A six-part exploration of the material world presented by Hannah Andrassy. 4: Chintz. "Oh chintzy, chintzy cheeriness, half dead and half alive," said John Betjeman of chintz.
Fashion historian Hannah Andrassy unravels the story of chintz, from its origins in India, through the cultural traffic between the colony and Britain, and how the Indian technical virtuosity was stolen by an industrialising England. Americans fascinated by English country house culture in the twenties and thirties revitalised chintz, and it continues to survive in the nineties, despite exhortations from furniture manufacturers to "Chuck your chintz."