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.
Sisters Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell are award-winning textile designers, who started out at Liberty in the 70s and built a global business producing designs for customers as diverse as Yves Saint Laurent (they designed the fabrics for his first ready-to-wear ‘Gypsy’ collection), Habitat, Jaeger, Marks and Spencer and House of Fraser among others.
Their work spans fashion, accessories and the home. Their award winning hand-painted designs and vibrant use of colour have created a unique look that has both couture and mass-market appeal. Their technique of hand-painting their designs gives a rich graduation of colour and movement in their fabrics which could not be achieved by more technical means.
They have amassed a vast Archive of their successful and iconic designs which have been exhibited by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of London and the Whitworth Museum in Manchester among others, and are cited in many works about 20th Century design. Their Six Views Collection, which won the Design Centre Award in 1984, included their iconic best-selling Cote d’Azur design. Responding to a whole new generation of consumers who are once again turning to pattern and colour in their clothes and furnishings, Collier Campbell will launch a range of products under their name in 2011. The range will include scarves, bags, bedding, cushions, etc to produce a lifestyle look. The launch of their new range will coincide with the celebration of their 50th Anniversary.
