The most famous British textile designers

We want to continue the series of articles about influential people in textile design and tell you about the most famous textile artists of Great Britain.

Of course, one of the most famous British textile designers is  William Morris (1834-1896). Morris was an important figure in the Art and Craft movement, which was a protest of a group of artists, designers and architects, concerned about the decline in quality and loss of beauty and individuality of products, as a consequence, gaining momentum, mechanization and standardization of homeworkforme production in the nineteenth century in Britain.

Image: William Morris, textile designer

In 1861, Morris and his associates created, to this day, the decorative company Morris & Co. Literally immediately, the products of Morris became widely known and desired in all houses of medium and high papersplanet society. The company had a strong influence on the design of interiors throughout the Victorian period.

Image: Production process in Morris & Co

In his works, Morris used manual dyeing and painting techniques for textiles, than he proved that mass production can be beautiful and unique. All his patterns were amazed by the unique combination of simplicity and wealth. Inspired by Islamic culture, William Morris became famous for his drawings on fabric in the form of flowers, vines, Turkish beans and other elements of nature. In his works he used rich natural colors, such as greens, brown tones, ocher and turquoise.

Image: Textile example from William Morris

Morris was a very influential person in the world of design and textiles and became an inspiration for many later designers. Most of his designs remain relevant and available today.

Another recognized genius in the field of textile design was Charles Voysey (1857 - 1941). He, being a designer and an architect, like Morris, was a member of the Movement of Art and Craft. His work was greatly influenced by the flattened linear style of Japanese art.

Image: Charles Voysey, textile designer and architect

Many of his drawings have the effect of rhythmic contrast of figures - monochrome elements of the drawing, outlined by a dark or pale contour. Voysey usually used stylized natural forms, in particular the designer liked to use the patterns of birds and plants in his patterns on a contrasting background, creating the "negative" effect. These drawings were a reflection of the historical turning points in the history of his country.

Image: An example of Voysey's early work

Later, Voysey began to perform his most original and characteristic designs using pastel colors, flowing patterns and monograms, with oblate silhouettes of hearts, birds and flowers. These were not just drawings, but whole narratives. His patterns were used for both textiles and wallpapers, and sometimes for furniture upholstery and have not lost relevance to this day.

Image: The most popular design of the fabric is "Alice in Wonderland", 1920

One of the greatest contributions to the development of textile design in the history of Great Britain in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries was the Silver Studio design studio, founded in 1880 by Arthur Silver.

Silver Studio sold its designs to private manufacturers and large factories, not only in the UK, but all over the world, thereby gaining recognition and popularity for many years. Among the clients of the design studio there were mass-market factories, such as Lightbown Aspinall and Potters of Darwen, as well as well-known fashion houses, including Essex & Co, John Line and Sandersons.

The importance of Silver Studio's influence on the international market is confirmed by the fact that in the early 1900s about two-thirds of the studio's projects were sold to French and Belgian textile manufacturers, including Bergert Dupont et Cie, Dumas, Florquin, Gros Roman, Zuber Cie, and Leborne.

Also during the 1890s, Arthur Silver was also keenly interested in Japanese art. As a result, Silver Studio with the support of Alexander Rottman developed an innovative technique for decorating stencils under the influence of Japanese developments. Such cooperation meant that the Japanese and the British had an early impact on the development of modernity in the design of each other.

Due to the fact that the main customers of the studio were large mass market producers, Silver Studio's designs in those years were virtually in every house and had a huge impact on the development of the British interior in general.

Image: Silver Studio Pattern 

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