Diving into Taiga Bentley’s Instagram is a little like taking that first peek through a kaleidoscope on a brilliantly sunny day… bold & bright hues– often in the form of quilt coats, stunning fabric gradients– arranged to perfection, and a glorious collection of prints selected both for their reigning hues and for their visual contribution to the most epic ‘eye spy’ quilt imaginable. Taiga truly has an amazing eye for color, something that has clearly been cultivated over a lifetime.
Her passion for textiles blends seamlessly with her role as art curator / gallery co-owner, giving her a unique perspective. She is organized and intelligent in her process, quirky in her delivery, and absolutely endearing to watch. She’s taking this business by storm, crafting coveted quilt coat commissions for customers around the world and we can’t help but daydream about something involving a whole lot of Aurifil thread!
This past month, we’ve been completely captivated by her work on a quilt coat commissioned by Andover Fabrics. Using only fabrics from Andover fabric designers, Taiga created a full length coat that made its debut yesterday on Fashion Alley at H+H Americas in Chicago. We noticed that she was using Aurifil thread and took a chance, writing to inquire about a quick interview. We’re so thrilled that she was willing to play along and hope this is just the beginning. Huge thanks to Taiga for sharing a peek at her process!
Hi Taiga! We are so delighted that you are here to share a little of your story and a lot of your magical quilt coats. We’ve been absolutely mesmerized by your reels on IG, following your color stories and soaking up all the tips and we have no doubt that our readers will feel the same. To dive right in – how did you get started with quilting? Was it something you came to on your own?
Haha oh dear. I was brought into the world of quilting purely because of my own competitive nature. I was out of town visiting my best friend a number of years ago, and she was just finishing up her first quilt. We were roommates in undergrad, in the same program, always a little competitive with grades in a sisterly way. She had made this beautiful rainbow binding which I loved immediately and thought to myself, Hey! I can do that! I sewed a little in highschool, so at very least I knew how to thread a machine. I went into an instagram deepdive for inspiration, grabbed a Singer Heavyduty off ebay, spent a TON of money on fabric, et voila! An entire business built on the back of coveting my best friend’s quilt binding.
While artistic expression through quilting may be relatively new in your world, we suspect that art has always been a part of who you are. Tell us more about that and where it has taken you…
As a child the greatest gift I could receive was a big box of crayons, markers, pastels… not to draw with, but to dump out and organize into proper gradients. One (of many) embarrassing anecdotes my family loves to retell is how, at 8 years old, I declared it was my life’s purpose to organize colour. Prophetic? Who can say! But art and craft have always been a prominent part of my life. I was raised in my grandmother’s art gallery. Today I run that same gallery, and my life is surrounded by art – what I deal with at work, what I collect in my home – and as a curator I have spent almost 15 years looking at artwork and putting it together into exhibitions. Well…I think you can imagine how quickly that translated to the world of quilting.
What do you love most about the process of creating a quilt?
First the hunt, seeking out the talented artists and designers who are creating these truly amazing modern fabrics, who have a brilliant sense of colour and line, and investing in their work yard by yard. Then selecting them for a quilt which depends entirely on who the quilt is for! Curating the fabrics for the recipient is so much fun, hiding easter eggs for them to find that relate to their home, travels, hobbies, families, birthdays, anniversaries, you name it. It’s an Eye Spy for every age, curating the fabric into bed- or couch- or coat-sized exhibitions is my greatest joy.
What first inspired you to turn one of your quilts into a quilt coat?
Ah. Again that creeping sense of personal competition rears its head. I lusted over quilt coats on social media for maybe a year, I’d never worked with a garment pattern and it felt truly beyond me. Finally I shipped out one of my quilts to have it turned into a coat. When it was returned to me I flipped it inside out, looked at the construction and thought, Hey! I can do that! What I didn’t expect was how popular they would become! Where once my commissions were predominantly kid-sized quilts, they have been replaced 10:1 by women who want to feel comfortable and confident and express themselves in quiltcoats made just for them!
We’ve been entirely enamored with your process in creating the custom Andover quilt coat which debuted this week at H+H. How did this collaboration come about and what fabrics are being used to craft this particular story?
A dream I still can’t believe is real! I was approached by the inimitable Daryl at Andover Fabrics in the new year. She had floated the idea of a quiltcoat to display on Fashion Avenue at the H+H to her team, and they went for it, and I’m so honoured she came to me to complete that task. We dreamed up the palette together, wanting to incorporate Pantone’s colour of the year, the au currant “Peach Fuzz” and Andover’s undeniably chic brand red. I wanted fabrics by all of Andover’s designers so that it could celebrate the multifaceted talent of their artists, and so Daryl went digging.
Follow Taiga’s Process via her IG Reels:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | the Reveal!
When presented with a challenge like this… being sent a box of fabrics… how do you go about creating your color story? Do you have a particular process for organizing, sorting, and mapping everything out, or does it change from project to project?
Nothing will ever compare to paper and pen. At the beginning of each project, I grab my box of 100 markers and a bible-thick lined notebook and get to sketching. Sometimes the focus is on the content, a long list of items personal to the recipient and I’ll have to check off each thing as I find it in my stash (May for an anniversary, hot chocolate for a first date, golf or swimming, books or baking), and in the case of the Andover coat it was a matter of working through the gradient to make sure the flow of colours and fabrics equally and fairly reflected the number of designers under the Andover umbrella.
You’ve shared some great tips along the way with this one – what are your favorite shortcuts or tips for working through a larger scale project?
