DAY IN THE SPOTLIGHT

2017 marks 100 years since the birth of textile pioneer Lucienne Day. She and her husband, furniture designer Robin Day, were the most celebrated couple in mid-century design. As well as bringing colour to post-war Britain in fabric form, Day was also an art teacher and a keen gardener. To honour the anniversary, The Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation (through which the couple’s daughter, Paula, protects her parents’ legacy) has organised a line-up of exhibitions and launches. Here are our highlights. THE DEPARTMENT STORE DESIGNER The Days worked as d esign consultants to John Lewis for 25 years, from 1962–1987, and so its homewares department is paying special tribute to Lucienne by releasing a new collection of cushions (right) covered in her original textile designs (from £45 each). Also, in May, six patterns will be released as fabrics ( below right: ‘Calyx’, from £75 per metre; johnlewis.com). THE GARDENER Gardening was ‘a lifelong passion’ of Day’s, says Paula Day in the foreword to Andrew Casey’s biography Lucienne Day: In the Spirit of the Age (Antique Collectors’ Club, £30). Paula is working with mental health groups to put together an exhibition of Lucienne’s botany-inspired designs in the city’s Whitworth Art Gallery. The show is part of the campaign GROW, which promotes the link between horticulture and wellbeing. ‘Lucienne Day: A Sense of Growth’, April 11–June 11 (whitworth.manchester.ac.uk). THE PATTERN QUEEN This is your last chance to see the breadth of Day’s design career chronicled in a photography exhibition at Arts University Bournemouth, which has been granted open access to The Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation’s archive. Snaps of Day at work in her Motcomb Street studio are on display, alongside pictures charting the making of the hand-stitched wallhangings that she dubbed ‘silk mosaics’ (above right). Until March 22 (aub.ac.uk).