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Flotillas, fabrics and dandelion clocks: how designer Lucienne Day brought Britain hope
If one design could be said to epitomise the resurgent optimism of postwar Britain then Calyx by Lucienne Day fits the bill. It was a furnishing textile for Heal Fabrics showcased in a “contemporary” dining room in the Homes and Gardens pavilion of the Festival of Britain in 1951.
Although inspired by plant forms, Calyx was quite unlike the decorous flower prints of 1940s tea dresses, or the blousy florals of interwar curtains. Decades before Ikea urged consumers to “chuck out your chintz”, Day introduced fresh, graphic designs to banish the depressing fussiness of a bygone era.
Day’s colour combinations were strong and surprising: acid yellow, orange, olive, black and white – a bold riposte to austerity gloom. Her linear forms linked furnishing fabrics to the excitements of modern painting and sculpture, echoing the abstractions of Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.
Calyx was her breakthrough design, exemplifying “contemporary” style. For progressive young married couples, a pair of Lucienne Day curtains came to symbolise a new lifestyle and the brightness of peacetime possibility.
Born Désirée Lucienne Conradi in 1917, Day was the foremost British textile designer of the 20th century, with a commitment to joyful designs for all. She discovered textile design at Croydon School of Art in the mid 30s and went on to specialise in it at the Royal College of Art, establishing herself as a freelance designer when wartime restrictions on fabric production began to lift in 1946.
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Lucienne Day’s Calyx (1951). Photograph: Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day FoundationShe had met the furniture designer Robin Day at a dance at the RCA in 1940, they married in 1942 and went on to have a daughter, Paula. Photogenic, happy and successful, the Days became the poster couple of modern design, the acme of contemporary urban sophistication. Their marital home at 49 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, decorated naturally in contemporary style, featured in women’s and interiors magazines. The couple even graced an advertisement for Smirnoff vodka.
At first glance, Robin and Lucienne Day might be compared to that other contemporary design couple, Charles and Ray Eames. However the Eames California design partnership blended the work of husband and wife, and Ray was arguably the junior partner.
The Days were in accord in their championing of affordable industrial design and even shared a design studio on the ground floor of their home, but they pursued distinct careers. They undertook few formal collaborations, working together in the 1960s for BOAC on aircraft interiors, on furniture and furnishings for Churchill College, Cambridge, and as joint design consultants for the John Lewis Partnership.
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Flotilla (1952).The glossiness of their domesticity should not blind us to Lucienne’s independence in her work. In the 1950s, an era when full-time working motherhood was unusual and the celebration of the housewife was at its advertising zenith, she was Britain’s most original and commercially successful textile designer. Industrial design was still a fledgling, male-dominated profession. Day was only the fifth woman to be elected to the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry.
Heal Fabrics did not immediately realise what they had in her. In fact, so doubtful were they of the profitability of Calyx that they stumped up just half of the £20 that Day originally charged for her design, only making up the rest when she won two international prizes for the pattern. Calyx proved a bestseller for Heal’s and they would promote her as their star designer over the next 25 years. While never renouncing her independence as a freelancer, Day designed over 70 patterns for furnishing fabrics for the company.
While Heal Fabrics remained her principal client between 1950 and 1975, Day also created designs for printed fabrics for British Celanese, Cavendish Textiles (a branch of John Lewis), Liberty and for table linen and tea towels for Thomas Somerset. She also designed wallpapers for the English manufacturer Lightbown Aspinall and the German firm Rasch, carpets for leading retailers Tomkinsons and I&C Steele, and tableware for the mighty Rosenthal in Germany.
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Dandelion Clocks (1953).And Day was acclaimed as a pioneer. As Paul Reilly, chief information officer at the Council of Industrial Design, declared in 1952: “These patterns are not stepping stones bridging the gulf between the historical and contemporary, nor halfway houses between the traditional and the experimental. They are boldly original and advanced.”
Affordability and accessibility were imperatives. In 1952, in a move akin to creating a diffusion line, Day designed Flotilla “for people who like Calyx but have smaller windows and purses”. It would be printed on cheaper rayon, not linen. Flotilla adorned the affordable “People’s House” at the Ideal Home exhibition of that year.
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Bouquet Garni (1959) Photograph: Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation“In the 1950s we both participated in the surge of modern design that was released by the ending of the war and material restrictions,” Lucienne and Robin Day concluded in the preface to Jackson’s 1991 study of their work. “There was a growing feeling of optimism and an anticipation of the emergence of a bright new world and we thought that progressive design would contribute to the quality of people’s lives. We were both supported by our mutual desire to produce designs that would overcome the dreariness of the previous decade, and make it possible for the many not the few to enjoy pleasant surroundings at a reasonable price.”
The fact that she withdrew from industrial design in 1975 in the face of economic recession and a conservative revival in Victorian floral fabric design, is a sad reflection of the changes in British manufacturing. So vital in the 1950s and 60s, it was creatively open to industrial designers such as Day. In 1957, 48% of workers in the UK were in industrial employment; by 2016 only 15% worked in manufacturing.
Following Day’s death in 2010, Fiona MacCarthy wrote in this paper: “It pleased her to think that people who could not afford to buy a painting for their living room could at least own a pair of abstract patterned curtains. Many of Day’s printed fabrics were made in long production runs, which kept the price affordable. She made the link between mass production and fine art.”
