Description
'Subtle, compendious and rich ... an emotive and serious work of what you might call history on the distaff side' - James McConnachie, The Sunday Times 'Dazzling ... Finlay's adventures, vividly recounted, make enthralling reading ... This book is equally an inspiration and an education' - Bel Mooney, Daily Mail 'I am wildly impressed by the depth of her research and the stories she finds' - Alexandra Shulman, author of Clothes... And Other Things That Matter How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama - where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form. She began her research just after the deaths of both her parents - and entwined in the threads she found her personal story too. The book became her journey through grief and recovery. It is her own patchwork.
A magnificent work of original research, unwinding history through cloth - how we make it, use it and what it means to us
About the Author
Victoria Finlay is the critically acclaimed author of Colour - Travels Through the Paintbox and the former arts editor of the South China Morning Post. She studied social anthropology and has travelled around the world in search of stories about her subjects, from colour to jewels and fabric. As well as writing, she has worked in international development.
Reviews
Exuberant * New York Times *
A gorgeous adventure through the history of cloth weaving together disparate countries and stories in the most fascinating (and personal) of ways * Stylist *
Highly personal and tactile ... fascinating ... Subtle, compendious and rich, if this was just a cultural history of fabric it would be a fine piece of work. But Finlay weaves another story into the book: she is grieving for her mother. Sometimes the joins between the two narratives feel a little raw - but cleverly so. More often the book acquires an extra dimension; the effect that springs to mind is the strange iridescence of that twin-coloured silk you sometimes find as the lining of a suit jacket ... This book recovers that relatively silenced or at least sidelined history (of women). It is an emotive and serious work of what you might call history on the distaff side. -- James McConnachie * The Sunday Times *
At a moment when alarming statistics regarding textile waste have triggered calls for sustainability within the fashion industry, Finlay takes the reader on a journey of personal discovery that spans the breadth of the globe over the course of centuries ... with deft cultural consciousness. Part historical survey, part memoir and part travelogue, "Fabric" follows Finlay as she discovers the secrets behind each material's history with such wonderment - such reverence - that one cannot help believing in the "hidden magic" she insists is spun into each fibre. Like a skilled weaver, she takes many disparate threads and constructs a compelling narrative as informative as it is emotionally engaging. These moments - where fabric is given life through worn experience are ... fascinating [and] Victoria Finlay gives them their due -- Raissa Bretana, Fashion Historian * New York Times *
There's something in this wonderfully packed haberdasher's shop for every reader ... Victoria Finlay provides a closely woven warp and weft of answers to questions we never thought to ask, and the pictures in her intricate tapestry are dazzling. An intrepid traveller whose best-selling books already explored the magical worlds of colour and of jewels, she now turns her infinitely curious mind to fabric ... All plans had to be put on hold as the grieving daughter felt "lost and fractured into small pieces". Those "pieces" eventually became the elements of the patchwork she and her mother had promised themselves they would one day create together - and combine to turn the beautifully written narrative of this book into a larger patchwork of healing ... Finlay's adventures, vividly recounted, make enthralling reading ... This book is equally an inspiration and an education -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *
I am wildly impressed by the depth of her research and the stories she finds -- Alexandra Shulman, journalist and bestselling author of Clothes... And Other Things That Matter
Poetically profound -- Sheila Hicks
Enthralling and sumptuously spun narrative history of how and why people around the world have made, used and worn different kinds of fabric. Beginning her research shortly after the death of her parents, Finlay finds her own story of love and grief entwined in the threads too, making for a fine blend indeed -- Caroline Sanderson, Non-Fiction Editor's Choice for November * The Bookseller *
Fabrics can be a clue to what is underneath the surface. The word "clue" itself comes from the Greek name for a ball of yarn that can be wound back to show the right path. The stories of fabrics, the histories of them, are about endeavour and work and secrets and feuds and inventions and abuse and beauty and ugliness, and sometimes they are about tenderness. -- Victoria Finlay
Reveals dimensions and textures from the material world woven into human history -- Anne Foley * Booklist *
This is a rare and wonderful book - a model of erudition and charm, the writing elegant and precise, and with at least one new and fascinating revelation on every single page. -- Simon Winchester
Part history, part travelogue and part memoir, Victoria Finlay wants to recover "the truth in fabric" in her sprawling book [that] takes her from Papua New Guinea to Paisley, in search of the materials, processes and meanings. [L]oosely tacked to images of life and the deaths of Finlay's mother and father, she writes movingly about her loss and suggests that fabric will help her make sense of the connection between "the material we can see" and "the non-material world we cannot see". These metaphysical associations of cloth are compelling, and ... a case for why we should care about our clothes and how they are made. -- Sophie Oliver * Times Literary Supplement *
Praise for Victoria Finlay -- -
Her curiosity is inexhaustible, her reading wide, and her writing style a delight * Sunday Telegraph *
A highly companionable guide, adventurous and romantic * Independent on Sunday *
Cloth once drove whole economies and trading systems. Think of the Silk Road or the Woolsack in the House of Lords. In this subtle, compendious and rich history of fabric, the journalist Victoria Finlay blends globe-trotting research (from tweed in the Outer Hebrides to Kashmir shawls) with her own family history. * The Sunday Times Books of the Year 2023 *
Book Information
ISBN 9781781257067
Author Victoria Finlay
Format Hardback
Page Count 528
Imprint Profile Books Ltd
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 780g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 160mm * 48mm
A magnificent work of original research, unwinding history through cloth - how we make it, use it and what it means to us
About the Author
Victoria Finlay is the critically acclaimed author of Colour - Travels Through the Paintbox and the former arts editor of the South China Morning Post. She studied social anthropology and has travelled around the world in search of stories about her subjects, from colour to jewels and fabric. As well as writing, she has worked in international development.
