Zelina Comegys Brunschwig (died September 10, 1981) was an interior and fabric designer.
Zelina Comegys Brunschwig was born in Rock Island, Illinois, the daughter of Thomas Parsons Comegys and Eliza Virginia Thompson Comegys. She graduated from Rock Island High School in 1914, [1] and taught kindergarten to support her younger sisters for 14 years before attending Parsons School of Design to study interior design. After her graduation, she began work at McMillen Inc. In 1929. She married Colonel Roger E. Brunschwig and joined his textile firm, Brusnschwig & Fils Inc., as a stylist in 1941. [2] [3]
Brunschwig & Fils was established in 1891 by Achille Brunschwig as a tapestry-weaving mill in Aubusson and Bohain, France. [4] During World War II, as her husband joined the Free French forces and was one of the founders of France Forever, Brunschwig took the lead of the company as the director of design and later as vice president. Determined to have the company's collection survive, she worked with American mills to substitute parachute cloth for silk and unbleached muslin for linen to weave and print designs without French imports. Under Brunschwig's leadership, the company expanded to offer wallcoverings and trimmings after the war. [2] [3]
In 1946, Brunschwig worked with the Museum of Modern Art to create the first printed textiles competition and exhibition. The winner of the competition would see their designs in 19 stores nationwide and win $1,000, furnished by Brunschwig. It generated huge interest and 2,443 designs were submitted. The first prize winner was Yvonne Delattre. [5] [6]
In 1951, she was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French Government for her contributions to the people of France during and after the war. [2]
Throughout her work, she emphasized the importance of history in working with period toiles, damasks and brocades in modern home décor. [2]
She died in September 1981, at the age of 84, in New York City. Her sister Celeste Comegys Peardon wrote children's books for classroom use. [2]
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861–1875) was a furnishings and decorative arts manufacturer and retailer founded by the artist and designer William Morris with friends from the Pre-Raphaelites. With its successor Morris & Co. (1875–1940) the firm's medieval-inspired aesthetic and respect for hand-craftsmanship and traditional textile arts had a profound influence on the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century.
Anni Albers was a German textile artist and printmaker credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art.
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Sheila Hicks is an American artist. She is known for her innovative and experimental weavings and sculptural textile art that incorporate distinctive colors, natural materials, and personal narratives.
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Alexander Girard, affectionately known as Sandro, was an architect, interior designer, furniture designer, industrial designer, and a textile designer.
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Marianne Straub OBE was one of the leading commercial designers of textiles in Britain in the period from the 1940s to 1960s. She said her overriding aim was: "to design things which people could afford. ... To remain a handweaver did not seem satisfactory in this age of mass-production".
Désirée Lucienne Lisbeth Dulcie Day OBE RDI FCSD was one of the most influential British textile designers of the 1950s and 1960s. Day drew on inspiration from other arts to develop a new style of abstract pattern-making in post-war British textiles, known as ‘Contemporary’ design. She was also active in other fields, such as wallpapers, ceramics and carpets.
Dorothy Wright Liebes was an American textile designer and weaver renowned for her innovative, custom-designed modern fabrics for architects and interior designers. She was known as "the mother of modern weaving".
Jack Lenor Larsen was an American textile designer, author, collector and promoter of traditional and contemporary craftsmanship. Through his career he was noted for bringing fabric patterns and textiles to go with modernist architecture and furnishings. Some of his works are part of permanent collections at prominent museums including Museum of Modern Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Art Institute of Chicago,Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art which has his most significant archive.
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For the bell-founding family, see John Warner & Sons.
Marianne Strengell was an influential Finnish-American Modernist textile designer in the twentieth century. Strengell was a professor at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1937 to 1942, and she served as department head from 1942 to 1962. She was able to translate hand-woven patterns for mechanized production, and pioneered the use of synthetic fibers.
Eszter Haraszty was a Hungarian-born designer best known for her work as head of the textiles department at Knoll.
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Mary Celeste Comegys Peardon was an American writer of books for children and classroom use.
Roger Etienne Brunschwig Commander of the Legion of Honor, was a much‐decorated French hero of the two world wars.