Textile Designs: Two Hundred Years of European and American Patterns for Printed Fabrics Organized by Motif, Style, Color, Layout, and Period [Hardcover]

Susan Meller (Author), Joost Elffers (Author), Ted Croner (Photographer), David Frankel (Technical Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

"Textile Designs is a dazzling, informative fabric encyclopedia of archival beauty. It is a necessary tool for the fashion industry, schools, and libraries."

—Women's Wear Daily

"An iconography of textile motifs and a vocabulary of pattern. . . . Highly recommended." —Choice

Never before have printed textiles been celebrated in a book of this magnitude. Now in paperback, Textile Designs is the indispensable sourcebook for the colorful patterned materials that have been used in fashion and interiors for the past 200 years. Organized not chronologically or geographically but by motif—Floral, Geometric, Conversational, Ethnic, and Art Movements and Period Styles—this bible of textile design presents a stunning cross-section of the materials of everyday life: printed calicos and cottons, flowered cretonnes and chintzes, polka-dot silks and foulards. With its informative text and pattern names provided not only in English but also in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, this is a must-have for everyone interested in color and pattern.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Take one measure of design theory, add a cup of printing techniques, and fold in a tablespoon of ancient symbology. Add a dash of historical context, and mix well into a huge bowl of over 1800 gorgeous fabric designs. The ingredients make a luscious dessert known as Textile De signs . Meller, the owner of the fabrics depicted here, has interpreted her dessert in five different ways according to motif: floral, geometric, conversational, ethnic, and art movements and period styles. To please the most discriminating palate, she used only the best ingredients (some rarities dating to the 18th century) from her design library and design loft. The book is a colorful confection, but it is also a thoughtful and informative analysis of the artistic choices that are subconscious interpretations of the moods, longings, and aspirations of humankind. Highly recommended for design or decorative arts collections.
- Sherry Porter, Texas Coll. of Osteopathic Medicine, Fort Worth
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Textile Designs is a staggering achievement in organization and will undoubtedly become the bible of textile design for the foreseeable future." -- Copeley News Service, October 16, 1991

"Textile Designs will precipitate a contagious case of browser euphoria." -- Peter Hellman,Metropolitan Home Magazine, December 1991

"A physical joy both to hold and to behold." -- Colleen Babington, Art and Auction Magazine, November 1991

"For professionals and self-professed fabric freaks, this book is an unlimited supply of chocolate truffles and a day at Disneyland rolled into one." -- Harriet Swift, Oakland Tribune, October 19, 1991

"Open this volume to any page and prepare to lose yourself in a dizzying array of patterns.....In addition to the book's visual splendor, its text is refreshingly intelligent, informed and witty." -- Robert Kushner, Art in America Magazine, May 1993

"The book is organised not chronologically, but by motif, which adds greatly to the fun...The categories are deliciously specific. Celestials, confetti, coral and sea-weed, circuses, clowns and crescents are followed, a hundred or so pages later, by trees, trimmings, trompe-l'oeil and trophies. Without looking at the captions it is sometimes impossible to decide whether a print is from the 1850s or the 1950s; the book could easily turn into a rarified guessing-game." -- Sarah Howell,The World of Interiors, October 1991

"This wonderful book is a little bit like being let loose unsupervised in the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum." -- NY Times, December 19, 1991

Textile Designs is a dazzling, informative fabric encyclopedia of archival beauty. It is a necessary tool for the fashion industry, schools, and libraries." -- Margaret Mazzaraco,WWD, October 8, 1991

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810938537
• ISBN-13: 978-0810938533
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #962,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful resource of imagery, August 31, 2005

By 

Rabbit "Dottie" (Georgia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Textile Designs: Two Hundred Years of European and American Patterns Organized by Motif, Style, Color, Layout, and Period (Paperback)

This resource of patterns has a clear organization. The reproduction is very nice and the diversity of images is a rich resource. The information is brief, but a visual reference of this kind with supporting context is helpful no matter how brief.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TEXTILE DESIGNS DIGITAL: FLORAL WELL WORTH THE MONEY!, February 8, 2006

By 

Library (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Textile Designs: Two Hundred Years of European and American Patterns Organized by Motif, Style, Color, Layout, and Period (Paperback)

This is in response to "Betty Blue's" comments about the FLORAL CD-ROM. All of the images on the CD's were professionally scanned by one of the top commercial labs in New York City. The scans were made directly from the original negatives that were used to print the book, TEXTILE DESIGNS. Any "dirt and dust" that may appear is NOT a result of the scanning, but age marks that can show up on documentary textiles - after all, most of these designs are between 60 and 150 years old! The vast majority of the images are clean, but when imperfections did appear, they were deliberately not erased. This was explained in the introduction to the CD.

While the images in the book were often cropped for layout reasons, the CD-ROM always shows the original uncropped design. Therefore, many more of the digital images are in full repeat. This in itself is well worth the money - but there is more. Unlike the book, ALL the TEXTILE DESIGNS DIGITAL images are ROYALTY FREE. "Betty Blue" got the use of 494 well-chosen documentary floral designs for less than 60 cents each. Now that is well worth the money!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best new resource for textile designers!, August 30, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Elberton, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Textile Designs Digital: Floral (CD-ROM)

This CD collection of excerpts from the illustrated book has become a vital resource for me and my staff of textile designers. It saves a great deal of time and effort in scanning and cleaning artwork, and allows us to combine elements from many different pieces into entirely new patterns.

Every design studio I know of owns at least one copy of the book, and to have quick CD access to this wealth of inspiration is terrific. I look forward to the next volumes!