Three Kings: Designing for the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum

There are some commissions that are particularly difficult to keep quiet about, and this has certainly been one of them.

Earlier this year, I was invited by the British Museum to create a silk scarf and tie to accompany its landmark exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry. Nearly 1,000 years after it was made, the Tapestry is returning to England for the first time, on loan to the British Museum for an exhibition running from September 2026 to July 2027.

As someone whose work is so often rooted in history, it was a rather irresistible brief.

For the design, I found myself immediately drawn to the margins. While kings, battles and great historical events occupy the centre of the Tapestry, its borders are populated by the most wonderful collection of animals and curious creatures. I have always loved these slightly eccentric details in historic works, the things that perhaps weren’t intended to be the main event but somehow end up stealing your attention.

I drew these creatures by hand before carving them into lino, alongside figures and motifs taken from the Tapestry. There was something particularly satisfying about translating these almost thousand-year-old images through another very physical process: drawing them, carving each one into lino and finally printing them by hand before they made their way onto silk.

Running through the design are the names of the three kings at the heart of the story: Edward Rex, Harold Rex and Willelm Rex, interspersed with medieval motifs and flashes of red against deep blue. The resulting Three Kings design has been made in Italy in silk as both a scarf and tie.

There is also something rather lovely about working with an object I first encountered in history books at school. The Bayeux Tapestry was one of those images that seemed to make the distant past suddenly feel remarkably vivid, so to find myself years later carving its kings and creatures into lino for the British Museum feels rather special.

The Bayeux Tapestry Three Kings silk scarf and tie will be available from the exhibition shop at the British Museum throughout the exhibition.