Here's a detail from another scarf. A 1970's silk square designed by the painter Balz Baechi. Born in Switzerland in 1937 he originally trained as a graphic designer and worked as a designer and illustrator in Europe and New York.
Since 2000 he and his wife Isabel have been involved in a foundation they set up to protect and restore ancient wallpaintings around the world.
A scarf is a wonderful thing. But i probably have too many.
They are just so easy to collect, and cost next to nothing. I've been making piles to go and piles to stay, and these few are definitely keepers.
They are all silk squares, with the exception of the third and fourth ones down which are rayon, and all unsigned except for the last which is by Jacques Fath.
It became apparent by the size of the piles that the painterly scarves were much preferred over the more graphic designs.
The Jacques Fath is very special but if I had to choose another favourite favourite, it would have to be either the Kitchen Sink School jug and cups, or the bottles.
Plenty more to come...
ahh, the memories... it's 1971 and i'm ten years old. My mum and dad have dropped me off at Tiffany's nightclub for the Saturday morning pre-teen disco and i'm wearing these, my favourite hot pants. The Delfonics 'Didn't I ( Blow Your Mind This Time )is playing and I'm standing under the ultra violet light in my luminous outfit desperately hoping someone, anyone, will ask me to dance.
Anyway... I've just read the most brilliant article 'Hot Pants: A Short, Happy and Musical Career' which includes a playlist, and a pretty great one at that. So of course I remembered and was prompted to dig these out of a suitcase. They are Made in England by Ian Peters and almost entirely synthetic.
I can still get them on ( with someone on standby in case I need resuscitating ).
I was completely mesmerised by this photograph displayed in a little local history museum I visited recently in the village of Steni in Cyprus.
One of a series taken by the photographer John Thomson in 1878 and originally published in a book called 'Through Cyprus with the Camera'.
Sadly, there appears to be very few examples of these lovely hand woven garments left in Cyprus now.
There is a bit of a resurgence of weaving in some villages but very much geared towards producing goods for tourists. Nothing anywhere near as beautiful as this.
