The chances are, at some point, you have probably come across a print by Collier Campbell, the London-based textile studio founded in the 1960s by Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell.
For 50 years, the sister design duo created bold, colourful, and brash hand-painted textile prints featuring everything from vivid still lifes to tropical scenes, pretty flowers, and folk figures. They collaborated with the likes of Terrance Conran, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, and fashion houses Yves Saint Laurent, Jaeger and Liberty. They designed the carpet in the North Terminal at Gatwick Airport. To celebrate the work of these legendary British textile designers, the Fashion and Textile Museum has staged a small but dense exhibition dedicated to the printmaking sisters.
Spanning the 60s to the present day, Paint! Pattern! Print! documents the exuberant creations of Sarah and Susan, from their early works, to employment at Liberty, to the forming of their own company. Original paintings of prints and fabric swatches are displayed alongside clothes, homeware and artefacts that inspired the designers, like a dainty Victorian blouse with incredible striped ribbon details.
If you’re someone who has mastered the art of dopamine dressing, this will be right up your alley
Many of the fabrics look like the kind of thing your eccentric, arty auntie would wear. And I mean that as a compliment. These are not your grandmother's curtains, but textiles that deserve to be as well known as the William Morris’s and Liberty’s of the world. In fact, many of Liberty’s notable prints in the ’70s were created by the sisters, when Sarah Campbell was appointed as Design and Colour Consultant for the department store. Mostly, the prints are impressive for their intricate detail and extraordinary use of colour. ‘Bauhaus’ is a doodle-like mishmash of zig-zags, swirls, checks and dots in reds, greens, oranges, blues and creams. ‘Rendevouz’ is a richly coloured still life made using cut-outs and collage – Sarah Campbell is a lifelong fan of Matisse, and you can see the influence here.
The care in the curation is clear: reflecting on the sisters’ inspiration taken from nature – they loved to look at the wildlife in their back garden – sweet bird sounds are played gently in the background. Recreating the feeling of a busy design studio, fabric swatches are piled on top of each other in drawers. Among them lie hand-written notes, sketches and paintings – all part of the design process. It’s a bit of a niche exhibition. If you’re a textile design student, graphic designer or simply someone who has mastered the art of dopamine dressing, this will be right up your alley. Less enthusiastic visitors might not care so much about the significance of using Chinon silk versus Mercury satin. However, Paint! Pattern! Print! is undoubtedly a feast for the eyes, with explosions of colour at every turn. Appreciators of technicolour painting, fashion and good design will find plenty to enjoy here.
