Famous wool designer visiting N.Z.

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 21

Famous wool designer visiting N.Z.

The British fibre artist, Mr Kaffe Fassett — best known to knitters for his exquisite knitted garments and wall-hangings which specialise in colour, texture and pattern-making, is visiting New Zealand this month. The visit, which was arranged by the Education Committee of the Spinning, Weaving, and Woolcraft Society, includes a Christchurch lecture to be held at the University of Canterbury's Engineering School, in E 8 lecture room this Friday, September 5. The lecture begins at 7.30 p.m. and is open to the public. It is titled “Colour Tuning.” Mr Fassett is a leading London designer who specialises in knitting. He was born in California,

moved to London in 1964 and has spent much of his professional life as a painter. Oriental carpets have often served as “grounds” in the pattern-on-pattern still-lifes that Mr Fassett paints. According to a rather charming version, he moved towards wool rather than painting, as a creative medium, because of a short vacation in Scotland, a visit to a tweed mill, and a quick lesson from a cleaning lady on the basic skills of Fair Isle knitting. Mr Fassett became fascinated with the blending of the yarn colours and began “painting with wool” to create garments. In his own words: “Decoration of any sort catches my eye. A pattern spreading across a carpet,

a table, or the decoration on chinawear have often found their way into my knitted garments and stitched pieces. Oriental carpets and china have been my richest sources of inspiration.” Today a Kaffe Fassett coat or sweater can be regarded as “investment dressing,” for the garments become art, sometimes containing as many as 200 individual colours of wool.

As his reputation has grown, Mr Fassett has been invited to lecture in both England and America. Vogue Magazine discovered him and he is now well known in fashion circles.

One of his coats bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum featured in their exhibition earlier this month "Knit One, Purl One,” and he has pub-

lished his first book. Titled “Glorious Knitting,” this book was swooped up by fascinated knitters when it arrived in New Zealand in April. The book contains graphs and simple shapes to enable even beginners to create wonderful garments. In it he encourages knitters to look more perceptively at the range of rich colour shades and tones and to look for harmony between colour and texture in their work. *

As an extension of his knitted pieces Mr Fassett has begun to work in needlepoint and was recently commissioned to stitch the upholstery for a modern sofa, drawing inspiration from an old Flemish tapestry which was to hang above it. The impression which it created was almost of a single plane — an illusion

of the tapestry flowing down over the couch on to the floor. “The trick” he said “was to keep the new wool colours for the canvas as soft and muted as the aged tapestry.”

While in New Zealand Kaffe Fassett will give slide lectures and workshops in Christchurch, Wellington, Palmerston North, and Auckland. The aim is to sharpen the awareness of colour. The lectures will be of interest to other fibre artists as well as knitters, as his approach and ideas cover an exciting outlook on the use of colour.