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©Royal A rmouries Museum
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Higher purpose CARIN MANSFIELD’S LOFTY AIMS
Heavy metal
TEXTILE DESIGNERS UNTEMPERED ENTHUSIASM FOR STEEL
Imagine a metalwhich, in its freshly rolled state, has the same timeless grey and gentle sheen of a classic wool flannel, but which when heated, can turn the most beautiful shades of cham
pagne, straw, peacock blue and imperial purple.
Steel. Simple, honest steel. The metal of
Victorian Great Britain, produced in vast quanti
ties to make everything from bridges and buildings, to weaponry, transport and furniture... to yarn, fabrics and garments. A metal that can be knitted, woven, even felted and tufted. Whilst the daring and brilliant work of Henry Bessemer in the 1850s revolutionised the manufacture and enabled mass production of mild
steel in this country, steel had in fact been known
about and produced in small quantities for more
than three thousand years, valued for its extraor
dinary range of properties; flexibility strength, hardness, malleability. The ancient civilisation of the Hittites who lived in what is now Turkey, knew about and were able to manufacture a metal recorded as 'good iron' – iron with a carbonised (steel) surface, to make superior weapons and blades.
Other civilisations around the world also made
small quantities of steel, by smelting locally
gathered iron ore with different types of plant mattter, thus adding the essential 1% carbon that results in a steel alloy. Recipes were fiercely guarded and steel was often valued more highly
than its equivalent weight in bronze or copper.
In addition to being used to make blades
and weapons, steel was used on garments for its
protective qualities. Across the Mughal empire, a type of armour was developed, in which small sections of iron or steel were attached to a padded wool or cotton garment to help deflect blows during combat. The most exquisite example of this is the magnificent Elephant Armour displayed in the
Royal Armouries in Leeds. Made in the 16th
century, the elephant is clad in metal encrusted
fabric. Squares of steel attached to the cloth to
make a flexible, protective covering. Many of its 5840 platelets are decorated with chased and repoussééd flowers or animals. As with many examples of Mughal armour, the result is a brilliantly conceived, meticulously crafted, flexible outer shell, clearly inspired by natural form and function, part crocodile, part pangolin.
The function of the addition of steel and
other metals to fabric in the form of platelets and
studs has morphed over the centuries from actual to implied protection. There are many examples of studded silk and velvet garments worn on formal or royal occasions in the 18th and
19th centuries such as the ‘Coat of 1000 Nails’
also at The Royal Armouries, Leeds, that are the
decorative direct descendants of steel platelet
armour; it could even be argued that studded, leather bikers' jackets of the 1950s and 60s owe something to this ancestry – the studs offering some protection if the rider comes off his bike. Over the last 20 years, textile designers have developed ways of including steel in the structure of the cloth, rather than as an addition to its
surface. Since the 1980s, the NUNO corporation
in Japan has produced groundbreaking textiles
in which stainless steel is used in the construc
tion of both woven and knitted fabrics and as a decorative but functional surface bond, and in which iron and mild steel are used as a means to produce indelible pattern. At the forefront of these developments were textile designers Reiko Sudo, Junichi Arai, Koji Hamai and Makiko Minagawa, with examples of their work exhibited
in 'Structure and Surface – Contemporary
Japanese Textiles' in New York in 1998.
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Photography by Bill Batten. Text by Clare Lewis.
Dixieland, Svenskt Tenn at Liberty, £99 per metre (inc VAT) Liberty, Regent Street, London, W1B, T:+44 (0)20 7734 1234, www.liberty.co.uk, www.svensktten.se
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Bon Voyage, Raoul Textiles, George Smith, £169 per metre (inc VAT) George Smith, 587-589 Kings Rd, London, SW6 T:+44 (0)20 7384 1004 , www.georgesmith.com
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Sweet home Alabama OUR WORD PERFECT COMPETITION WINNER CINDY FOREST HEADS SOUTH
A latter-day alchemist, American
designer Natalie Chanin constructs rich pieces from the most basic of materials - cotton jersey. Its movement and ease make jersey 'the perfect modern fabric' to Chanin, a former costume designer, who began working with it eight years ago to create
new garments from old T-shirts. “I
liked its feel, the way it looked, the
way it came together,” she recalls.
