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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARA BROWN - THE GOLDEN GIRLS OF HEALS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARA BROWN - THE GOLDEN GIRLS OF HEALS

October 30, 2023
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 “She looked very exotic. She wore black jet jewellery and her hair was sort of probably Victorian style. And I think I was very, very influenced by her in my early school days. I would say that Barbara’s responsible for me being a textile designer.” 


Image: Barabara Brown 

Dame Zandra Rhodes describing Barbara Brown, who taught her at Art School at the beginning of her career. Barbara herself is one of the most renowned textile designers of the mid-20th century. Her strongly geometric work was the very essence of 60s art and style, the backdrop to so much of Swinging London. Today her distinctive designs are highly sought after by collectors.


Image: Barbara Brown textiles - Google Search. 

Barbara has just celebrated her 90th birthday, and to mark it the textile podcaster, Jo Andrews of Haptic & Hue, in collaboration with Gray MCA.  has made a film about Barbara exploring her life as a designer. It’s the first time she has spoken about her life, the influences that led her to become a textile designer, what inspired her, and the ideas she was trying to express in her extraordinary work.


Image: Barbara Brown Textiles. 

In the film Barbara tells the story of how she never set out to be a textile designer, but instead wanted to be a sculptor. When she arrived at art school, like so many of her generation she was told abruptly: ‘You are a woman, you can’t do sculpture, you need to do textiles.” She says she accepted this because that’s what you did at the time. 


Image: Barbara Brown textiles.

She went on to produce designs that were unique, one of a handful of designers who successfully translated Op Art into textile design. She worked largely for the London store, Heals, where at the height of her career she was known as The Golden Girl of Heals.

Watch the film: Happy Birthday Barbara Brown, The Golden Girl of Heals on Vimeo at vimeo.com/ondemand/barbarabrown

Text courtesy of o Andrews of Haptic & Hue
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1 comment

I was at The Caldecott Community, Mersham le Hatch, Ashford, Kent, from 1954 – 1962. "After I left and probs in the 1970s I bought some fabric with Barbara Browns name. I was told that she had also attended Caldecott. Please can you confirm this. Many thanks Sandra

Sandra JayApril 3, 2024

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