With every fibre of my being - there is no getting away from it! - Part 2
Fashion has long been influenced both by gender and by a women’s position in society. Women were expected to dress in a “ladylike” fashion and conform to social standards. However, since the early 1960’s fashion has been at the forefront of women’s liberation and a women’s right to choose.
I really like clothes and consider myself fairly ‘fashionable’ - stylish even. I’ve always felt this was inherited and, possibly, compounded when in 1968, I attended a year long Secretarial Course at Lucie Clayton in Gloucester Road. Besides learning shorthand and typing skills we were introduced to dress sense and even taught how to get into and out of a Sports car, not an easy task when wearing mini skirts - the fashion craze at that time!
Secretarial diplomas
My whole family have had a considerable impact on my love and sense of fashion.
My earliest memories around clothes/fashion are being dressed by my mother in similar, and sometimes exactly the same, clothes as my sister for family photos. Also having the skirts on our smocked dresses let down at the waist to catch up with our growing. Kathleen, who was my maternal granny’s lady’s maid, did this annually, alongside other repairs and mending. Maybe she taught me hand sewing at the same time?
My maternal grandmother, Aileen Elisabeth, wore fashionable, often couture, clothes. Kathleen made her under garments for her, including an embroidered cloth to put these under each night and a cape to protect her clothing when she was doing her make-up. When Aileen was 44 she died from diabetes, shortly after her son Paddy was killed in the second World War. The above photos show Aileen in her Red Cross nurses uniform, with my grandfather Herbert Holt and in a painting which still hangs in my mothers dining room.
My maternal step-grandmother Opal also had a huge collection of couture clothes including items from Digby Morton, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga. My mother and Aunt donated most of these to the V&A. Some have been included in various exhibitions held there. My step-mother made a lot of her own clothes using a treadle sewing-machine as well as hand-stitching.
My step grandmother Opal and my grandfather Herbert at a reception at Claridge’s celebrating the marriage of my father and step mother
Over the years I have made clothes for myself and my family. I recall a flower print mini-dress I made in 1968, at the same time I made a matching tie for my father. This was from a paper pattern which I might still have.
When I was a debutante in 1969 I made my dress for the Queen Charlottes Ball from fabric I was given by Michael de Szell, a textile designer and family friend. In fact I made at least one other debutante dress with fabric from Michael. The photo’s below are myself, my father and step mother, Rosamund at the Regency Dance they held for me in Norfolk.
Early in the 2000s, for a short time, my linen fabrics were sold by the metre in Liberty. An assistant asked me if I used the fabric to make my own clothes which encouraged me to do so. Nicole Urbanksi, a Hove based dress designer, used my fabrics for many of her collections. We had met just before I graduated in 1998 and she was instrumental in the development of The Linen Shop [previously called Fran White Woven Textiles], encouraging me to find a Mill to weave my designs. This was in addition to several other customers who used my fabric for clothing. I still have a few items made by one particular customer - Ione Harris of Quiver.
Fran in Nicola Urbanski long dress coat
In 2013 I went on a mud resist and Indigo dyeing workshop in Jaipur. I later used fabric I had printed there, and on 2 other courses, to make a Tibetan Sleeveless Coat. The pattern was from Pieced Clothing; a book I had bought many years previously. Cousin Jenny recommended another inspirational book - 49 sensational skirts - from this I made at least one skirt - always planning to make more.
I once made a pair of denim jeans for my 2 year old son, and I also knitted him some ‘lederhosen’ shorts, this was at a point when I got heavily back into knitting! There was a wonderful book full of knitted children’s clothes that we all circulated. I bought a Cloth Kits jacket intending to make this up for my daughter. In the end my mother-in-law cut up the kit and sewed it together.
Tom in the home made denim jeans
I wrote an essay for the OCA course in the early 1990s and interviewed Kathleen about my granny, her clothes and the fabrics that were used. When I mentioned how useful denim was Kathleen said ‘too useful’.
To this day I find it hard to consider wearing jeans to London, having always been brought up to ‘look smart’, certainly on visits to the capital!
More recently I have used paper patterns from both The Maker’s Atelier and Merchant & Mills to make items. These companies have been part of the renaissance of people making their own clothes.
Knitting & sewing patterns
My favourite designer has for the longest time been Nicole Fahri, until she retired to become a full-time sculptor. My most favourite clothing retailer is now, mostly, Jigsaw.
Significant dresses/outfits I still own include my wedding dress, a silk skirt and a blouse made from antique lace, which was designed by Catherine Buckley of Still Too Few; clothes by Lindka Cierach from whom I commissioned ‘smart’ outfits as I thought I’d need these in order to sell my linen fabrics; an Ossie Clarke dress, in fabric designed by his then wife Celia Birtwell, that I wore to debutante dances. A friend of mine often borrowed this as well as other clothes of mine and more recently my daughter wore it to her wedding party.
Ossie Clarke dress worn by Sal.
Today, this long and circuitous connection with stitch and textiles I find shows up in my art in the form of colour, design, playfulness and decision making…
The benefits of stitching for me now are that I find it very grounding; it connects with an inner need which is hard to reach in any other way. I feel compelled to make - it could be presents for my grand-children, such as photographic cloth books, stuffed dinosaurs or even a cushion for our home. Weaving provides a similar connection/satisfaction, I hand wove scarves for my son and daughter-in-law to commemorate their wedding and included the large stone, that inspired the design, in the gift.
Wedding Scarves and stone
Daily stitching gives me a ritual, rhythm and focus.
Daily stitching practice
Every day since the 1st October 2023 I have completed a timed 20 minutes slow stitching practice. I use linen thread to hand-stitch on pieces of eco-dyed linen fabric, some of my own design. I also photograph each day’s stitching and write a few words in a journal. Each month I start a new piece and, so far, I have completed 6 months.
During this time I completely forgot to stitch on 2 days!
