Knitwear: Chanel To Westwood

The Fashion and Textile Museum presents its Autumn Winter exhibition.

The Fashion and Textile Museum’s latest exhibition, puts into context that granny jumper you picked up at the British Heart Foundation shop last weekend, shedding light on the system from which it – and the rest – originated.

Titled ‘Knitwear: Chanel to Westwood’, the gallery wide display goes beyond the high fashion bracket of the two fashion houses, instead awarding fans a history lesson in the aesthetic and technical aspects of the practice, via chronologically ordered wooden crates, and some.

“Knitting is an intriguing hybrid, embracing structure and form, where both textile and garment can be fashion simultaneously,” reads a piece on the wall at the accompanying ‘Visionary Knitwear’ display in the Mezzanine Gallery.

Curated by Sandy Black – Professor of Fashion and Textile Design and Technology at London College of Fashion – the small space presents work from a selection of noted contemporary knitwear designers: Mark Fast SS10, Lucas Nascimento AW14 and AW13 from the acclaimed Sibling crew, as well as a pair of Nike Flyknits from 2012.

Effectively opening the major exhibit, the selection acts as a prequel, establishing an idea of context for both the preceding pieces and those in the display; how knitwear is entwined within the fashion industry today vs. Coco Chanel’s era, and so on.

Similarly, a display at the beginning of the exhibition proper places a purple H&M knit rayon dress from the 90’s beside a red knitted petticoat from 1907. Both bright in colour and following an almost identical diagonal pattern, they could be from the same era, if not the same collection.               

           

         

Introducing the main exhibition, a piece on the wall reads: “Knitting is one of the most fundamental textile techniques, produced from a continuous yarn and simple needles, yet its origins are shrouded in the mists of time.”

The idea for the exhibition then, presumably, is as much about ridding the technique of any cult status (simultaneously highlighting its role within the industry), as it is about showing off guest curators, Cleo and Mark Butterfield’s broad collection of vintage pieces.

Said collection is presented primarily in the aforementioned wooden sheds, each decorated with a sign of the time: Fairisle vests your grandfather might have worn during the war are backed by a map of the world, 50’s mohairs are accompanied by full skirts, a selection of knit swimsuits from the 20’s are propped against model images.

Elsewhere a newspaper clipping writes quaintly of a similar suit: “When you take your morning dip in the sun or the sea wear this cute bathing dress knitted in coral and grey, with tiny shoulder cape to match.” A SS15 Sibling knit bra top it ain’t.

Upstairs Julien Macdonald is granted a large section, a reminder that prior to BNTM, Strictly Come Dancing and a sizable production of party frocks, his was the name that headed Givenchy and created knitwear for Alexander McQueen.

It’s a large space, the Fashion and Textile Museum, with an exterior dressed up in orange and pink paint (a reminder that it was founded by Zandra Rhodes). While the inside is decidedly less in your face, the contents – of this exhibition at least – spreads far and wide; there are over 150 knits featured.

A retrospective of the knitwear industry, ‘Knitwear: Chanel to Westwood’ is less clearly defined than its name, or even theme, might suggest. As those designers in the Mezzanine Gallery continue to remind us today, knitting’s appeal spreads much further than the blue rinse brigade; the variety of technique’s used produce a far greater outcome than church fetes might propose.

Knitwear essentially, offers a deal more possibilities than the word alone inspires, matching no doubt its favoured leather and denim cousins.

How great then, that it can be picked up on the cheap. 

Until 18th January 2015.

Words: Zoe Whitfield

ftmlondon.org

—-

Buy Clash Magazine

Get Clash on your mobile, for free: iPhone / Android

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.