Silver Studios

In my final post about my trip to Ali Pali I want to tell you about a wonderful stand at the show which exhibited work from the The Silver Studios. They were the most influential textile design studio in the UK from its formation in 1880, until the middle of the twentieth century. I had not heard of them before so it was great to see that The Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (where a lot of the archive is held) has created this touring exhibition. The exhibition is called Petal Power and features the work of women employed by the Silver Studio in London between 1910 and 1940.  The hand-drawn and painted textile designs produced by them, map the trends for printed florals which were the fashion fabrics of inter-war England.  The early twentieth century brought new opportunities for women to become designers of fashion fabrics as well as consumers.  This story is of women making their mark in a previously male-dominated world. It was lovely to see the beautifully hand painted designs, some of which had a little typed messages next to them with a brief or comments on a submitted design. Sorry about the rubbish photographs, I couldn't use a flash and the light was low.