Decorative Patterns for Textiles from the 1900s: Flowers |

In yesterday's post we analysed a contemporary Haute Couture collection that incoporates in some of its designs patterns and motifs borrowed from the early decades of the 1900s, plus a palette and techniques linked to Mariano Fortuny.

Fashion design students who want to research a little bit moreinto this topic should maybe try and look in museum archives for handbooks, publications, pattern books and drawing folders dedicated to textiles and released between the last decade of the 1800s and the beginning of the following century.

Quite a few of such publications focused on nature, insects, plants and flowers: at times drawings were stylised or reinterpreted according to a then fashionable Oriental style.

Emile-Alain Séguy produced for example a series of interesting works: Les fleurs et leurs applications décoratives (1901) betrayed a Japanese inspiration; Floréals, Insectes, and Papillons (1914) borrowed from the Russian artists living and working in Paris and in particular from the art of the Ballets Russes; Samarkande (1920) focused on Persian influences, while Bouquets et Frondaisons (1926), Suggestions pour étoffes et tapis (1927) and Prismes (1931) moved from crystals and shapes found in nature.

These folders were extremely inspiring for designers working at the time and were a bit like our modern trend reports (well, they were slightly more arty and definitely less trashy than our trend reports…).

If Fortuny is still fashionable, maybe trying to learn more about drawings and patterns for textiles from his times isn't such a bad idea (there is, after all, a renewed interest in patterns – think about our collective fascination with intricate colouring books…).