The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern

For nearly fifty years, sisters Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell have been at the forefront of textile design. Collections for London’s Liberty department store made their name, with designs like Bauhaus (1972) deemed a significant turning point, paving the way for a vibrant new aesthetic. Their work at this point included prints, furnishing and dress textiles, and famously Liberty’s noted scarves, and many of their designs were widely licenced and became ubiquitous.

By the late 1970s, they had added wallpaper designs to their repertoire, and in 1979 established themselves as an independent partnership (their work for Liberty had been marketed uncredited). Their client list includes names like Yves St Laurent, habitat, and Marks & Spencer, and the quality of their work has been recognized by the V&A Museum in London (where 33 of their designs are held in the permanent collection). A long-term US association with Martex saw their patterns grace widely distributed designer bedding—which even made an appearance in Seinfeld. A successful attempt to develop their brand saw them broaden this client base, and sales in the US are now worth millions of dollars annually.

All of their patterns have been preserved. Staggering in its scale (over 25,000 patterns to date) the Collier- Campbell Archive is the permanent record of this astonishingly fruitful collaboration.
It is from here that the imagery of THE COLLIER –CAMPBELL ARCHIVE will be drawn. Hundreds of designs—some obscure, many instantly recognizable—will form an essential reference for designers, fashionistas and students alike. There will be exclusive commentary from Collier and Campbell themselves, and the voices of key collaborators and experts in the field will cement their deserved reputation as one of the key creative partnerships in modern design.