Kaffe Fassett

Private Passions

Kaffe Fassett’s textiles are unmistakable: in bright cerise and crimson and cobalt, his stripes and flowers burst onto the scene back in the seventies, and he’s been designing ever since. Brought up in a log cabin on the Californian coast, he’s lived for fifty years in Kilburn, north-west London, a house where every surface is painted or mosaicked or embroidered – and stuffed full of antique textiles and pots. In fact, it’s so full of stuff that his partner, Brandon, had to retreat to a white room of his own. But Kaffe would like us all to get sewing, or embroidering or knitting. He’s the author of numerous books which share his designs, and currently has an exhibition of his quilts at the Fashion and Textile Museum that will soon travel around Scotland.

In conversation with Michael Berkeley, Kaffe reveals that he first left California for Britain as a young man after a chance meeting with Christopher Isherwood, who so beguiled him that he was determined to see Europe for himself. He talks about growing up gay at a time when it was still illegal, and how he never felt he fitted in – he was the boy at school wearing bright orange corduroy. He reveals that he bought some wool and then begged a woman opposite him on the train home to teach him to knit. Since then, he’s never looked back, and however busy he is, he makes time to knit and embroider, finding it a chance to meditate and recover.

His music choices include Arvo Pärt, The Beatles and Schumann’s “Scenes from Childhood”.