54TEXTILE DESIGNLUCIENNE DAY

modernspring 2007

In the Light of DayWith the recent reisssue of designs by Lucienne Day, the doyenne of British textiles during the postwar period, Lesley Jackson looks at the career of one of the 20th century’s most successful and influential female designers

Above: Lucienne Day photo

graphed by John Gay, 1950s.

Vintage bromide print. National

Portrait Gallery, London

Facing page:

Herb Antony,Lucienne Day for

Heal Fabrics, 1956. Courtesy

Francesca Galloway, London

Born at Coulsden, Surrey in 1917, Désirée Lucienne

Conradi was raised in Croydon from the age oftwo.Her

mother was English but her father was Belgian,hence

her French-sounding name. She discovered her métier for

textiles at Croydon School ofArt,and went on to specialise in

printed textiles at the Royal College ofArt where she studied

from 1937-40.It was at a college dance in her final year that

she met her future husband, the furniture designer Robin

Day. Both were extremely talented and shared a passionate

commitment to modern design.They married in 1942.

After the war Lucienne embarked on her career as a

freelance designer. Initially the main openings were in the

field of dress fabrics, but her long term ambition was to

establish herselfas a designer offurnishing textiles.Alastair

Morton,the enlightened art director at Edinburgh Weavers,

gave her the break she needed in 1948.He commissioned two

printed furnishing fabrics, Elysianand Florimel, featuring

stylised sprigs of flowers. These designs attracted the

attention ofTom Worthington,Managing Director ofHeal’s

Wholesale and Export (later renamed Heal Fabrics), the

furnishings division ofthe department store Heal & Son,who

asked Lucienne to create a pattern in a similar style. The

ensuing print,Fluellin(1950),marked the start ofa long and

productive relationship with Heal Fabrics lasting 25 years and

resulting in over seventy designs.

The Festival of Britain in 1951 was a crucial event in

Lucienne’s career.Like many young architects and designers of

her generation, she seized this unparalleled creative

opportunity to showcase her work, designing a series of

innovative textiles and wallpapers for the Homes and

Gardens Pavilion.Chiefamongst these was the revolutionary

Calyx,a hand screen-printed linen curtain fabric created for

a room setting designed by Robin Day. With its daring

abstraction and startling earthy and acid colour scheme,this

arresting fabric, which was quite unlike anything seen in

Britain before,caused a sensation.“It is based on plant life,

although it is very abstracted,”Lucienne explained at the

time.“I wanted it to have a sense ofgrowth,but not to be a

floral pattern.”Inspired by the work ofavant-garde European

painters such as Joan Miró and Paul Klee,Calyxintroduced

modern art to the masses.A big hit at the Festival and a best

seller for Heal Fabrics, it proved lastingly popular and