Saturday 20 September, 1 - 2:30 pm: Open Studio and Talk, Colour to Cloth with Victoria Richards

Clockwork Studios, 38B Southwell Rd, London, SE5 9PG

The studio is warm with light and memory. Along the shelves, folded silks rest beside sketches and dye jars, and brushstrokes dry slowly on suspended fabric. This is where Victoria Richards has spent decades distilling colour into cloth, drawing on a painter’s instinct and a designer’s discipline. In this quiet corner of Brixton’s Clockwork Studios, the relationship between mark-making, material and mood feels both intimate and expansive.

For one afternoon only during London Textile Month, Richards opens her studio to a small group of guests for a 90-minute journey through the evolution of her practice. Richards has worked with many British and European couture houses including Paul Smith, Liberty, Valentino and Christian Lacroix, from creating designs for their collections to producing fabric runs for their catwalk shows. Richards is also well known for her ‘Jon Snow’ ties: the former Channel 4 news anchorman was a collector for over 25 years. 

She will share stories behind the works that now live in museums and wardrobes around the world, speak candidly about the tension between craft and commerce, and offer a glimpse into the seasonal rhythm of her own collections - small-batch, hand-painted silk scarves that feel more like paintings than products.

There will be a live demonstration of her painterly techniques, an informal Q&A, and the opportunity to view and purchase a curated selection of recent works - from scarves and ties to framed textiles and colour studies.

This is more than a studio visit: it’s a rare chance to be immersed in the slow, expressive world of a textile artist who continues to shape cloth not by trend, but by hand, memory, and intuition.

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At Clockwork Studios (11 - 12:30 pm) on the same day:
Unlocking the Archive - A Private Viewing with Sophie Roet.