FIVE TEXTILE DESIGN ARCHIVES OFFERING ORIGINAL VINTAGE PATTERNS FOR INTERIOR FURNISHINGS AND FASHION
Fine Art and textile design have always been close companions. From Da Vinci to Raoul Dufy Textile patterns have often been a physical manifestation of the forms and colours of their era, as fine artists expressed themselves through the textiles of their day. Picasso, Dali, Warhol and William Morris have all made their contributions, and many contemporary textile designers seek inspiration from their works.
Today, with the pre-eminence of Digital Textile Technology, the Textile Designer has an unrivalled opportunity to use fragments of the works of the past to create new and inspiring design works for the Textiles of the future. Indeed, it could be argued, that with the relative ease of design conversion and manipulation using digital software, the number of designs in circulation has grown exponentially – as we increase our requirement for design diversity.
Web to print websites selling on demand printed fabrics often offer designs in their thousands, and the designer community has been under ever increasing pressure to produce more artworks and designs for this active sector.
In order to assist this process, Texintel now suggest five Textile Archives where print buyers, Interior Designers, Brands and Retailers can view and purchase, often even download, designs for multiple applications – Fashion, Interiors, Home Furnishings and Wallpaper, and Accessories giving substantial inspiration. After all a best-selling product starts with outstanding design.
The Crowson Archive is an online portfolio that can be searched by style, designer,period, country of origin, repeat size, width and number of colours - The Design Archive
The Design Archives : UK
The Design Archives is the brainchild of Sharon Crowson whose family business, Crowson Fabrics, established in 1978, became one of the world’s leading producers, designers and suppliers of home furnishings.
Since 2018 Sharon has been working to digitalise this incredible collection of archival textile documents and fabric designs amassed by her father Derek Crowson.
The collection consists of around 5,000 original hand-painted designs and fabric pieces from close to 200 designers. The majority of which have never been developed.
The Crowson Archive is an online portfolio that can be searched by style, designer, period, country of origin, repeat size, width and number of colour.
The Design Library : New York
The Design Library’s business is the sale and licensing of antique, vintage, modern and contemporary textile designs for inspiration to the fashion, home furnishings, textile, wall covering, graphic arts, and paper product industries.
The Design Library has the world’s largest and best organized collections of documentary fabrics, original paintings, wallpapers, embroideries and yarn dyes, numbering over seven million designs. The collections date from the 1750s to the present and are sorted into over 1200 categories for easy access.
The Design Library was founded in New York 45 years ago by Susan Meller and her late husband Herbert. Through their love of old fabric patterns and passion for collecting, the Mellers assembled a vast record of Western textile design.
The Print Pattern Archive : UK
The Print Pattern Archive is a beautiful and exceptional private collection of over 50,000 antique fabric swatches and wallpaper books spanning from the mid 18th century to the 1980s.
Visitors and clients are mesmerised by the quality and quantity of hand woven, heritage, conversational, florals, geometrics, mid-century, bark cloths, scenic, heraldic, jacquards, damasks, foliage, novelty, ornate, chinoiserie, juvenile and baroque print from all over the world.
From Japanese silks to the most beautiful of British florals, a treasure trove of historical and antique design inspiration.
The Victoria & Albert Archive Of Art & Design : London
The Archive of Art and Design (AAD) was established in 1978 to house the V&A's growing holdings of archival material.
It collects, conserves and makes available for research the archives of individuals, associations and companies involved in any stage of the art and design process.
These include collections that have been used or built up by artists and designers in the course of their work.
Particular emphasis is placed on the records of British 20th- and 21st-century design.
Musee de Tissus : Lyons
Since their inauguration in 1864 for the Fabric Museum and 1925 for the museum of Decorative Arts, many treasures have been collected.
Today, valuable collections are gathered in a single museum collection, that of the museum.
Where do these fabrics from all over the world and these witnesses of the decorative arts come from? These riches come from a very important purchasing policy in the 19th century and donations from large Lyon silk houses, enlightened amateurs and the Society of Friends, like the pleated Egyptian tunic, the oldest preserved work, and also important deposits of the Lyon Council of Prud'men, the Municipal School of Weaving or the National Furniture for example.
https://www.museedestissus.fr/
Take a long browse and enjoy!!!!....
