Dior Boutique Animation

Christian Dior’s Spring / Summer couture collection placed emphasis upon natural materials including straw and bamboo. I was offered the great opportunity in February to showcase willow and create motif bag charms for Dior clients in their London Selfridges and Harrods stores. By designing and then weaving these charms in front of clients we were able to create the connect to natural materials and the handmade.

For me it was an opportunity to demonstrate and showcase the critically endangered basketry skill of skeined willow in which 6ft natural white willow rods are split, (in a process known as cleaving), and then shaved down into fine silk like willow ribbons. In my developing artistic basketry work I have been focussing upon using both white and coloured bark skeined willow in my baskets. These latest baskets (as seen on the left and right of me in the photo), reference and revive skeined willow which in the UK has not really seen the light since the height of the basket making industry in the 1900s.