“He who knows how to appreciate color relationships, the influence of one color on another, their contrasts and dissonances, is promised an infinitely diverse imagery.” – Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (1885 – 1979), alongside her husband and fellow artist Robert Delaunay, co-founded the Orphism art movement, an offshoot of the Cubist style that focused on abstraction, light, and color—in contrast to the monochromatic style of traditional Cubism. Sonia was a painter but began experimenting with textiles as “exercises in color”; her fabrics combined the traditional Russian folk-art of her childhood with the avant-garde style of early 20th-century Paris. She took...
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Embroidery opens with Natalie Chanin narrating a series of moments from her life: speaking at The Moth, standing dumbstruck on a New York City street corner, dancing in Naples, swimming in Venezuela, screaming into Angry Cove, coming home to Alabama in the middle of the night. Over the course of the book, she connects these seemingly disparate episodes in her life, revealing the hidden connections and continuities that give our stories meaning. She flips the tapestry upside down, so to speak, in an act of defiant vulnerability. Along the way, Embroidery reflects on the ethics of textile production, explores nature...
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There is one food tradition that seems to cross all social, ethnic, and economic boundaries in the South: iced tea, particularly sweet tea. In the movie, “Steel Magnolias” Dolly Parton’s character referred to sweet tea as “the house wine of the South.” In many homes and most restaurants, this is certainly the case. But, why is iced tea such a staple in Southern homes? The history is more complicated than you might think. Tea was introduced to the United States in South Carolina where it was grown in the late 1700s. In fact, South Carolina is the only state to...
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“Lee Bontecou in her Wooster Street studio”, 1963 by Ugo Mulas. Lee Bontecou was known to use her art to explore voids she found in society and within herself. She blended sculpture with paintings and drawings, often using unconventional materials and processes she developed for her work. She was known as being meticulous with each step in the creation process. While she was well known as a “pioneer figure in the New York art world”, she felt that she was also part of an art world that consumed people and ideas and an industry of sorts that presented endless deadlines and demands. These demands...
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Outerwear DIY Kits from The School of Making: #memade appliqué and embroidery for everyday.Explore the styles below and browse new colorway options. _________ Join one of our virtual workshops, and apply those skills to crafting the perfect coat, jacket, skirt, and everything in between. Intermediate Hand-Sewing | April 7, 2023 Advanced Construction Techniques | October 6, 2023 Left: The Cropped Car Jacket Kit in Sand/Sand with Anna’s Garden design.Right: The Car Coat in Navy/Navy with Abstract Negative Reverse Appliqué. Left: The Classic Jacket in Camel/Camel with Abstract Backstitch Negative Reverse Appliqué. Right: The Car Coat Kit in Navy/Navy with Abstract...
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For those of you who have been reading this blog for years, it will come as no surprise that I have a girl crush on Virginia Willis. For me, she embodies all of the things that are required of a great Southern Chef with an added hearty laugh. Her book Bon Appetit, Y’all is in constant rotation in my kitchen and the beautiful photographs still take my breath away. I was so excited about her new book - Basic to Brilliant, Y’all – and to finally meet her at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium this autumn. She was so kind...
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Black and Gold – in color symbolism they hint at the unknown, power, and formality alongside abundance, prosperity, and extravagance.
Black and Gold – Madonna on a Crescent Moon by an anonymous painter in Germany, commonly referred to as the Master of 1456.
Black and Gold – for some reason also makes me think of Madonna (the singer) in the 1980s (but also today).
P.P.S.: Black and Gold is also a 2008 dance song by Sam Sparro:
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These days, you don’t think twice about hearing a woman’s voice on the radio. There are surely female deejays or journalists on your local station. NPR broadcasts the voices and stories of women like The Kitchen Sisters or Terry Gross among others. Alabama Chanin favorite, Elizabeth Cook has her own show, “Apron Strings,” on Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country. But, once upon a time, it wasn’t so common to hear a female voice over the airwaves. For those in the Shoals area, Becky Burns Phillips was one of those first voices to be broadcast. In 1942, Rebecca “Becky” Burns Phillips met...
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American artist Louise Nevelson has been an inspiration for several elements of our style aesthetic for some time now. The textural and stylistic elements of her sculpture have found their way into our collection a few times, particularly with the Tweed fabric design in our Bridal + Eveningwear Collection. Its sculptural qualities can find parentage in her layering techniques. Central among Nevelson’s large installation sculptures (known as assemblage sculpture) was “Dawn’s Wedding Feast” a full room-sized work that became one of her signature pieces. The sculpture was created in 1959 for the Museum of Modern Art as an all-white wood...
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In the 1960s, the civil rights movement that demanded equality and justice for Black Americans produced a backlash amongst segregationists. In the American South, where Jim Crow laws had been in effect for generations, this commitment to massive resistance and white supremacy was often violent. These were turbulent, tumultuous years. Certainly, no one would have expected a small town in northwest Alabama to become a hub for the production of soul and rhythm and blues music during these years. But that is what happened. The FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound recording studios, with their soulful, bluesy sound, attracted artists like Aretha Franklin,...
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