BLOOMS THAT LAST FOR EVER
Floral and vintage patterns have never been more popular. Maria Fitzpatrick hunts out the fabrics we have used in our homes for over a century
The bold, the beautiful and the breathtaking – every size, shape and variety of flower is here. Chelsea may be over for another year, but tucked at the end of a winding lane in rural Berkshire, the floral displays will remain: these are not show gardens, but the flowers we’ve showcased inside our homes for more than a century. This month marks 150 years since a draper called John Lewis began selling his wares, and the company’s textile archive in Cookham is attracting artists and historians, the crafty and the curious, all hunting out the fabrics that evoke a feeling of home. “It’s lovely to see how the textiles resonate with people,” says Gavin Henderson, the archivist. “You hear squeaks of excitement when they find the print that was on their grandparents’ curtains. It’s a measure of how design permeates our memories.” One particular design, “Daisy Chain”, a whimsical Sixties print by Pat Albeck, brought back a less comfortable memory for a recent visitor. “The print came in 18 colourways, and everyone had it,” Gavin explains. “One lady told us how her mother made it into a pinafore. She went to a new friend’s house for tea, sat on their sofa and disappeared!” Many of the 30,000 designs in the collection were inherited in 1965, when John Lewis bought the Stead McAlpin factory in Cumbria, which also produced for Heal’s, Liberty and Warners, and started manufacturing its own textiles. The earliest artwork dates back to 1795. The new gallery has emerged at the perfect moment, as our obsession with vintage, bound up with the return of craft and the rise of Pinterest, shows no sign of getting old. Fabricseekers trawl eBay and Etsy for retro collectables; others rub shoulders with designers like Paul Smith as they pore over vintage silks at the V& A; and the Decorative Textiles and Antiques Fair keeps growing. It’s all helped along, Gavin says, by The Great British Sewing Bee. “Now, people want to make their own cushions or curtains – out of conscience BUY: Stockists of vintage fabrics for upholstery, cushions and curtains: “Paperhill”, a supplier on etsy.com/uk; ragrescue.co.uk; fabricrehab.co.uk; somethingfine. co.uk; advantage invintage.co.uk VISIT: Victoria & Albert Museum textiles archives, by appointment (vam.ac.uk). Fashion & Textile Museum, Bermondsey, London SE1 (ftmlondon.org) Geffrye Museum, dedicated to the history of the home (geffrye-museum. org.uk) rather than necessity – and buying fabric deepens their appreciation of textile design.” Retailers from Laura Ashley and Liberty to Heal’s and Habitat are all teasing their roots. Habitat is working on new fabrics with Sarah Campbell, who designed for the brand in the Sixties and Seventies, and Liberty has a long tradition of dipping into its old favourites. “Design revivals within fashion and furnishing mean that with every collection, designers look at the archives for inspiration,” says Emma Mawston, head of interior design for Liberty Art Fabrics. “Archive designs are incredibly popular as they are so diverse, and because customers simply love history. Any design that’s accompanied by an interesting story is even more valuable.” There’s no shortage of those here, the highlight being the printer’s test sample of a lavish pink-and-purple floral fabric that was chosen in 1910 by the White Star line for the Titanic’s state rooms. You could easily get lost in oriental prints or geometrics, perhaps stopping to ponder what leopard print may have meant in 1803, but it’s the florals that create the backbone of the archive. “Florals tell a story of who we are, socially, culturally and aesthetically,” says Judy Faraday, Gavin’s fellow archivist. We take an amazing journey, from the 1800s, where the flowers (accompanied by wheat and oak leaves) are intricate but muted, through Charles Voysey’s turn-of-the-century designs, where the imagery is less realistic, and romantic art nouveau, to the austere, repetitive, two-colour wartime prints, ending in an explosion of vibrantly coloured flowers in the Sixties and Seventies. It is the textiles from the post-war period that strike the loudest chord, because they represent the moment that interior design became accessible to you and me. “Before then, only the very top of society could afford quality fabric, and there was a huge second-hand trade. Fabric would have many lives,” says Judy. “People saw elaborate florals in stately homes, but buying fabric was a major investment.” But with the Fifties came new wealth, and DIY. “We also started to express ourselves at that time,” says Gavin. “Up to that point, housekeeping manuals dictated what was tasteful – a green drawing room, a claret hallway – and people did what they were told. But the designers of the Sixties, especially Lucienne and Robin Day and Pat Albeck, opened things up completely.” When Albeck produced “Daisy Chain”, a Sixties twist on 1860s patterns, William Morris had been out of fashion for 20 years, but people embraced it, he says. “Good design, whenever it is issued, will always get people’s attention.” In all, 2.1million metres of it were sold, enough to stretch from Cavendish Square to Red Square, and it has been reissued this year, along with “Cummersdale”, stylised, geometric flowers, and Lucienne Day’s abstract “Forest” (£30/metre). So why do we always refer back to the past, instead of coming up with new material? It is only partly nostalgia, Gavin believes. “Looking over the 200 years, it seems to me that we go through 40-year cycles, aesthetically. So it makes sense that people start off hating their parents’ taste, but by the time they come to buy their own home, many of them in their late 30s, those exact designs look fresh again. Leave anything for long enough and it will grow on you.” ‘150 Years in Fabric’ floral textiles exhibition (free) is at Peter Jones, Sloane Square, until June 25. The textiles archive at the John Lewis heritage centre is open to all on Saturdays, 10am-4pm, and to researchers and designers by appointment (johnlewis partnership.co.uk). ‘Stories of a Shopkeeper’, an exhibition about John Lewis’s history, is at the Oxford Street flagship store until June 23