Author insights from Kassia St Clair

We talk to author Kassia St Clair about the inspiration for her new book, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History, and offer readers the chance to win one of five copies!

Like colour, I became interested in cloth and clothing at university, when studying 18th-century fashions. It was impossible not to become intrigued by the descriptions of bombazines, velvets and silk faille. I was also struck by the depth of vocabulary commonly used by ordinary people. They were a great deal more knowledgeable and more discerning about the fabrics they were wearing than we are, and placed a far greater value on them.

The Viking sail chapter was a revelation, but I also loved researching the spider silk chapter. It was the first one I wrote (although I ended up returning to it several times) and it confirmed my excitement for the book as a whole.

Most recently, I have to admit, my love of fabrics manifests too often in guilt. Like many consumers (and unlike those in the 18th-century) I would say that at the outset of the project I had a very imperfect understanding of the fabrics in common use today, where precisely they come from, how they?re made, and where they go once they are disposed of. Some of this makes for very uncomfortable reading. I?m now a lot more conscious of labeling, and try and invest more in good-quality cloth, both financially and emotionally. Really having thought deeply about something, and being totally in love with it (rather than thinking of it as readily disposable) is now more important for me.

It?s my hope that my book will affirm what quilters already know: that fabric is important. Each piece is its own work of art, with a deep history, and deserves to be celebrated.