Kaffe, as in Safe

The Fashion and Textile Museum in London

London's Fashion & Textile Museum bustled on a rainy Friday afternoon, chock full of Kaffe Fassett aficionados. Anita blended well with the attendees. Like cruisers, they tend to run to a type: short-haired women of a certain age, wearing mostly natural fibers dotted here and there with splashes of color.

The exhibition was overwhelmingly colorful, like the documentaries of India showing ceremonies that involve pots of vivid dies. The walls were festooned with pillows, sweaters, paintings, fabrics and other monuments to a life devoted to exploring colors and how they change one another when brought together. Fascinating stuff, especially if you are a quilt, knit, crochet type.

A profusion of color by Kaffe Fassett

After an hour or so of textiles I found a semi-comfortable chair and settled in for an afternoon's nap. It being around 6 am in Atlanta and me still having one foot in eastern time made it easy to drift off. I had wondered whether to lug along the u-shaped neck pillow I had used on the flight from Atlanta. I decided I wouldn't need it and left it behind in Ghent. Big mistake.

When I awake the plan is to head off to the V&A for more texture, color and design. Anita is having a terrific time and I'm looking forward to more adventures in London, including a jaunt to the upper-end fabric mecca, Liberty of London. I suspect we will shed a few pounds there, for sure.

Brilliant is my new Briticism, learned in Liberty of London where Anita acquired pounds of lint in various colors and weaves at astounding prices. Even when I squinted at the numbers and pretended they were dollars rather than sterling it was impressive. After accumulating several royal purple LL bags we trekked to the VAT refund desk. A young woman coached us through the stamping of receipts and filling of forms. To each of our answers she responded, "Brilliant," which I gather means uh huh, but is so much more posh-sounding. Later we discovered she had neglected to tuck the VAT form in the LL envelope. Not so brilliant, that.

Liberty of London, yarn mecca.