EXTENDED UNTIL FEB 2021

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The Fashion and Textile Museum is proud to present the exhibition Out of the Blue, celebrating the work of influential design company, Designers Guild. Founded by Tricia Guild OBE, Designers Guild started life in 1970 as a small section of a single shop in Chelsea’s Kings Road. The brand has since evolved and grown into a global enterprise, whose products have changed the way we view colour, pattern and texture in our homes.

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Out of the blue unravels Tricia Guild’s unique and creative approach, focussing in on her inspiration, her intuitive design methodology and the techniques, processes and materials used. Frustrated with the lack of truly contemporary fabrics and wallpapers for interiors, Tricia’s vision, initially created alongside Robin Guild, was to create a lifestyle. Tricia showed people hot to put the different elements of a room together; how colour, pattern, texture and form can combine to create a harmonious space.

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Visitors will be able to see first-hand where Tricia’s inspiration comes from – her travels to India, Japan, and Scandinavia – and how this is translated into collections of fabrics, wallpaper, furniture and accessories. Her inspiration may come from ancient Indian textiles, Renaissance-style velvet or a Swedish Gustavian wall treatment, but the resulting interiors are never drawn solely from one traveller’s tale and are never just a reworking of an old document. Instead, each is an eclectic amalgam in which harmony exists between East and West, present and past.

Designers Guild is perhaps best known for florals and botanicals, but plain fabrics in a multitude of shades and textures, alongside a vast range of geometric and abstract designs, are also vital to the mix.

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Offering unique access to Designers Guild’s archive, with never before displayed original designs and art work, – Out of the Blue will showcase the story of Designers Guild in settings that capture the changing tastes in interiors over the past five decades.

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The exhibition charts the transformation of Tricia Guild – from an ambitious young woman in business, to the influential creative force behind a global brand. Out of the Blue will celebrate the work and thought processes of this important and influential designer and reveal her highly successful, innovative and unconventional approach to design.

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Many thanks to the Fashion and Textile museum for the images. All images copyright of the fashion and Textile museum and Designers Guild.