Reviews
Exuberant * New York Times *
A gorgeous adventure through the history of cloth weaving together disparate countries and stories in the most fascinating (and personal) of ways * Stylist *
Highly personal and tactile ... fascinating ... Subtle, compendious and rich, if this was just a cultural history of fabric it would be a fine piece of work. But Finlay weaves another story into the book: she is grieving for her mother. Sometimes the joins between the two narratives feel a little raw - but cleverly so. More often the book acquires an extra dimension; the effect that springs to mind is the strange iridescence of that twin-coloured silk you sometimes find as the lining of a suit jacket ... This book recovers that relatively silenced or at least sidelined history (of women). It is an emotive and serious work of what you might call history on the distaff side. -- James McConnachie * The Sunday Times *
At a moment when alarming statistics regarding textile waste have triggered calls for sustainability within the fashion industry, Finlay takes the reader on a journey of personal discovery that spans the breadth of the globe over the course of centuries ... with deft cultural consciousness. Part historical survey, part memoir and part travelogue, "Fabric" follows Finlay as she discovers the secrets behind each material's history with such wonderment - such reverence - that one cannot help believing in the "hidden magic" she insists is spun into each fibre. Like a skilled weaver, she takes many disparate threads and constructs a compelling narrative as informative as it is emotionally engaging. These moments - where fabric is given life through worn experience are ... fascinating [and] Victoria Finlay gives them their due -- Raissa Bretana, Fashion Historian * New York Times *
There's something in this wonderfully packed haberdasher's shop for every reader ... Victoria Finlay provides a closely woven warp and weft of answers to questions we never thought to ask, and the pictures in her intricate tapestry are dazzling. An intrepid traveller whose best-selling books already explored the magical worlds of colour and of jewels, she now turns her infinitely curious mind to fabric ... All plans had to be put on hold as the grieving daughter felt "lost and fractured into small pieces". Those "pieces" eventually became the elements of the patchwork she and her mother had promised themselves they would one day create together - and combine to turn the beautifully written narrative of this book into a larger patchwork of healing ... Finlay's adventures, vividly recounted, make enthralling reading ... This book is equally an inspiration and an education -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *
I am wildly impressed by the depth of her research and the stories she finds -- Alexandra Shulman, journalist and bestselling author of Clothes... And Other Things That Matter
Poetically profound -- Sheila Hicks
Enthralling and sumptuously spun narrative history of how and why people around the world have made, used and worn different kinds of fabric. Beginning her research shortly after the death of her parents, Finlay finds her own story of love and grief entwined in the threads too, making for a fine blend indeed -- Caroline Sanderson, Non-Fiction Editor's Choice for November * The Bookseller *
Fabrics can be a clue to what is underneath the surface. The word "clue" itself comes from the Greek name for a ball of yarn that can be wound back to show the right path. The stories of fabrics, the histories of them, are about endeavour and work and secrets and feuds and inventions and abuse and beauty and ugliness, and sometimes they are about tenderness. -- Victoria Finlay
Reveals dimensions and textures from the material world woven into human history -- Anne Foley * Booklist *
This is a rare and wonderful book - a model of erudition and charm, the writing elegant and precise, and with at least one new and fascinating revelation on every single page. -- Simon Winchester
Part history, part travelogue and part memoir, Victoria Finlay wants to recover "the truth in fabric" in her sprawling book [that] takes her from Papua New Guinea to Paisley, in search of the materials, processes and meanings. [L]oosely tacked to images of life and the deaths of Finlay's mother and father, she writes movingly about her loss and suggests that fabric will help her make sense of the connection between "the material we can see" and "the non-material world we cannot see". These metaphysical associations of cloth are compelling, and ... a case for why we should care about our clothes and how they are made. -- Sophie Oliver * Times Literary Supplement *
Praise for Victoria Finlay -- -
Her curiosity is inexhaustible, her reading wide, and her writing style a delight * Sunday Telegraph *
A highly companionable guide, adventurous and romantic * Independent on Sunday *
Cloth once drove whole economies and trading systems. Think of the Silk Road or the Woolsack in the House of Lords. In this subtle, compendious and rich history of fabric, the journalist Victoria Finlay blends globe-trotting research (from tweed in the Outer Hebrides to Kashmir shawls) with her own family history. * The Sunday Times Books of the Year 2023 *
Book Information
ISBN 9781781257067
Author Victoria Finlay
Format Hardback
Page Count 528
Imprint Profile Books Ltd
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 780g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 160mm * 48mm
