Newport Then and Now: Full Swing Textiles
A look back at Newport's Full Swing Textiles.
In Full Swing Again Full Swing Textiles started out in the mid 1980s as a vintage furnishings and accessories shop down on Lower Thames Street. The owner of that little shop, RISD graduate Michele Mancini, was a collector of vintage textiles. Over the course of 25 years, she had amassed a vintage barkcloth collection from the 1940s and 1950s. In the mid 1980s the popularity of vintage textiles experienced a huge resurgence. People traveled from all over the country to Newport to see Michele’s collection and quickly purchased her 25 years of collecting. Committed to the art of barkcloth and staking her claim to carrying on the history of this textile, Michele purchased 16,000 yards of virginal vintage fabric that was found in the storage …
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