Image courtesy of Sophie Roet.

At our next virtual talk, on 13 January, we will be joined by Sophie Roet, Esther Fitzgerald and Bess Nielsen of Khadi & Co to talk about textile collecting. We will look at how and why we collect, and how we can start. We will ask what we can we learn from collections and how they shape future fashions. Each expert will present, followed by a group discussion and Q&A. A recording of the evening will be sent to ticket holders to enjoy after the event - or for those in a different timezone who aren't able to join live.  

Image: Bess Neilsen. 

London-based textile archivist Sophie Roet began her career as a textile designer. She has sold her designs to several fashion houses, including Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, as well as having a capsule collection displayed at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Since then, she has spent more than twenty years curating an  extensive archive of rare and unique fabrics. She works closely with the interiors and fashion world, including Louis Vuitton and Burberry, helping to inspire new collections and exclusive colour ranges or  framing unusual textiles and original textile artworks for private clients.

Image: Sophie Roet.

Esther Fitzgerald handles textiles of exceptional merit, from all cultures, covering a time span of 2000 years and has done so for the past three decades. She has been fortunate to place textiles, and collections of textiles, in major museums and institutions throughout the world. Bess Nielsen, a Danish-born fashion designer founded Khadi & Co in 2005 to cultivate her fascination with hand-woven textiles. For more than thirty years, she traveled India to work with many textile artisans. Khadi and Co honours the nobility of the human hand and values ​​teamwork between India and Paris. It is a pioneering luxury artisan fashion house born to create essential clothing.

Collecting with Sophie Roet, Esther Fitzgerald and Bess Nielsen, Virtual Event (Zoom), Wednesday 13 January 2021