Where my fellow textile collectors at? Informal poll: how do you manage your collection? Do you inventory everything using a spreadsheet? Or do you use a collection management database? Do you catalogue each one as it's acquired...

A recent flea-market find: 'Hausa' by Calister Thomas for Woodco, 1 of 5 designed by her & copyrighted May 1972. Thomas had been working for a weaving company in Manhattan when dd & Leslie Tillett invited her to be chief designer for the Design Works of Bedford Stuyvesant in 1970. She was only 22!

Carmen de Lavallade (1️⃣2️⃣: dancer/choreographer/actor, 1955), Mattiwilda Dobbs (3️⃣: opera soprano, also 1955), and Chester B. Himes (4️⃣: author, 1962)...and 'Hawaii' by Josef Frank (5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣: designed for Svenkst Tenn while the Austrian-Swede was living in New York in 1943-45).

Lurex in ALLLLL the colors ✨🌈🧶

Possibly the best Lurex ad in "The Thread of the Story is #Lurex" campaign (American Fabrics mag, Spring 1959).

I am never not thinking about Lurex.

•
•
•

#dorothyliebes #patternplayusa #20thcenturydesign #textilehistory #designhistory

I hear French girl summer is a thing…🍇🍋🍉🍐🍒

‘Left Bank’ by Greeff, c. 1950, my collection 🩵

•
•
•
#frenchgirlsummer #picnic #piquenique #picnicchic #greeff #leftbank #patternplayusa #20thcenturydesign #textiledesign #textilehistory #designhistory #americandesign #noveltyprint #vintagenoveltyprint

The swimsuit that went to war...by Cole of California, 1943-1945. In a range of colors and, yes, patterns, but it's tough not to choose "Parachute White" for D-Day...

🪂🤍

•
•
•
•
•
#dday #coleofcalifornia #patriotic #americana #patternplayusa #20thcenturydesign #textiledesign #textilehistory

And party clothes for Alexander Girard’s birthday today are provided by @gitmanvintage 🥳 who have released one of my favorite Girard designs, 'Cutouts’ (1954) in a brilliant (and true to the designer’s color sense) coral colorway...
•
•
•
•
•
@girardstudio #alexandergirard #patternplayusa

Claire McCardell's birthday deserves a special story, so let's invite #LudwigBemelmans (of Madeline fame) and #WesleySimpson (of art fabric fame) to the party! 🎉

Bemelmans’s Dynasty pattern (also called Pottery) is based on predynastic Egyptian pottery of the Late Naqada period (ca. 3500-3300 BCE)

SAH announces the winner of the 2025 Exhibition Catalogue Award:
Susan Brown and Alexa Griffith Winton
A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes
Yale University Press, 2023

Read more about this year's publication award winners: www.sah.org/programs/sah...

Congratulations! A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes, edited by Susan Brown & Alexa Griffith Winton and published in association with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has won the 2025 exhibition catalogue award from the Society of Architectural Historians.
#dorothyliebes

🌈🦓🌈🦓🌈🦓

Rainbow strié on cotton duck for #NationalTextileDay...a Tillett specialty, those hand pulled stripes-on-stripes. Enjoy the riiiiiiiiiiiiide!

*

#patternplayusa #20thcenturydesign #textiledesign #textilehistory #designhistory #ddandleslietillett #thetilletts #textiledesigner #rainbow

Join me for this free virtual presentation! Register at link below.

🌈Dorothy Liebes: Modern Fashion’s Starchitect

📅 Tuesday, April 1

⏰6:00-7:00pm CDT

Presented by Leigh Wishner
www.patternplayusa.com

www.mononaterrace.com/event-group/...

‘IBM Disks’ ☢️

This was designed by Angelo Testa as a corporate commission from IBM. He hand-screen-printed at least two designs for IBM, this and another using the famous font logo designed by #PaulRand.

BIG NEWS! 📢

I've been asked to author a book on d.d. & Leslie Tillett. Pinch me as I feel I'm still dreaming about this. I'll be working closely with Seth Tillett to make this worthy of his parents' aesthetics. Stay tuned for more details.

#ddandleslietillett #ddtillett #leslietillett