Issue 22 Paper (digital only)

March/April 2008

 I AM ONE OF THE POSSIBLY RARE PEOPLE who actually enjoyed wearing the 1970 print dresses my mother chose for my sister and I. Easter Sunday was particularly special – we would put away our winter woollies in favour of white knee high socks and sorbet coloured cardigans; although it was never quite warm enough in my opinion. The relationship between spring and floral prints is indisputable. This issue we bring you the summer frocks of Dries Van Noten, who understands the link better than most and brings a riot of pattern to enliven your wardrobe.Pattern takes us neatly to the topic of paper. Jocelyn Warner, explores the links between the two over the last 100 years, from the earliest single sheet wallpapers to the wall stickers of Rachel Kelly. While Christine Woods, Curator of Wallpaper at the Whitworth Art Gallery looks at the cut and paste decorations of the 1920s and 30s.The stunning paper structures of artist Tara Donovan, and the subtle shifu paper cloth woven by Hiroko Karuno, show another side of this versatile material.As does Julie Arkell’s house, where she surrounds herself with her paper mââchéécreations. Her ‘little people’ bring us to this issue’s ‘alternative’ theme; dolls and the two intersect neatly with paper dolls and the delightful escapism of Betsy McCall.Dolls are a personal subject; around the world children invest their earliest emotions in treasured toys.My doll Pebbles was a brunette in a pink crocheted dress. She smelt of sugared almonds but despite loving her I still cut her hair to stubble and 'injected’ her with a knitting needle during a stay in ‘hospital’. Now when I play dolls’ house with my