Selfridge's Bright Old Things, The Whitworth Art Gallery: Anne Karpf & Grey Fox in conversation

Well, I'm delighted to be considered both old and bright enough to be invited to take part in Selfridge's Bright Old Things initiative, celebrating the older person's capacity to take on new roles in later life. On Thursday 19th February I will be in conversation with Anne Karpf at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. 

The event is part of the Whitworth's re-opening after a refurbishment which has transformed the gallery. In a collboration with Selfridges and to celebrate Bright Old Things, the Whitworth has also taken up residence at Selfridges, Exchange Square, Manchester, with a specially commissioned exhibition featuring artists who found success in their later years.

Curated by Dr. Maria Balshaw, Director of the Whitworth and Manchester City Galleries, the exhibition showcases the creative energy of a selection of renowned artists, including esteemed photographer Johnnie Shand Kydd and fashion designer turned award-winning science and art practitioner, Helen Storey.

To find out more, or to buy tickets to the events, click here.

Selfridges Bright Old Things

The Whitworth
And see and buy products designed by Bright Old Things at Selfridges.

London Cloth Company x Hardy Amies collaboration at Selfridges

Visitors to Selfridges can see wool from London sheep being woven on a loom until 17th November.

Daniel Harris runs The London Cloth Company, the only cloth mill in London. It's a fascinating place to visit, full of looms dating between 1870 and 1970 that have been rescued from Scotland and Northern England to be restored and run by the self-taught Daniel. Since being founded in 2011 the Company has woven a varied range of woollens and cottons for brands all over the world. 

The loom in Selfridges

In a recent project, wool has been taken from sheep in city farms in and around London. Amazingly, it turns out there are a large number of farms in London and they managed to collect 160kg of fleece from Stepney, Spitalfields, Mudchute, Kentish town, Freightliners and The Woodland Farm Trust. The wool was them spun up into yarn.

Daniel at London Cloth Company - image Grey Fox

At this point, Hardy Amies came in. Daniel Harris told me:

'[Hardy Amies] were visiting the mill to look at our cloth and when we told them about the City Farms wool they fell in love with the idea. [They] wanted to make sure that the project got the exposure it deserved, and arranged for one of our looms to go into Selfridges, so that the scarves could be woven by me in-­store. 

It is being woven on a loom that dates from the 1920’s, but was built entirely from parts,. This is why many of the pieces are different colours and from different eras (It is almost impossible to find one complete loom these days so they have to be constructed from several looms put together). 

We have a 100% traceable yarn that has been sourced exclusively from within London and is now being woven into a cloth at 400 Oxford street! Next we would like to expand this to within the whole of London and see if we could source enough yarn to do a large run of cloth'.

Hardy Amies will use the London cloth for its own collections. To see Daniel and his loom visit Selfridges,  Find out more here about London Cloth Mill.

London Cloth Company - image Grey Fox