For her new couture line, Alabama Chanin, she continues to work almost exclusively with the material to create garments and textiles that sparkle with wit, ingenuity, and the occasional bead. In her refined approach to
jersey, Chanin also honours the
textile traditions of her native Florence, Alabama. “Growing up, I knew our
area was rich in cotton,” she says, but it was not until she returned home
to complete Stitch, a documentary on Southern quilt making traditions, that she learned Florence's output of cotton jersey made it 'T-Shirt Capital of the World' in the 1980s. Global outsourcing has left the town's textile industry largely defunct but Chanin is proud to produce her line locally.
In fact she moved on from her first couture line,
Project Alabama, when its production facilities moved overseas in 2006. Today, every piece in the Alabama Chanin line is stitched, embroidered, and otherwise embellished by hand in a studio based in one of Florence's former textile factories. “I'm inspired by my community,” Chanin says. This local sensibility
is felt in the running stitches along her garments'
seams that evoke Southern American quilt making
traditions and in the vegetal motifs that sprawl like
wildflowers across them. Even the warm, earthy hues of the most recent Alabama Chanin collection – off-whites, tonal blues and greens – find resonance in the fields and vast, open skies of her native state. The easy grace of Chanin's designs belies their complex construction. Signature finishes include appliquéé and reverse appliquéé, while beading and
embroidery add texture to the jersey fabric. Along the
hem of a softly structured jacket from the last collection, words such as
'Respect’, 'Replay’ and 'Revisit' are embroidered in a spirited black
script, thus rendering explicit a theme of sustainability that is implicit in all of her work. In addition to using non-toxic paints and low-impact processes, Chanin has worked from the beginning with recycled cotton jersey, a knit fabric 'upcycling' it to meet her couture sensibilities.
REPRO: Hi Res supplied DSC_3.2.20062.tif
Robert R ausch www.gascreativefuel .c om
At the heart of Chanin's work is her belief in an intimacy between the seamstresses who construct her designs and the ultimate wearer of her garments. She encourages her seamstresses to
think loving thoughts as they run their fingers along a new strand of
thread before joining it to the needle, a technique she calls, “loving
your thread”. In her new Alabama Stitch Book, Chanin notes that
this act of goodwill also helps prevent the thread from knotting. This personal approach to handicraft preserves a whisper, in the exposed seams of every Alabama Chanin piece, of the personality and poise of the original artisan. •••Cindy Forest
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Contents
INDULGEtextiles to buy, collect or simply admire
15 Bird brain Designers flock together
16 Backpack basics Simple summer essentials
29 Urban jungle Let prints run wild
INDUSTRY from craft to commerce
22 New designers What happened to the new designers of yesterday
48 Heavy metalTextile designers untempered enthusiasm for steel
58 Mechanical data Jump threads and tension in the Schiffli Project
ANECDOTEtextiles that touch our lives
75 Design fileA case history of classic textiles: The Silver Studio
96 Ker pow! Power dressing
CONCEPTtextiles in fine art
25 Net and nylon Elaine Duigenan captures an artificial beauty
34 Waxing lyrical Henry Moore’s textiles
52 Walking the block The poetry of Jane Weir
62 Field workSew:Sow Jeanette Appleton on tour
ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends
38 Disentangling denim Serge de Nîîmes or London serge: a cloth by any other name
42 Forever in blue jeansThe fashion never fades...
56 Sweet home Alabama Natalie Chanin’s love of the South
COHABIT stunning interiors beautifully photographed
66 Higher purposeCarin Mansfield’s lofty aims
GLOBAL travel destinations and ethnographic textiles
46 The wheel turns Justin Jin compares textile workers then and now
INFORMthe latest news, reviews and exhibition listings
04 bias/contributors 05 correspondence 07 news
Trends and essential
ideas 13 sustain
Mending our ways: ethical
textiles 19 Cut flowers
An extract from the
Alabama Stitch Book
65 Guiding hand Don’t turn your nose up at souvenir handkerchiefs 86 international listings
Exhibitions, fairs and
events 90 view
Body Space
Ghada Amer
From Atoms to Patterns 95coming next
The Indian Summer issue
Textiles in full bloom 93resources Information and research
links for this issue 80subscription offer A hand woven Volga Linen
tea towel worth £10 for
every new subscriber and
renewal plus Art in Action
tickets and Virago books
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