Weekend Read: Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour, Kassia St Clair
Published to mark the 150th anniversary of one of Britain’s most recognisable design houses, Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour is both a visual compendium and a concise cultural history. Drawing on an archive of more than 60,000 textile swatches and drawings, Kassia St Clair gathers 150 of Liberty’s most emblematic prints into a volume that celebrates the store’s enduring influence on the language of pattern.
Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour, Kassia St Clair
Accompanying the introduction is a line from a 1900 business profile that neatly captures the spirit of the enterprise: “Libertyism, if it may be so called, is not a fad or a fashion, it is a firmly established movement, that touches the love of the artistic which is born in every one of us.” The sentiment sets the tone for a book that presents Liberty not simply as a retailer, but as a creative force shaped by artistic exchange and design innovation.
Peacock Garden, 1974, adapted from a Walter Crane design. Walter Crane was a British artist and illustrator best known for his children's illustrations. He founded the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888 and worked on numerous designs for Liberty.
Founded in 1875 by Arthur Lasenby Liberty, the store first distinguished itself through the import of textiles and decorative objects from Japan, India, China and the Middle East. Yet it was the move into in-house production and collaboration with British mills that defined its aesthetic. By adapting global motifs into fabrics suited to Western dress and interiors, Liberty developed a distinctive design language—lightweight, colourfast, and often characterised by fluid lines and intricate florals. Over time, the company’s archive grew into a vast design resource that continues to inform its studio today.
Hand painted Arts and Crafts-style design from the Liberty archive.
St Clair traces this evolution through a sequence of thematic chapters. After an introduction and an overview of Liberty fabrics, readers move through sections devoted to the Arts & Crafts and Aesthetic movements, the sinuous international style known as Stile Liberty, and the escapist designs of the early 20th century. Later chapters explore nostalgic florals, mid-century abstraction and the free-spirited bohemian prints that came to define Liberty for new generations. A final section focuses on the contemporary design studio, revealing how the archive remains a living source of inspiration.
Ziggy, Autumn/Winter 2021. Liberty archive.
Readers can expect a richly illustrated journey through the collection. Full-page textile designs are accompanied by sketches, technical drawings, advertisements and branding ephemera, offering insight into the processes behind the patterns. Familiar trailing florals appear alongside lesser-known geometric and abstract designs, including those created in collaboration with artists such as Bernard Nevill and Robert Stewart, which reflect Liberty’s engagement with modernist ideas.
Liberty Autumn/Winter 20255. Photograph by Vicki King.
St Clair, also known for The Secret Lives of Colour and The Golden Thread, brings clarity and cultural insight to the subject, situating the patterns within broader artistic movements and shifting tastes. Lavishly illustrated yet accessible, Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour, functions as an inspirational sourcebook, concise design history and insightful anniversary tribute in one.
-
Further Information:
Published by Thames and Hudson
The book was also reviewed in Selvedge Issue 126, Deco.
-
Image Credits:
Lead: Prospect Road, Frieze, 1968, by Bernard Nevill, who was design director at Liberty during the later 1960s. Image: Liberty London
All further images as credited in captions.