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As we enter our 50th year of business, we are reflecting on the beginnings of Folkwear and the visionary women who started this small company. Many of you have been following Folkwear since it started! And have seen the changes in it over time, but we hope that the mission and values of these three founding women have continued to carry on in this business through the years.
In the mid-1970s, three women in Forestville, California - Barbara Garvey, Alexandra Jacopetti Hart, and Ann Wainwright - founded Folkwear to share their passion for finely crafted folk clothing with others who loved handcraft, fabric, culture, history, and style.
It all began when Barbara and her husband were on a trip to Israel, where Barbara spotted long flowing, beautifully embroidered dresses worn by Palestinian women (and sold in tourist markets). Fascinated, she bought several and brought them home and showed them to her friends, Alexandra and Ann. All three collected textiles and clothing during travels to other countries, and felt that other women would like to learn about these clothes and how to make their own. These garments served as models for the earliest Folkwear patterns.
They started producing the early patterns, such as 101 Gaza Dress, 103 Romanian Blouse, 105 Syrian Dress, 106 Turkish Coat, and 107 Afghan Nomad Dress, in 1975 and 1976. These early patterns had hand-lettered instructions on heavy paper and included many needlework techniques, such as embroidery, applique, cross-stitch, trapunto, quilting, smocking, and crochet.
The three founders were a perfect team to create a line of innovative patterns that was revolutionary for its time. This was the mid-1970s, when women's wear in America was often bland and conservative. Alexandra, Barbara, and Ann each had specific and complementary skills to bring to Folkwear. Alexandra was a skilled embroiderer who researched, diagramed, and explained needlework and handcraft techniques so important to the patterns. Annehad a background in fashion design, and spent years designing for mass market and factory sewing. She created the patterns for the garment construction. And Barbara had technical writing and organizing skills, as well as lengthy experience as a home sewist. And, their husbands helped -- with mail order, photography, and graphic design. Finally, book illustrator, Gretchen Schields, drew the cover illustrations for each pattern.
Of note, in 1974, just before starting Folkwear, Alexandra Jacopetti wrote the book, “Native Funk and Flash: An Emerging Folk Art,” about the street fashion of the 60's, focusing on California weavers and folk artists (and jeans art) -- a classic of the time.
As the three began collecting vintage garments in addition to traditional folk garments, the pattern line expanded to include all types of historic styles from all around the world. By 1977, they had 14 designs in print and were selling patterns (retailing at $4.50 each) to hundreds of stores and museums across the U.S., as well as by mail order.
Eventually, Ann Wainwright took over the company and served as President for several years. During the recession of the mid-1980s, Folkwear's business health suffered along with so many other small businesses. The company was sold to The Taunton Press, publisher of Threads magazine, and by the early 1990s, most of the original patterns were back in print, and new patterns were under development.
Gretchen Schields continued to illustrate nearly all of the patterns from the inception of the company until 2017, contributing to the iconic images associated with Folkwear patterns (see below, 113 Japanese Kimono).
Folkwear is a beloved company, and we are honored to keep it thriving. We will write more about Folkwear's history over the next several months, but if you want to know more right away, you can read an article on the Craft Industry Alliance website about Folkwear's history, and listen to a podcast on this history (complete with interviews from founders) on the Seamwork podcast.
