Although I have chosen work from some of the most instrumental British designers in my Archive Artefact series, I also wanted to include a piece from some of our own students.
This beautiful beaded piece is the work by of a student from the collection of Winifred Beck who taught at the Barrett Street Trade School for Girls (which became the London College of Fashion in 1963) from 1927 to 1962.
Students at the school were taught very high standards of couture sewing, embroidery and bead work. The girls were highly sort after by the couture and dressmaking workrooms in London once they had completed their education.
Many photographs in the College Archive show the craftsmanship and high quality work the girls taught by Beck and other teachers at Barrett Street produced. One photograph shows a student on a visit to the workrooms of Norman Hartnell, court dressmaker and couturier, watching intently as an embroideress uses a similar technique http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=76663&sos=4
To accompany my monochrome theme this year, I chose this black chiffon piece with beaded flower design in shape of a collar mounted on white card (c1930). On the mount is written ‘Tambour beading as dress ornamentation’.
A beautiful piece which shows the history of the college, the talent of its students, and its heritage as a institution of craftsmanship.
