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 Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, ...

patchwork Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeating patterns built up with different fabric shapes (which can be different colors) ...

knitting Knitting is a method for production of textile Knitted fabric, fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done Hand knitting, by hand or Knitting machi ...

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

. 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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, to parents William and Madeleine, who built the successful

Nepenthe Nepenthe (, ) is a possibly fictional medicine for sorrow – a "drug of forgetfulness" mentioned in ancient Greek literature and Greek mythology, depicted as originating in Egypt.. The carnivorous plant genus '' Nepenthes'' is named after th ...

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Range, Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from th ...

, California. He is the great-grandson of the wealthy businessman, lawyer and United States Congressman

Jacob Sloat Fassett Jacob Sloat Fassett (November 13, 1853 – April 21, 1924) was a businessman, lawyer, and member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. Early life He was born on November 13, 1853, in Elmira, New York, the son of Newton Po ...

, 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 f ...

in Sacramento, California. He received a scholarship to the

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is a dedicated art school within Tufts University, a private research university in Mass ...

at the age of 19, but shortly left school to paint in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and moved there to live in 1964.

Career

In the late 1960s Fassett met the Scottish fashion designer

Bill Gibb William Elphinstone Gibb (23 January 1943 – 3 January 1988) was a Scottish fashion designer who became renowned in the 1960s and 70s for his unusual and flattering designs. Early life and education Gibb was born near New Pitsligo, a small v ...

. 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 o ...

of ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

'' 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 (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

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 e ...

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. 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 The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

, 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 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, including his own show, ''Glorious Colour''. 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 Eugen's Waldemarsudde, Sweden. He made a workshop tour of Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. 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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 Textile artists from California Embroidery designers American people in knitting American expatriates in England American fashion designers American gay artists Honorary members of the Order of the British Empire Artists from San Francisco LGBTQ people from San Francisco LGBTQ fashion designers Big Sur American quilters