Candy. A colossal, neverending bag of candy in your workroom. Tired? Candy. Fingers hurt? Candy. Got to grab your seam ripper AGAIN?? Take a breath, eat some candy. In a world of pure imagination, sour jujubes are my lifeline.
We’re super excited to see this one in person – what are you most excited about with this full coat reveal?
I’ve never sent out a piece into the world that I wasn’t proud of, but this is something else. It glows. Before now, all of my work has been collected privately and a finished quilt gets posted on instagram, which is an awesome platform, but simply cannot do justice to the details or true colours of the fabric and thread. I’m thrilled that this coat will be seen in person and can showcase the very best of what I love to do.
Of course we love that you regularly use Aurifil thread in your work. Why is the use of a 100% cotton thread important in this context and what drew you to Aurifil? How did you incorporate Aurifil threads into the construction of your Andover quilt coat?
A very talented friend of mine, Amanda Clyne, is a painter as well as a quilter. She first recommended Aurifil to me as the best thread I could buy, and as an artist who relies on the quality of her materials to create her work, it was unquestionable advice.
100% cotton thread is a huge part of the draw. I’m making quilts with 100% cotton fabric, that go against your skin, that are played with and loved by children, I expect the thread to be of the highest caliber, and Aurifil is that.
To put it in the greater context of my experience as an art dealer, there are a number of factors that contribute to a great painting: the imagery, the beauty, the skill of the artist, of course. But also a perfectly built stretcher, archivally sound materials, the frame, the glass. If the fabric of a quilt is the paint on the canvas, Aurifil thread is the framework that allows the piece to shine. They work hand in hand.
How do you use Aurifil to enhance the color story of your quilts coats?
Beyond quality, colour is also very significant to my work, and the spectrum of Aurifil’s available colour selection is unparalleled. I am able to effortlessly match Aurifil’s thread to the gradient of my Andover coat (and every other piece I make) bringing a lightness and brightness to the construction and emphasizing the flow of colours seamlessly from one to the other.
We’d love to showcase a few of your favorites – can you give us a run down?
I made myself a coat for the opening of the Whitney Museum’s 2022 biennial. We had a painter curated into the show, it was a big night for the gallery, and I wanted to wear something fun. I had a pair of wide-leg polka dot trousers I thought would look great with a formal jacket for the evening, so I constructed this piece which is very bedtime-meets-Matrix. Really clean lines, orchid at the shoulders, transitioning through periwinkle into deep violet, and black at the hem. A very chic couple asked me if my coat was made in Japan and I was THRILLED.
My most challenging commission was a coat based on the seven chakras. The client had done a lot of spiritual work and the chakras were an important part of that practice. In order to construct it for her, I ended up doing a lot of research on what the chakras are, and the meaning behind each of the seven colours. There’s always a risk with rainbow – which is so silly to say – but the risk with rainbow is that if it’s oversaturated it can very quickly become garish, and then it can look unsophisticated and childish. This is generally why I avoid primaries. For this, it was absolutely paramount that those colours be accurate. The challenge was to find fabric in not just the right tones but with mature patterns as well. I spent weeks collecting fabrics where the reds weren’t candy red but a deep blood red, the glowing golden yolk yellow, not pale butter pat yellow, and on and on. And colour was only one half of the equation, I also focused on content. I wanted fabrics that felt alive, with flowers and birds and fruit, things that imply growth, renewal, transcendence. This was yet another instance where Aurifil came to my rescue. I was able to find the perfect, saturated, gem-toned thread to match each colour in the coat and complete the vision.
Your textile art feels wonderfully intertwined with your other career – we’d love to hear more about the Olga Korper Gallery. What exhibits are being hosted now and why are they so fabulous?
The gallery is a beautiful industrial space in the west end of Toronto. Started by my grandmother in 1973, we showcase contemporary art in every media. Our current show of paintings by Vickie Vainionpää addresses the gaze in art history, blending technology and oil paint to create giant abstract gradients that mimic the journey her eye takes as it travels through various historically significant works of art. If you happen to live in New York, we’ll be bringing a few artists to the Armory fair in September, so obviously I’ll need to make a custom coat for that!
What’s up next for you for 2024?
Ah, like many of us my year will involve walking the tightrope of the working mother with two full time jobs and two small children. Lots of new and exciting things are happening in the gallery, all while finding time to sew in my studio. I was just asked this week to travel to Nova Scotia and teach a quilt coat class, so fingers crossed we can add that to the calendar too! Before the Andover coat, my most recent coat commissions went to Japan and the Netherlands, so maybe most of all what I’m looking forward to is the opportunity to meet new people around the world through my work and the future connections and friends I will be able to make thanks to this beautiful community of ours.
ABOUT TAIGA— Origin Story
Website— https://www.houseoftaiga.com
Instagram— https://www.instagram.com/houseoftaiga
*all images by Taiga Bentley.
So interesting learning more about you. Those coats and that gallery are inspiring.
At first glance, I thought those coats are not for me. As I kept reading and looking at all the quilts and coats you made, I was awed and inspired. The colors and the way you placed them on the coats was absolutely beautiful. I’m a quilter and never thought i would care to make a coat with the fabric. However, my mind has been changed and in a good way. It was a pleasure to learn more about you and your quilting journey.
Love that you are Canadian and how your story has come alive. You are truly a unique designer with an amazing eye for colour and texture. I love following your page.
I started sewing when i was 7 Now I am 79. Have made so many things i cant even count.
I never tire of it. It fills in all the empty spaces in life. Thanks for sharing.