FABRIC SHOPPING

I look for fabric shops the same way other people look for restaurants when they travel. Italy for the silks and linens, Japan for the prints, London for the specialist shops that stock things you didn't know existed until you're standing in front of them. Most of my best projects have started not with a pattern or a design, but with a piece of fabric that just needed to become something. This is a record of those trips.

  • Rows of printed silk scarves and fabrics hanging in an Italian fabric market — sourcing trip, After Stilettos

    WHY I TRAVEL FOR FABRIC

    Different countries, different fabrics, three metres of something I had no plan for yet.

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  • Interior of Ouro Têxteis fabric shop in Lisbon, bright and open with bolts of fabric laid out on tables.

    FABRIC SHOPPING IN LISBON

    The bright Lisbon fabric shop I loved — and the fabric I left behind.

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  • The iconic black and white Tudor facade of Liberty London on Great Marlborough Street, London

    INSIDE LIBERTY OF LONDON

    I lived in London for years and never once went inside. Finally did.

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  • Black Italian silk-and-wool fabric printed with a row of women in wide-brimmed white hats and off-shoulder gowns, "alta moda made in Italy" along the selvedge.

    FABRIC SHOPPING ARONA

    A fabric shop down a cobbled alley in Arona., and the silk I bought twice.

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  • shelves of colorful ribbons from Macculloch & Wallis London

    MACCULLOCH & WALLIS, SOHO, UK

    Two floors off Oxford Street in London and everyone's right about it.

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  • Rows of brightly coloured feather boas hanging in a Soho trimmings shop

    FAN NEW TRIMMING, SOHO, UK

    Fan New Trimmings has everything. I still came out empty-handed.

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  • Lower Manhattan skyline lit up at dusk, seen from Brooklyn

    MOOD FABRICS, NEW YORK

    The famous Mood, in person at last — silk-hunting during Fashion Week.

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