Artists & Designers - Vintage

Vintage

Vintage Textile Designs: drawings, paintings and collages:

Through a friend in Paris I came across an amazing collection of drawings, paintings and collages that were made for a large textile design firm based in Lyon, France. The company went out of business in the late 1980s, but fortunately these wonderful examples were saved. Available through Vitrine is a selection of these original pieces made between 1950-1980 by artists and designers who produced by hand these design ‘maquettes’ destined to become patterns for silks, sofas, haute couture, prêt a porter and so on.

Each piece is painted, collaged or drawn by hand. The majority of the work is made on paper but many are made on acetate or transparency paper so that the piece is double sided. In this case, the design was applied in reverse. In some of the collaged works the individual pieces were actually cut and re-set. The attention to details is astounding.

Photos of the backs of most of the pieces are shown alongside the actual image in order to show the hand made nature of the piece- these were not made for a gallery and so the ‘flaws,’ (in the guise of paint marks or scotch tape) are part of its character. Most of the drawings have their original stamp on the back as well. Here you see the name and address of the Lyon firm and the telephone number-which guides us as a clue to the approximate date. The more numbers infers a later date due to the greater number of telephones.

The range of styles is vast and wide. Vitrine has attempted to give you a taste of these styles, whether geometric, floral, organic or figurative. If a particular pattern interests you we can try to source out more in that genre. Take a look at the framed version so you can see how great they look on the wall. Picture them as an original work of art for the home or in a restaurant, boutique, hotel….so many ideas!