Knitwear: Chanel to Westwood

Interesting exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the history of knitwear.

The show was based on the collection of Mark and Cleo Butterfield and was just as interesting as a show about a collection as about knitwear. The earliest works were from the late Victoria period with two lovely knitted men’s waistcoats which could still be worn now.

The show was beautifully arranged with dated and themed displays in wooden crates creating little scenes. I love the fact that one figure had broken out of its crate and was sitting on the top as this just broke up the regularity of the display. I also liked the mix of designer wear and homemade.

I loved the crate on Second World War make do and mend as my mother had helped at those evenings as a child carrying round a box of samples of work on a ribbon round her neck to show the audience. There were fun colourful jumpers made of all sorts of ends of wool.

I also liked the crate called “Artistic afternoons” which showed that knitted designs, being made up of square stitches, are inherently cubist. This was all very Virginia Woolf in style.

Upstairs I was amused at the 1980s jumpers and thinking about what design trends I am been unwittingly influenced by!

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