Kaffe Fassett was born in San Francisco in 1937. Kaffe started as a fine artist, winning a scholarship to study at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts School when he was nineteen. He left after three months to paint in London, and he still continues to exhibit his paintings. After settling in England in 1964, his passion for colour led him to knitting and designing knitwear for Missoni and Bill Gibb amongst others, and his hand-knitted garments are now in museum collections all over the world. He later took up needlepoint and patchwork, creating both his own works and designs for others to make.
Kaffe ventured into the world of colourful yarn on a visit to a Scottish wool mill with fashion designer Bill Gibb. Inspired by the colours in the landscape, Kaffe was thrilled to find the same colours in yarns. He bought 20 colours of Shetland wool and some knitting needles, and on the train back to London a fellow passenger taught him how to knit. His first design appeared as a full page spread in Vogue Knitting magazine.
In 1969, Kaffe was asked to design a garment for a large colour page feature in British Vogue, photographed by David Bailey. From this, in the 1970s he collaborated with Missoni, designing their textile knitwear patterns in Italy, which were sold worldwide. Kaffe’s unique garments have been commissioned and collected by Barbra Streisand, Lauren Bacall, John Schlesinger, Ali McGraw, Irene Worth, Shirley Maclaine, Helen Frankenthaler, Alan Bergman and H.R.H. Princess Michael of Kent, to name but a few.
The multi-coloured, complex knitwear designs created by Kaffe, became one of Scottish designer Bill Gibb’s trademarks. Vogue’s Beatrix Miller chose one of Bill Gibb’s designs as the 1970 Dress of the Year, which included a Fassett hand-knitted waistcoat, showing that traditional textile handicrafts had become an acceptable aspect of mainstream fashion. Fassett and Gibb worked together through to the end, collaborating on Gibb’s final collection in 1985.
Kaffe has also been interviewed countless times on national television and radio programmes such as ‘Richard and Judy’ for ‘This Morning’; ‘The Bazaar’ TV series; ‘Chelsea Flower Show Live’; ‘Collectors Lot’; ‘The Homes Show’ and ‘Through the Keyhole’, and for Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ and ‘Desert Island Discs’ with Sue Lawley.
Kaffe has participated in various exhibitions and solo shows over the years; though it was in 1988, when Kaffe became the first living textile artist to have a one-man show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The exhibition attracted such crowds that the Museum doubled attendance figures during the run and the exhibition toured to nine countries: Finland, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Canada, USA and Iceland (where 5% of the total population attended).
- About Me adapted from www.kaffefassett.com
Raised in a small seaside town on the coast of South Wales, Brandon Mably has been interested in colour and design since he was young. According to author/ designer and Mably mentor Kaffe Fassett, Mably has "one of the sharpest eyes for style" that he has ever come across.
With no formal education in design, Mably made a radical career change from cooking t o knitting in the late 1980's after a chance meeting with the world-famous Fassett. From the moment he entered Fassett's studio, Mably realised the creative potential of knitwear designs and soon became Fassett's apprentice.
For many years Mably organised the running of the Fassett studio, where Fassett trained him to knit, needlepoint, hook rag rugs, and grout mosaics. An inspiring teacher, Mably began travelling the world with Fassett doing workshops. Exotic locales such as Africa, Iceland, Guatemala, and India filled his designer's eye with inspiration and an explosion of colour and pattern.
An avid and enthusiastic teacher, Mably has learned one thing over the years - that most people have buried in them a sense of colour and design. And it is helping his students discover that design sensibility that continues to inspire and motivate Mably's work.
Mably's current workshop is entitled "Concentrating on Colour in Design" and focuses on knitting, needlepoint, and patchwork. Since taking over the teaching of knit workshops from Fassett altogether, he has taught throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, France, Germany, and the UK.
- About Me taken from www.brandonmably.comKaffe Fasset and Brandon Mably will make their debut tour in the MiddleEast by being a part of the 6th International Quilt Show. We have the following classes in our schedule:
Glorious LectureClick the workshop names to see full details.
