All Things Considered

Lucienne Day
Posted by Kate Sullivan

It was the Festival of Britain that launched Lucienne Day's career as a textile designer. Along with her husband and furniture designer Robin, they were heavily involved with the interior design of Festival Hall. This proved to be the springboard for this influential design duo whose style has lasted the test of time.

Just before the festival launch, Lucienne had designed a fabric she called Calyx (pictured) and had persuaded Heal's to produce it. Robin suggested that she used the same fabric to feature in the Homes and Garden pavilion of the Festival of Britain – it was an instant hit.

Back in the 1950’s, the Days' aim was to produce quality, mass-produced low cost furniture and textiles. Functionality, ease of manufacturing and low cost production was very important to them both.

In 1957 Lucienne reflected: “In the very few years since the end of the war, a new style of furnishing fabrics has emerged…. I suppose the most noticeable thing about it has been the reduction in popularity of patterns based on floral motifs and the replacement of these by non-representational patterns … probably everyone’s boredom with wartime dreariness and lack of variety helped the establishment of this new and gayer trend.”

Lucienne’s use of graphic lines, contrasting bright with earthy colours and abstract geometrical shapes proved incredibly popular. In the 20 years she designed textiles for Heals, she produced 70 fabrics as well as designing carpets, wallpapers, tea towels, table linen and ceramics for other companies requesting her involvement.

Today, Lucienne’s designs seem as fresh and appreciated as they were nearly 60 years ago. To view a selected range of her designs, visit Classic Textiles, where you can order a metre length of the digitally recreated prints.  To view further fabrics designed by Lucienne and other designers of the same era, visit this excellent textile resource from the University of Brighton.

Posted by Kate Sullivan on June 3rd, 2007