Curiosities

Source: Victoria and Albert Collections

A small region of Christchurch central city is taking on a quality of design inspiration and maturity.   Two doors apart are the Fabric House and Bolt of Cloth.   Each do something slightly different - the former specialising in furnishing fabrics at wholesale prices from around the world but with a  European bias , the latter in finer fabrics from America and Japan and with an emphasis on NZ design.  Both sell online. Bolt of Cloth’s site is particulalry well designed and their Madras Street showroom also incorporates a workroom for soft furnishings.

I have been frequenting these stores in small bites while a son is at music lessons and slowly reaching resolution of fabric choices for the old house.

The commitment of each store to colour , pattern and creativity that emphasises originality rather than slavish fashion makes browsing uplifting.  It is rekindling an old part of myself and quite literally drawing a thread back to my passion for textiles.

Last week I saw a shirt with peasant embriodered yoke  that look frighteningly like a dress I embroidered in 1976!  Cost  $495… and the supply chain hardly bears thinking about.

Is the passion for and collection of lengths of fabric a gendered activity?   Well,  I have yet to meet a bloke who hoardes a collection of  woven and printed dreams folded carefully in a box with a  few mothballs, but I suspect an adage heard long ago “She who dies with the most fabric wins…” seems to speak to a certain sorority.   Once, we all used to sew. Or supposedly we did - some were masterful at it ( whipping up a flouncing ball gown from a set of table napkins)  some couldn’t and  some didn’t.    Now, as global labels cost the earth and all look the same some of us are thinking about dusting off the machine again.

Yesterday I bought a skirt length from the Tree Top Range by an American designer Tina Givens range at Bolt of Cloth.  From the plethora of colour  I have managed to deciphre her signature and am completly inspired by it.  Many of the designers represented in the Bolt of Cloth  collection are well known in their country of origin…. just makes me want go places but at least we can travel design worlds on the web.

After the farewell chapel

The last haka

I have often wondered ( particulalry around the 20th of each month when fees are due) what the worth of a private education has been and will be for our boys.   Last week , participating in the rights of passage of the leaver’s ceremonies I was encouraged to think that the balance is  towards benefit. As a boys school run, in the main, by men it has it’s flaws.  As an institution with its roots firmly planted in an English tradition  that seems outdated even in England,  there are times when the incongruities of its practises might exceed good sense.  But it seems that belonging to a small community, with clear lines of connection and high expectations for participation for  both students and staff  has been, and continues to be,  the worth of the place to our family.

Beards and long hair are now the committed goal for  summer….