History and beauty in Krista Reich clothing
By Bev Boyle
Last weekend, at the Chris Harris Gallery, Krista Reich held her second fashion show, with women's and men's attire. Krista is known for her custom, handmade historic/period clothing and original fashions. Her husband, Neil Pinkett is a realist/impressionist artist, painter and illustrator. They live in Forest Grove.
(Neil and Krista with one of her gorgeous gowns.)
Krista grew up in Vancouver and has adored medieval dress since childhood and found inspiration in historical styles. She studied art history, painting and pattern drafting in college, and began studying historical dress construction, materials and styles on her own. She also became a convert to natural fibres and enthusiastic about traditional crafts, especially fibre arts; spinning, dying and weaving. She later built a small loom, stud frame shed, and much of the family furniture out of peeled pines and spare lumber.
She spent nearly three years backpacking and soaking in the heritage of Britain, where she met husband Neil. They traveled together and now reside in the Cariboo. She has been drawing her whole life, with an emphasis on clothing, and sewing clothing projects since about 1990, mainly inspired fashions at first and in recent years historic reproduction as well. She loves doing things the old-fashioned way and using the natural materials that were available in the past.
This is one example of Krista's beautiful work. She says, “I have a collection of projects from the 11th to 16th centuries in a timeline based order. I am well practiced at hand sewing and use it where requested. I seek to do each project as much like it would have been done in the era it is from as I can using appropriate fabrics (though I have used cotton here and there to provide a cost saving option) and pattern cuts. (Alas I do not dye the fabrics per era, though I'd love to do so!) I am happy to take commissions for individual garments or outfits of your choosing. I am interested in any era up to 1939, and gear to get going on your garb!”
(Medieval Mantle)
See her other historic clothing galleries,and doll galleries as well, for more of Krista's works at
Neil Pinkett hales from Nottinghamshire, England. He is a self-taught artist currently working in oil paints, as well as drawing ink-pen and coloured pencil miniatures. 
(One of Neil's miniatures - The May King I – is done in ink-pen with coloured pencils. It is 8cm by 13.5cm. The miniature is “a small foliate face found in the wonderful chapterhouse at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire.”)
The two styles in which Neil predominantly works compliment each other well, from the artist's perspective. The miniature ink drawings require intense focus on detail and plentiful patience, in an effort to create precise and accurate works of art, whilst with the oil paintings it is much more of a fluid and spontaneous approach, with the emphasis shifting to capturing the essence and mood of a scene.
Neil has led a semi-nomadic adult life, working predominantly in youth hostels and nature conservation. He considers this to have been a richly rewarding way to experience a few corners of Britain and western Canada. He draws inspiration from having lived in beautiful and far flung locations throughout the British Isles, including, amongst others, the Outer Hebrides, North Yorkshire, the Welsh Borders, Devon, and the Cotswolds. He emigrated to Canada with Krista in 1998, where he has lived ever since, traveling in BC and the Yukon before spending three years running a rustic youth hostel in Jasper National Park. They moved to Vancouver Island for two years, then out to the prairies for three years, and are now settled here.
Neil has recently completed his first mural project. It is located on the 100 Mile Theatre and depicts a scene in Lone Butte in the 1930s. The man in the foreground is Charlie Reid, the stationmaster, behind him is the water tower - still a local landmark - and an approaching steam-train.
He has also completed Phase One of his newest mural at the Curling Rink.
It is hard to describe in words, the beauty and artistry that this couple brings to our world. To see just how incredible their work is, visit .
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