Time has not dimmed the vibrancy of her work, as design historian Lesley Jackson says: “Whereas many other printed fabrics from the postwar period look rather quirky and mannered, Day’s have an enduring freshness and verve.” Paula Day delights in the fact that her mother’s designs still “bubble with life and energy”. And I wouldn’t say no to a bolt of Dandelion Clocks, Sequoia or Linden.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/07/flotillas-fabrics-and-dandelion-clocks-how-designer-lucienne-day-brought-britain-hope
Although inspired by plant forms, Calyx was quite unlike the decorous flower prints of 1940s tea dresses, or the blousy florals of interwar curtains. Decades before Ikea urged consumers to “chuck out your chintz”, Day introduced fresh, graphic designs to banish the depressing fussiness of a bygone era.
Day’s colour combinations were strong and surprising: acid yellow, orange, olive, black and white – a bold riposte to austerity gloom. Her linear forms linked furnishing fabrics to the excitements of modern painting and sculpture, echoing the abstractions of Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.
Calyx was her breakthrough design, exemplifying “contemporary” style. For progressive young married couples, a pair of Lucienne Day curtains came to symbolise a new lifestyle and the brightness of peacetime possibility.
Born Désirée Lucienne Conradi in 1917, Day was the foremost British textile designer of the 20th century, with a commitment to joyful designs for all. She discovered textile design at Croydon School of Art in the mid 30s and went on to specialise in it at the Royal College of Art, establishing herself as a freelance designer when wartime restrictions on fabric production began to lift in 1946.
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Lucienne Day’s Calyx (1951). Photograph: Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day FoundationShe had met the furniture designer Robin Day at a dance at the RCA in 1940, they married in 1942 and went on to have a daughter, Paula. Photogenic, happy and successful, the Days became the poster couple of modern design, the acme of contemporary urban sophistication. Their marital home at 49 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, decorated naturally in contemporary style, featured in women’s and interiors magazines. The couple even graced an advertisement for Smirnoff vodka.
At first glance, Robin and Lucienne Day might be compared to that other contemporary design couple, Charles and Ray Eames. However the Eames California design partnership blended the work of husband and wife, and Ray was arguably the junior partner.
The Days were in accord in their championing of affordable industrial design and even shared a design studio on the ground floor of their home, but they pursued distinct careers. They undertook few formal collaborations, working together in the 1960s for BOAC on aircraft interiors, on furniture and furnishings for Churchill College, Cambridge, and as joint design consultants for the John Lewis Partnership.
FacebookTwitterPinterest
Flotilla (1952).The glossiness of their domesticity should not blind us to Lucienne’s independence in her work. In the 1950s, an era when full-time working motherhood was unusual and the celebration of the housewife was at its advertising zenith, she was Britain’s most original and commercially successful textile designer. Industrial design was still a fledgling, male-dominated profession. Day was only the fifth woman to be elected to the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry.
Heal Fabrics did not immediately realise what they had in her. In fact, so doubtful were they of the profitability of Calyx that they stumped up just half of the £20 that Day originally charged for her design, only making up the rest when she won two international prizes for the pattern. Calyx proved a bestseller for Heal’s and they would promote her as their star designer over the next 25 years. While never renouncing her independence as a freelancer, Day designed over 70 patterns for furnishing fabrics for the company.
While Heal Fabrics remained her principal client between 1950 and 1975, Day also created designs for printed fabrics for British Celanese, Cavendish Textiles (a branch of John Lewis), Liberty and for table linen and tea towels for Thomas Somerset. She also designed wallpapers for the English manufacturer Lightbown Aspinall and the German firm Rasch, carpets for leading retailers Tomkinsons and I&C Steele, and tableware for the mighty Rosenthal in Germany.
FacebookTwitterPinterest
Dandelion Clocks (1953).And Day was acclaimed as a pioneer. As Paul Reilly, chief information officer at the Council of Industrial Design, declared in 1952: “These patterns are not stepping stones bridging the gulf between the historical and contemporary, nor halfway houses between the traditional and the experimental. They are boldly original and advanced.”
Affordability and accessibility were imperatives. In 1952, in a move akin to creating a diffusion line, Day designed Flotilla “for people who like Calyx but have smaller windows and purses”. It would be printed on cheaper rayon, not linen. Flotilla adorned the affordable “People’s House” at the Ideal Home exhibition of that year.
FacebookTwitterPinterest
Bouquet Garni (1959) Photograph: Copyright the Robin & Lucienne Day Foundation“In the 1950s we both participated in the surge of modern design that was released by the ending of the war and material restrictions,” Lucienne and Robin Day concluded in the preface to Jackson’s 1991 study of their work. “There was a growing feeling of optimism and an anticipation of the emergence of a bright new world and we thought that progressive design would contribute to the quality of people’s lives. We were both supported by our mutual desire to produce designs that would overcome the dreariness of the previous decade, and make it possible for the many not the few to enjoy pleasant surroundings at a reasonable price.”
The fact that she withdrew from industrial design in 1975 in the face of economic recession and a conservative revival in Victorian floral fabric design, is a sad reflection of the changes in British manufacturing. So vital in the 1950s and 60s, it was creatively open to industrial designers such as Day. In 1957, 48% of workers in the UK were in industrial employment; by 2016 only 15% worked in manufacturing.
Following Day’s death in 2010, Fiona MacCarthy wrote in this paper: “It pleased her to think that people who could not afford to buy a painting for their living room could at least own a pair of abstract patterned curtains. Many of Day’s printed fabrics were made in long production runs, which kept the price affordable. She made the link between mass production and fine art.”
Time has not dimmed the vibrancy of her work, as design historian Lesley Jackson says: “Whereas many other printed fabrics from the postwar period look rather quirky and mannered, Day’s have an enduring freshness and verve.” Paula Day delights in the fact that her mother’s designs still “bubble with life and energy”. And I wouldn’t say no to a bolt of Dandelion Clocks, Sequoia or Linden.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/07/flotillas-fabrics-and-dandelion-clocks-how-designer-lucienne-day-brought-britain-hope