A chance to see the Orla Kiely exhibition at the London Textile Museum was too good to miss. I’d never been to the textile museum and I also really wanted to see the portrait of Zandra Rhodes; that was painted by the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 winner Samira Addo. Sadly, I was too early, and the portrait hadn’t yet made it to the museum when I visited but the Oral Kiely exhibition did not disappoint. The queen of pattern! A master class in colour palette, scale, proportion, balance and pattern repeat at every glance. There was a room with nine or so enormous scaled up coats and dresses, in some of the most iconic designs. Wall after wall of pattern libraries were a real feast to get stuck into. Lots of amazing archival footage of the early days and press cuttings. At the time I had no idea that the fashion side of the Orla Kiley brand was about to go into administration. I did see at a recent furniture show that the designs have now been made into upholstery fabrics, I do hope this iconic brand will stride on.
The ladies swimming is one of my favourite Orla Kiely patterns and I couldn’t help but take a photo of the ever so cool museum floor with its sparkles and stars.
