Talk: Design and Designers with Nigel Briggs

Nigel’s talk promises to be of both local interest, especially to anyone living in Leamington in the ’60s and ’70s,  and very colourful.

Nigel says, “My talk will cover the setting up of Sari Fabrics by Joy and Malcolm Wilcox in the late 1960’s and its subsequent location at Sydenham in Leamington Spa.

“I will look at the vast range of kitchenware products, notably the PVC coated cotton fabric aprons printed with images of popular products of the time, such as Colmans Mustard, Guinness, Lea and Perrins, Cinzano, along with designs featuring Snoopy and other cartoon characters. Other products included quilted tea cosies, oven gloves, mitts, PVC Tote bags, shoulder bags, purses, tins and mugs.

“The company was ‘design led’, with not only a team of in-house designers, some of whom still live locally and may be present at the meeting, but other names from outside such as Kaffe Fasset, Alan Aldridge and Zandra Rhodes.

“I will be bringing along some of my collection of over 150 Sari products.”