The Book of Printed Fabrics. 45th Ed. (45th Edition)

In eastern France, close to the German and Swiss ­borders, lies the historic city of Mulhouse. During the early 19th century, it became one of the leading centres of textile manufacture in the country. Today it is home to the Musée de ­l’Impression sur Étoffes, a museum dedicated entirely to the history of fabric printing from the 17th century right up to the present day.

Few are the serious fashion designers who have not come to visit this astonishing temple to textiles. This book, however, gives you the key to those vaults, presenting perfectly captured images of its collections that span four different continents – recounting a fascinating artistic and technological adventure across the world, from its origins in India to the most contemporary creations.

You’ll discover luxuriantly illustrated chapters that bring to glorious life a chronological and thematic overview of the Musée’s unprecedented retrospective of the art of printed fabrics. And that journey begins in India, exploring the origins of the designs that made these prints famous and how they travelled to the factories of Europe. You’ll also find stories and images detailing artistic innovations such as toile de Jouy and the development of new colour ranges. 

The reader can also look back at the incredible inventiveness of manufacturers and their designers throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Explore eye-catching cashmere motifs and the intense passion for nature and flowers that emerged under the Second Empire, before the artistic avant-gardes and modernity profoundly evolved the artistic creation of textile prints.

With hundreds of pieces reproduced here to the highest standard, you will journey through the extraordinary tapestry of motifs and colours that make this book such a peerless source of inspiration for textile enthusiasts of all kinds.

Aziza Gril-Mariotte, art historian, is a specialist in textiles and the industrial arts, and a teacher and researcher at the Université de Haute-Alsace. From 2019 until 2022, she has headed the Musée de l’Impression sur Étoffes in Mulhouse. She is currently director of Lyon's Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs.