VINTAGE PATTERNS 1950s A classic scrapbook of 1950s design, fashion and style

A neat collection of 1950s pattern, this book covers the heyday of postwar design where an analytical approach to design, with a lightness and freshness, combined with whimsical imagery and idiosyncratic subject matter. The designs and influences of the print gurus of the time - Lucienne Day, Robert Stewart and Maija Isola of Marimekko - are all covered. The creativity of the period - the beginning of the atomic age - is given full expression in this sourcebook of hundreds of designs. It is an essential sourcebook for contemporary design practitioners and students. The book contains exclusive illustrations and original artwork from designers as well as finished prints. Each short chapter introduction is followed by a range of illustrations with captions to give provenance and relevance. The patterns are arranged in the following chapters: Narrative and Novelty (prints from cowboys to spacemen); Abstraction (abstracted, distorted and attenuated forms used in pattern); Artistic license (the influence of artists such as Miro and de Kooning on fashion print); Kinetic prints that showed the influence of the era's 'mobiles, doodles and spasms'.

From western-based motifs with covered wagons to freeform abstract markings inspired by Pollack and de Kooning, this neat collection of 1950s patterns captures the major trends from the heyday of postwar design. Featuring all the print gurus of the time, including Lucienne Day, Robert Stewart, and Maija Isola of Marimekko, Vintage Pattern: 1950s gives full expression to the creativity of the age. With hundreds of prints, plus exclusive illustrations and original artwork, this is the essential sourcebook for designers and students and an engaging tribute to a key era in fashion.