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INTELLECTUAL BARBARIANS The Kibbo Kift Kindred The men in hoodies and belted tunics, clutching totem poles, could be Shoreditch hipsters. In fact their faces stare out from a photograph taken in 1925. As part of their programme of curating exhibitions from archive material, the Whitechapel Gallery is celebrating the work of the progressive English organisation, The Kibbo Kift Kindred (sometimes dubbed ‘the radical Boy Scout rebels’). ‘Kibbo Kift is little-known, which is one of the things that makes them exciting,’ says Dr Annebella Pollen, co-curator of the Whitechapel show. ‘They have been written about in terms of youth movements of the 1920s, and political campaign histories – but never from the point of art and design.’ Previously unseen woodcarvings, furniture, ceremonial dress designs, hand-decorated tents, banners, set designs, and archive photographs taken on parades and camping trips present a forgotten moment in British social history which continues to resonate today. Pollen, who is Principal Lecturer in History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton, has organised the show, Intellectual Barbarians: The Kibbo Kift Kindred, with Dr Nayia Yiakoumaki, curator of the Whitechapel’s Archive Gallery. As a textile historian, Pollen first came across Kibbo Kift when her daughter joined the youth movement, Woodcraft Folk – and she became fascinated by ‘these archaic rituals and strange languages’. As she looked further back in the archive she came across the eccentrically attired Kibbo Kift. ‘I thought these are like modernist constructivist avant-garde costume, this is not Brownies and Guides,’ she recalls. ‘Many of the images are so contemporary in terms of fashion,’ agrees Yiakoumaki. ‘It’s totally coincidental but if you look at music videos with hipsters wearing foxes’ tails and masks, some of these images could have been taken last year.’ The movement, which only ever had about 500 members at any one time, was started by artist, writer and pacifist, John Hargrave – after he became disillusioned with the perceived milituristic sympathies of the Boy Scout movement. He created the progressive, back-to-nature Kindred in 1927 hoping to train SELVEDGE 56

a body of people that would lead a lost society back to health and prosperity, after the horrors of the First World War. Their ethos was based on a shared appreciation of nature and handicraft, as well as a commitment to world peace. The group was open to every age and gender and allowed men, women, boys and girls to camp together, which was rather controversial for the time. ‘It was founded by a man but about half the membership were women,’ says Pollen. ‘The women were the ones who were doing costume and banner making and embroidery. There were a number of interesting women involved in it who were themselves highly skilled practitioners.’ Notable members and supporters of the group included suffragettes Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal, scientist Julian Huxley, social reformer Havelock Ellis, novelist H. G. Wells and the surrealist photographer Angus McBean, who learned his skills in photography, set and costume design while he was in Kibbo Kift. It’s rumoured that Mellors, the gamekeeper in DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Below Left: Surcoat (Herald) , 1920-1931 Costume 100 x 70cm Below: Surcoat (Blue, Skein of Emblazoner), 1920-1931 Costume 91 x 87 cm Following Page Left: Lodge Signs Following Page Right: Lian Hodges SS 2015 SELVEDGE 57 Lover, is actually based on John Hargrave. ’They were forward thinking, socks and sandals wearing, sometimes vegetarian, and were also very much pro women’s liberation; so a lot of former Suffragettes joined because they saw an opportunity for women to be involved in this organisation where they might have more of a participatory role that was equal.’ Kathleen M Milnes, aka Blue Falcon, designed the group’s Kinlog, a huge illustrated history of the movement which is in the Whitechapel show. While the Skein of Emblazoners (the embroidery section) was headed up by Hargrave’s wife, herself a leader of camp groups before Kibbo Kift started. ‘The detail and execution of the embroidery on the archery items for example, is remarkable,’ says Pollen, showing me a blue surcoat from 1920-21 decorated with an abstracted image of a woman working on an embroidery screen. Woodcraft and outdoors pursuits like hiking and camping, even sunbathing, took on a kind of spiritual importance for the group,4

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a body of people that would lead a lost society back to health and prosperity, after the horrors of the First World War. Their ethos was based on a shared appreciation of nature and handicraft, as well as a commitment to world peace.

The group was open to every age and gender and allowed men, women, boys and girls to camp together, which was rather controversial for the time. ‘It was founded by a man but about half the membership were women,’ says Pollen. ‘The women were the ones who were doing costume and banner making and embroidery. There were a number of interesting women involved in it who were themselves highly skilled practitioners.’ Notable members and supporters of the group included suffragettes Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal, scientist Julian Huxley, social reformer Havelock Ellis, novelist H. G. Wells and the surrealist photographer Angus McBean, who learned his skills in photography, set and costume design while he was in Kibbo Kift. It’s rumoured that Mellors, the gamekeeper in DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s

Below Left: Surcoat (Herald) , 1920-1931 Costume 100 x 70cm Below: Surcoat (Blue, Skein of Emblazoner), 1920-1931 Costume 91 x 87 cm

Following Page Left: Lodge Signs Following Page Right: Lian Hodges SS 2015

SELVEDGE 57

Lover, is actually based on John Hargrave. ’They were forward thinking, socks and sandals wearing, sometimes vegetarian, and were also very much pro women’s liberation; so a lot of former Suffragettes joined because they saw an opportunity for women to be involved in this organisation where they might have more of a participatory role that was equal.’

Kathleen M Milnes, aka Blue Falcon, designed the group’s Kinlog, a huge illustrated history of the movement which is in the Whitechapel show. While the Skein of Emblazoners (the embroidery section) was headed up by Hargrave’s wife, herself a leader of camp groups before Kibbo Kift started. ‘The detail and execution of the embroidery on the archery items for example, is remarkable,’ says Pollen, showing me a blue surcoat from 1920-21 decorated with an abstracted image of a woman working on an embroidery screen.

Woodcraft and outdoors pursuits like hiking and camping, even sunbathing, took on a kind of spiritual importance for the group,4

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