When we see a beautiful design characterised by striking prints we almost give it for granted, maybe praising the designer who created it, but rarely wondering which textile company worked on the fabric employed.
A recently opened exhibition at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich is currently attempting to give us a different perspective on prints by rediscovering a vitally important archive from a Zurich-based textile company.
Entitled “Soie Pirate (Pirate Silk)”, the exhibition explores the secrets behind the Abraham Textile archive, donated in 2007 to the Swiss Museum by the Hilda and Gustav Zumsteg Foundation.
The exhibition is the result of two intensive years of studies carried out by The Zurich Silk Association and it is conceived as a journey through handicraft, glamour and innovation.
The story of the Abraham Ltd. company started in 1878 when Jakob Abraham was a partner in Königsberger & Rüdenberg.
As the decades passed, Gustav Zumsteg (who died in 2005 at 89) became one of the key characters in the company.
Zumsteg started as a humble apprentice but soon became a partner of Ludwig Abraham in 1943, turning into a skilled businessman and bringing some interesting and vital innovations into the company.
He was also an artist and, inspired by the works of art exhibited at the Zurich-based Kronenhalle restaurant - owned by his mother Hulda - he used colours as if he were a painter, creating silks characterised by abstract motifs, colourful butterflies, roses or checks.
He also became an important link between the textile industry and the main Haute Couture designers such as Cristobal Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy, while he was a very close friend of Yves Saint Laurent with whom he shared a passion for books and music.
The exhibition starts from the early days of the company, but has a strong focus on the Abraham collections, with many reference and sample books divided in motifs and themes such as “Roses”, “Glamour”, “Animals” or “Black & White”.
Fashion designers and students will definitely find interesting the section about the fabric library and the printing processes.
Abraham did not actually print or weave the textiles itself, but commissioned the work to other companies, based in Switzerland, but also in other countries such as Italy where Zumsteg often collaborated with the Como-based Ratti.
In 1955 the company decided to cut four metres of the most beautiful fabrics produced ever year and preserve them in its archives and two media stations included in the exhibition allow to view 700 lengths - or “coupons” - of fabric, but also Abraham designers’ sources of inspiration, together with swatch books of Lyonnais silk.
Fashionistas will instead rejoice at the high fashion creations by Balenciaca, Givenchy and Saint Laurent exhibited and at the fashion photographs included that hail from the 40s and 90s and also feature images of film icons such as Catherine Deneuve and Audrey Hepburn.
“Soie Pirate” closes with a special showcase: five contemporary designers – Akris, Diane von Fürstenberg, Dries van Noten, Heiner Brambilla and Peter Pilotto – were asked to select a fabric from the Abraham archive and create a garment or an outfit, bridging in this way the gap between this historical company and contemporary fashion.
The exhibition is accompanied also by a series of workshops about patterns, fabrics and screen-printing.
It would be great to see Soie Pirate, or at least some of its sections, touring or maybe being combined with another event maybe based in a silk district in another country.
In the meantime you can enjoy Abraham's kaleidoscopic textiles also thanks to two books linked with this event, Soie Pirate. The History of Abraham Ltd (volume 1) and Soie Pirate. The Fabric Designs of Abraham Ltd. (Volume 2), both published by Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess (available together or separately).
"Soie Pirate. The Abraham Textile Archive Zurich" is at the Swiss National Museum until 13th February 2011.
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