Althea Bilodeau Lamb

Felt and Dye Work

Mendon, VT

A third-generation fiber artist, Althea Bilodeau Lamb expresses her love of fashion and color through textile creation and design. Each of her one-of-a-kind garments and accessories is sculpted from her own hand-dyed fine wool, silk and other local and exotic natural fibers employing an ancient non-woven fabric-making process called felting. From classic outerwear, to striking scarves, shawls, and bags, each of Althea’s pieces is carefully created in her Vermont home studio.

Althea is the sixth of seven children raised on a self-sufficient farm in Upstate New York. Her mother, Gloria Scannell, is a well-known spinner and weaver in the region. Surrounded by fresh fleeces from their prize-winning fiber sheep, and boiling dye pots filled with black walnut shells and onion skins, Althea’s natural draw to color and fabric was nurtured as a child. A young student of sewing and weaving, she pursued her interest in fashion through studies in costume design, construction, and modeling.

In late 2009, American Fashion Designer, Chris Benz, commissioned Althea to hand dye silk charmeuse fabric for his Fall 2010 Collection. With her fabric he designed and created three stunning dresses and separates. Their collaboration was so successful that he next introduced her felt as a design feature on the front of a silk blouse, and the collar of two jackets, in his Fall 2011 collection. He then went on to showcase Althea’s work in his Resort 2012 collection with a jacket and a coat made entirely of her felt. The beautiful jacket was sold on the Chris Benz rack at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Althea Bilodeau Lamb

Felt and Dye Work

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