 |
| Amelie in Original Liberty "Tana Rose" |
It's Chelsea flower show
this week. As budding Gardeners, Sarah and I are both enthused by pretty
petals, budding blooms and succulent foliage. We love the outside; getting our
hands muddy and seeing the fruits of our fun thrive and grew alongside our children.
I’ve always had a weakness for florals. Especially liberty florals. It’s not just my hippy roots or my love
of gardening that fuels the love of pretty petals.
Liberty fabrics are very
special. They are an English Heritage, a truly English statement of quality and style and and many of the prints are so well received that they are known by their print names all over the world. Not only were liberty fabrics the first to incorporate subtle colourings and dye techniques brought over from the East, they also helped establish the trade of block printing to the UK. The Liberty Tana lawn florals are known worldwide as the leading contender in popular floral
prints .
The Liberty fabrics date back to
1875 when the Liberty shop in London opened andArthur Liberty printed the first
of the soon to be famous Liberty Silks. Imported from India, the Mysore silk
was dyed in England and then hand-printed with wooden blocks.
 |
| Liberty Rosa, A |
Liberty’s imported oriental silks
were dyed, printed or woven in Britain and France. The cottons were printed in
Scotland, Cumbria and Lancashire. In 1904 Liberty took over a print works that
specialised in block-printed silks just up-river from William Morris’ works in
Merton. It is because of this print works that the company still has such a
large textile archive.
"Liberty’s greatest triumph
in those early days came from a co-operation with Thomas Wardle, the dyers and
printers of Leek in Staffordshire, who also worked for William Morris. Between
them, Liberty and Wardle introduced dyes which had until then been supposed to
be a closely guarded secret of the East. Delicate pastel tints which they called
‘Art Colours’, soon became described all over the world as ‘Liberty
colours’. Silk in Liberty colours were an influential element in the Aesthetic
Movement. Liberty’s windows had white painted fretwork screens, and the silks
were draped in front of these in graduated tints. They became one of the sights
of Regent Street."
Liberty's: a biography of a shop, Alison Adburgham,
1975
Today designers for Liberty still
come and visit the archive for inspiration. New patterns are either designed by
the in-house Studio or are commissioned from freelance designers. Each spring
and autumn season new textile collections are produced to complement the range
of classic designs that are not so bound to the seasons. Some of these latter
designs, such as Peacock Feather, date back to the 1880s.
*"Lawn" used in the description of the liberty cotton describes the quality of cotton used in making the liberty printed fabrics. In the description of cotton, the amount of threads per cm square describe the quality of fabric. The more threads the finer the cotton is. Tana lawn has a very high thread count and is 100% cotton.
 |
| "Betsy" Liberty print |
Liberty prints play a very special place in my heart. I love
them. They express a little part of me that I would love to show everyday. The
girlie hippy little girl inside me. The traditional girl I most certainly am!
 |
| Amelie in "Lilac" |
If you are partial to a pretty floral, take a peek at the unik website.
Here are two of the liberty prints soon to be added to the unik website.
