Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textiles
At the William Morris Gallery this autumn, the familiar Liberty print is reframed. Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textiles restores the designers behind the patterns — women whose creativity shaped the fabric of modern British life, yet whose names were often consigned to the margins. Conceived in partnership with Liberty Fabrics to mark the company’s 150th anniversary, the exhibition is both a celebration and an act of recognition.
Wiltshire Berry, designed by D Stoneley for Liberty, 1933, screen-printed Tana Lawn™ cotton, 1970s-1980s. Credit: Liberty Fabrics Archive. (Subscribers to Selvedge will recognise this print, used as the lining to the wrapper for Selvedge Issue 126, Deco!)
Founded in 1875 as an importer of silks and decorative arts from the Middle East and Asia, Liberty quickly began producing its own designs. The house’s floral patterns became entwined with British identity, worn on the high street and in couture, stitched into patchwork and immortalised on scarves. More than 100 works including garments, original drawings, fabrics, photographs and film, are brought together here, tracing Liberty’s evolution while charting the growing role of women in design...
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Image Credits:
Lead: Design for Quickstep, renamed Kazak, by Collier Campbell for Liberty, c. 1970. © Sarah Campbell.
All other images as credited in photo captions.