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11 Mar 2026 @ 4:37 am by Emma Cartmel
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11 Mar 2026 @ 4:37 am by Emma Cartmel