Frank Havrah "Kaffe" Fassett, MBE (born December 7, 1937) is an American-born, British-based artist who is best known for his colourful designs in the decorative arts— needlepoint, patchwork, knitting,

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

and ceramics. While still a child, Fassett renamed himself after an Egyptian boy character from the book ''Boy of the Pyramid'' by Ruth Fosdick Jones. His name rhymes with 'safe asset'.

Early life

The second of five children, Fassett was born on December 7, 1937 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, to parents William and Madeleine, who built the successful Nepenthe in

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ...

, California. He is the great-grandson of the wealthy businessman, lawyer and United States Congressman Jacob Sloat Fassett, and it was his great-great grandparents who founded the

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating ...

in Sacramento, California. He received a scholarship to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at the age of 19, but shortly left school to paint in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and moved there to live in 1964.

Career

In the late 1960s Fassett met the Scottish fashion designer Bill Gibb. Until Gibb's premature death in 1988, they were very close friends and design collaborators, with Fassett creating many of the multicolored, complex knitwear designs that became one of Gibbs's trademarks. When one of Bill Gibbs designs was chosen by

Beatrix Miller Beatrix Molineux Miller, CBE (29 June 1923 – 21 February 2014) was a British fashion and cultural magazine editor. She was editor of '' Queen'' from 1958 to 1964, and editor of ''British Vogue'' from 1964 to 1985. Early life Miller was born on ...

of ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' as the 1970 Dress of the Year, the ensemble included a Fassett hand-knitted waistcoat, showing that traditional textile handicrafts had become an acceptable aspect of mainstream fashion. Fassett and Gibb worked together through to the end, collaborating on Gibb's final collection in 1985. Fassett's work attracts a considerable following worldwide. His work was the subject of a 1988 one-man show at the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, the first time a living textile artist had such a show there. The show toured nine countries. Being strongly concerned with colour and design, Fassett has also worked extensively in other textile arts. He was a supplier of tapestries to

Women's Home Industries Women's Home Industries was a company founded in 1947 in London to earn export revenue for the UK in the post- war period by harnessing women's craft skills, such as knitting and needlework. Originally seen as part of the effort to rebuild the ...

and its designer Beatrice Bellini, attracting a number of private commissions and creating tapestry kits for the company during the 1970s. He went on to design tapestry kits for

Hugh Ehrman Hugh may refer to: * Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-da ...

. Working as a team with his design partner and studio manager, Brandon Mably, has enabled Kaffe to design quilts, fabric, stage sets, and costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company, while staying engaged in making rag rugs, knitting, tapestries, and mosaics. Author of more than 40 books, Fassett concentrates on teaching the color and design stages of craftwork rather than the construction stage. In addition to books, he has hosted craft-related television and radio programmers for the BBC and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, including his own show, ''Glorious Co lour''. His fabric prints are largely for the patchwork market along with Indian stripes fabric and shot cotton fabric range. An exhibition of Fassett's quilts, knitting and needlepoint at the Mode museum Tassel, Belgium in 2007, followed a multimedia solo show in 2006 at the Prince Eugene's Waldemar, Sweden. He made a workshop tour of Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. In 2013, Fassett followed up his 1988 exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum with 'Kaffe Fassett - A Life in Colour' at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. The exhibit features over 100 works including nine foot wide knitwear and throws, patchwork quilts, as well as items not seen before by the public. Fassett also designed a tactile installation for visitors to touch so that they would get a better understanding of the structure behind his work. He is a fabric designer for Free Spirit Fabrics and a knitwear designer for Rowan Yarns. Kaffe Fassett designed a shirt/shirting button collection which will be manufactured and distributed by Dill Button Company in February 2020.

Personal life

Fassett has resided in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

since 1964. He lives with and is married to Brandon Mably, his partner and studio manager.

References

External links

Official website

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Quilt Lecture

Kaffe on Simply Quilts: Quilt Chemistry and Geometry

Kaffe Fassett/Beatrice Bellini skirt from 1970, in Victoria and Albert Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fassett, Kaffe 1937 births Living people American textile artists Embroidery designers People in knitting American expatriates in the United Kingdom American fashion designers Gay artists Honorary Members of the Order of the British Empire Artists from San Francisco American LGBT artists LGBT people from San Francisco Big Sur