A flowered jacquard bodice, made in 18th century France. Photo: The Design Library.
“It was love at first sight!” When fashion icon Alexa Chung visited The Design Library’s Wells Street facility in 2019 for inspiration for her Met Gala outfit, she spotted a flowery jacquard bodice on a hanger. Made in 18th century France, it was just what Chung was looking for to express that year’s 21st century “Camp” theme. The result was a mini silk dress embroidered with hundreds of sequins, with matching beret and bag. “Austen Goes Disco” was the headline in Vogue that greeted her fabulous epiphany at the Gala.
The history of The Design Library began in the garment district of Manhattan, in an attic where Susan Meller and her late husband, Herb, stored their vast collection of designs. New York art dealer Peter Koepke joined the company in 1989 and in 2002 bought the business. Three years later the Soho branch was opened to serve its clients from the UK, Europe and the Downworld. Migrating to Oxford Street in 2012, the library was located on Wells Street, in the area of Fitzrovia most closely associated with the clothing trade. Sadly this is on the wane now, but thanks in part to the Design Library, the fashion and textile industry still has a foothold in our area.
“High street to high end” is how Director Kate Denham sums up the Library’s range of fashion customers. Denham is a design graduate whose rich knowledge of textiles was gained first with Laura Ashley and later with the Costume and Antique Textiles Gallery on Church Street. He established the London branch in 2005 and has managed it ever since. She was joined in 2008 by archivist Ula Luniewska, who has the formidable task of organizing the Library’s 70,000 exhibits. John Hamilton arrived in 2010, removed from real estate development by the glamor of the international surface decoration trade.
Kate Denham and Ula Luniewska in front of a kimono from the early 20th century. Photo: Sue Blundell.
Kate Denham and Ula Luniewska in front of a kimono from the early 20th century. Photo: Sue Blundell.The design library itself is an Aladdin’s cave of designs. There’s original artwork, fabric swatches, wallpapers, prints, beading, embroidery, and actual garments, like the bra that caught Alexa Chung’s eye. They are stored in books, stacked on shelves, and hung from racks. Some of the choicest examples are displayed on the walls, such as the Japanese kimono behind Denham and Luniewska in the photo. “That fabric looks very modern, doesn’t it?” Hamilton comments. “But it actually dates from the first half of the 20th century,” she says.
Spanning nearly three centuries, from the 1750s to the early 2000s, the collection includes items from Europe, the US, Latin America, Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Far East. The mission is to preserve and pass on the designs of the past, which are then adapted by customers and used to inspire their future collections. The Library searches collections from around the world, often acquiring the entire archive of a company that has gone out of business. Bianchini-Férier, for example, was a major silk weaving and design company founded in Lyon in 1888. In the 1950s and 1960s it produced fabrics that were in high demand by Parisian fashion houses such as Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. ; he also made scarves for Hermes. In 2010, Peter Koepke negotiated the purchase of his main archive, which, to quote The Design Library website, includes “exquisite jacquards, beautiful burnt velvets, patterned cut-out satins, spectacular beading…”. Some of the designers represented in the collection are stars: between 1912 and 1928, for example, the French painter Raoul Dufy was creating designs for Bianchini-Férier. But most of the designs held by The Design Library are unsigned, their creators unknown but certainly not ignored.
Ula Luniewska, Kate Denham and John Hamilton. Photo: Sue Blundell.
Ula Luniewska, Kate Denham and John Hamilton. Photo: Sue Blundell.Two or three times a year, Denham and Hamilton visit the massive US Library, now housed in a converted mill in the Hudson Valley. They return with a selection of their seven million designs, chosen according to their knowledge of their customers’ needs and current trends. Back on Wells Street, the items are organized into four basic categories: floral, geometric, conversational, and global.
Hand-painted wallpaper, late 20th century, Studio Tucano, Italy. Photo: The Design Library.
Hand-painted wallpaper, late 20th century, Studio Tucano, Italy. Photo: The Design Library.The Design Library is a source of inspiration for a wide range of companies in the world of fashion, home furnishings, sportswear, cosmetics and paper products. Among them are Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein, Boden, Colefax & Fowler, Lululemon and Nike. It is also a resource for costume designers working in film. May I reveal that in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of West Side Story, the cool black and red shirt worn by a Sharks gang member was based on one of the Design Library patterns from the 1950s.
The black and red shirt worn by a Sharks gang member was based on one of The Design Library’s patterns from the 1950s. Photo: The Design Library.
The black and red shirt worn by a Sharks gang member was based on one of The Design Library’s patterns from the 1950s. Photo: The Design Library.Hamilton spends much of his time traveling around Europe, introducing clients and discussing possibilities. But most customers like to visit the Design Library in person. They arrive with a detailed design brief, storyboard, concept, or just a vague idea. “One time a customer came in, she held out her arm and asked us to sniff it,” Hamilton tells me. “’I want something that looks like this smell,’ she said.’ She was in the process of designing the packaging for a new perfume. Denham and Hamilton make suggestions, samples are shown, and the customer is left to decide. Serendipity can also play a role, as with Alexa Chung’s gala outfit.
Print on paper 1969. Anonymous studio Bianchini-Ferier France BFA Geometric tie TP print 55 x 48 cm. Source: The Design Library.
Print on paper 1969. Anonymous studio Bianchini-Ferier France BFA Geometric tie TP print 55 x 48 cm. Source: The Design Library.The client can borrow the design for a few months, but it is licensed for two years, and for the rest of that period it is locked away. The resulting design can be a fairly faithful copy of the original, but more often than not the imagination kicks in and the original is reinterpreted. In the US, for example, the 1960s Bianchini-Férier print above eventually morphed into Nike tights below.
Contemporary Nike leggings inspired by the 1960s print. Photo: The Design Library.
Contemporary Nike leggings inspired by the 1960s print. Photo: The Design Library.Denham tells me that the growing popularity of sports and leisure wear, intensified by the pandemic, is having a big influence on current design trends. Exhibitions of art, music, cinema and social movements also play their part. The recently opened Africa Fashion exhibition at the V&A is sure to generate further interest in pan-African textiles. At the same time, gender fluidity has meant that menswear has become much more extravagant and colorful, thanks in no small part to singer Harry Styles. Most of us will never get an invitation to the Met Gala, or even visit The Design Library. It works only with trade and unfortunately it is not open to the public. But at least when we buy a dress or shirt from the best-known name on the UK’s high street, we can enjoy a pattern that may well have been inspired by a design in the Wells Street Library.
A glimpse of the Design Library collection can be found in the book PATTERNS: Inside the Design Library, by Peter Koepke, published by Phaidon Press.
Sue Blundell is a playwright and professor of classical studies. sueblundell.com
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