Getting Dressed: Natalie Gibson
Natalie Gibson, a legendary design teacher at Central Saint Martins
In the March Oldie, I interviewed Emma Foale, the portrait painter, who wore a dress she had made herself from a printed fabric by Natalie Gibson.
And now Natalie Gibson’s textiles are part of the Swinging London exhibition (on until 2nd June) at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey. She is also the subject of another show at the Aram Gallery in London (this time shared with her husband, painter Jon Wealleans and others she admires).
Gibson is one of those rare people who spend a lifetime in the same job – in her case, teaching textile design and print at Central Saint Martins, where, with her blue hair and vivid outfits, she has become a legendary figure. Her Chinese students (there are more Chinese studying in London than any other international group) started calling her Grandma some time ago. Now she is known by all the new students as Grandma because they think it is her name. Four years ago, Grandma was awarded the MBE; she was also asked to teach in China.
There seems to be no particular gene responsible for Gibson’s skills: an only child, she had a Russian father, though, she says, you would never have guessed it; he appeared to be the perfect British gentleman. He worked for Ascot water-heaters – and he didn’t understand his daughter at all. Watching her getting ready to go out one evening in an oversized cricket sweater, dyed purple, worn over skinny tights and huge boots, he said, bewildered, ‘In our day, we used to try and make ourselves attractive but now the aim seems to be as hideous as possible.’ Her parents decided she must be a beatnik. Her mother was Scottish. Soon after she was born, she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents on their farm in Scotland. There were thirty cats who were fed every day – thus Gibson’s passion for anything feline. Tigers, leopards and cats all appear frequently in her designs (and she has nine cats of her own). She was sent to boarding school at seven. ‘No one could understand a word I said because I had such a strong Scottish accent... I wrote to my grandfather and begged him to send me a pussycat. He did and it arrived by train at Farnham Station with a note written by the guard, saying, ‘Pussy fed at Crewe. Pussy fed again at Euston.’ At school (Frensham Heights), she spent most of her time in the art room and eventually abandoned A-levels to go to Chelsea Art School. Her mother had sent off some pictures and drawings she had done at home. The school said, ‘Yes, she is very talented. We will take her.’ ‘Can you imagine that happening nowadays?’ She moved on to the Royal College of Art where she did textile design. ‘I was so arrogant. I thought no one could teach me anything about painting; so I’d do textiles instead.’ She married a sculptor and had two boys; when he left her, she took them to her first teaching interview at what was then Saint
Martins School of Art. She jokes that she was only given the job to get them out of the office.
Gibson was 80 last birthday but has no intention of curtailing her exuberance. She loves colour – the brighter the better – and her house is overflowing with stuff because she never throws anything away. ‘They took away a truckload of things for the Swinging London exhibition,’ says her husband wryly, ‘but, as you can see, it has made no difference’. I could see.
Gibson doesn’t ‘go shopping’ but recycles old favourites (Kenzo is one) or buys clothes that catch her eye in India or China, in markets, even at Uniqlo. As far as her own design inspiration goes, she says she has not moved on much. She still loves all cats, parrots (she has owned a parrot and a macaw) and flowers. ‘Getting older is annoying,’ she says. ‘I have so much to do. My cupboards are stuffed with projects I am planning to work on one day.’
She has her fringe cut by Richard at Saco Hair, uses Boots Protect & Perfect and Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour cream, and does Pilates once a week. A few years ago, she coloured her hair with henna, then moved on to a dye called Atomic Magenta. When they stopped making it, she switched to blue dye because she happened to have some in the house. People in the street – they must be colour blind – stop her and ask if she is Zandra Rhodes, famous for her pink hair.