World famous knitwear designer Kaffe Fassett visited the new
Bill Gibb display at Bath and North East Somerset Council’s Fashion
Museum on Thursday 13 November. Kaffe Fassett worked closely with
Bill Gibb right at the beginning of his career as a fashion
designer and was himself responsible for many of the beautiful knit
designs that Bill Gibb used in his work.
The new display at the Bath & North East Somerset Council-run
Fashion Museum includes the ensemble selected for the museum as
Dress of the Year 1970 by Mrs Beatrix Miller, then editor of Vogue
fashion magazine. The ensemble includes a pleated tartan skirt with
an inset panel of printed blue and white calico; and also a Fair
Isle knitted waistcoat. It was Kaffe Fassett who designed and made
the knitted waistcoat for his friend Bill Gibb.
Kaffe Fassett commented on the new display 'It's lovely to see the
pieces displayed in this way at the Fashion Museum. Billy's clothes
were all about movement, and Iain R Webb's styling of these
mannequins and these garments here in Bath really captures
that'.
Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager, commented “One of the
things that Bath & North East Somerset Council is trying to do
here at the Fashion Museum is to showcase the work of British
fashion designers whose names aren’t necessarily that well known,
but whose contribution to British fashion has been significant. It
is therefore fantastic to have the opportunity to work with Iain R
Webb to create this display of the work of Bill Gibb, a truly
unsung hero of British fashion., and to show his collaboration with
Kaffe Fassett on these gorgeous knit designs.’
The exhibition Bill Gibb: A Personal Jouney is running at
the Fashion Museum until October 2009. See website for details
http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/
ENDS