#textile patterns

Fig. 1: Robe à la française • 1730-1740 • © Stanislas Wolff / Paris Musées, Palais Galliera

When I was researching the Rococo fashion era, I collected so many images and I have to share some of my favorites. It's not so much the style of the Robe à la Française that I like (though I do very much like the box pleats and drape of the back) but the fabrics, colors, and patterns. Fig. 1 shows a gorgeous print in a beautiful color combination. Such a print for a dress today wouldn't work very well, as contemporary dresses don't have the volume of the 18th century styles, nor the lovely draping in the back of the Robe à la Française.

The Robe à la Française was derived from the loose negligee sacque dress of the earlier part of the century, which was pleated from the shoulders at the front at the back.

Metropolitan Museum of Art • 1760-70 • Silk, cotton

The silhouette was achieved with a funnel-shaped bust joining wide rectangular skirts. The wide skirts were supported by panniers and hoops constructed from cane, metal, and baleen. Fig. 2 shows a portrait sitter wearing a Robe à la Française with a contrasting underskirt.

Fig. 2: Artist unknown (British). Mrs. Cadoux, ca. 1770

African wax print

Die Stoffe der Wiener Werkstätte 1910-1932

Angela Völker

Verlag Christian Brandstätter, Wien 2004, 288 Seiten mit 415 Abbildungen, davon 306 in Farbe

euro 140,00

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Herausgegeben vom Österreichischen Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Wien

The textile patterns and prints of the Wiener Werkstätte were among the most popular and successful designs of the early twentieth century, reflecting both the tastes of Viennese high society and the general trend towards artistic abstraction. Textiles of the Wiener Werkstätte, 1910-1932 presents selections from the original gouache drawings, pattern books and about 20,000 actual samples now in the collection of the Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna - a truly remarkable archive of most of the over 1,800 recorded fabric designs. These range from the early rounded naturalistic motifs of Art Nouveau to the later angular geometric designs associated with Art Deco. Angela Völker 's text gives succinct accounts of a range of topics, including the designs by Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann for Backhausen and Sohne prior to the foundation of the textile department in about 1910, methods of production, sales policy, customers and end use. A wealth of reproductions, many in colour, are supplemented by an exhaustive catalogue and artist biographies, as well as contemporary photographs of the textiles' uses in fashion and interior decoration, including exhibition pavilions and the Wiener Werkstätte's own showrooms. For designers, decorators or anyone simply in search of visual inspiration, this book is a goldmine and an amazing tribute to a period of astonishing creativity.

03/04/22

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Celebrating Kenyan Culture, Bold Textile Patterns Disguise Subjects in Thandiwe Muriu’s Portraits

Thandiwe Muriu’s ongoing Camo series cloaks models in arresting garments that disguise them in textile surroundings, leaving just their hands and faces visible.

From the printed clothing to the subject’s accessories and hairstyles, each image is layered with references to the Nairobi-based photographer’s daily life and a sense of resourcefulness that permeates the local culture. Common items like bottle tops, mosquito coils, bicycle gears, straws, and cleaning brushes become elaborate eyewear or decorative additions to historical “architectural hairstyles that are being forgotten,” she tells Colossal.

Diego