Context for Althea McNish's work

This page shares my research that helps with understanding better the design world in which Althea operated and some of the operating principles in the field of design. Much of the information in this post comes from the Woodhead Publishing Series in Textiles, from the years 2011 to 2017.

Some notes on technique

The curator of the current exhibition on Althea McNish's work said that the development of screen printing was a boon to Althea's design practice because, in conjunction with her well-developed drawing skills, it permitted her to produce textile designs of great complexity, with up to 17 different colours sometimes, making it difficult for others to replicate. That curator observes that block printing had been the typical method for producing textile designs, which method seems to be much less versatile.

According to a definition on Purchase University's website: "Screen printing, also known as serigraphy, is valued for its versatility, ease of working on a large scale, quality of color, and ability to integrate hand-drawn, photographic, and digital imagery."

The Woodside Publishing Series makes the following observation about how advances in technology factor into the development of textile designs:

"Printing has progressed through the development of techniques that emulate other processes, which were perhaps too laborious and time consuming, with the objective to provide a near facsimile, through halftoning and colour, but that still remained appealing and captured the elements of the process it was emulating."

– 25 - Colour printing techniques and new developments in colour printing

Colour Design (Second edition) Theories and Applications, Woodhead Publishing, 2017 pages 589 - 618.

At the same time, advances in technology that began with the Industrial Revolution enabled cheap mass produced goods that diminished the role of the craftsman. It is interesting to note that the founder of the eponymous William Morris Gallery where the current exhibition of Althea's work is now on display was opposed to the dumbing down effect resulting from widespread use of technology and sought to uphold "the old ideals of beautiful craftsmanship, colour and artistic form". He was the most famous champion of the Arts and Crafts movement, during the 19th century, that pushed back against mass produced designs.

A 2015 essay in Woodhead Publishing notes that "The movement led the world into a new appreciation of craft-based art and aimed to raise the status of the applied arts to that enjoyed by the fine arts. For a period of time, the concepts of design and craft – as distinct from the fine arts defined by the Royal Academy – enjoyed a new-found status at the height of fashion, and singly produced, hand-crafted artefacts were revered among the elite of society.

Textile design was a particularly important feature of the Arts and Crafts movement. "

The essay also said that while Morris acknowledged the usefulness of modern technology in design, "he hated what he saw as the low quality of machine products, and is frequently regarded as ‘anti-machine’. He was willing to use modern machinery as a means of producing his fabric designs and wallpapers more efficiently and at lower cost, although his company continued to produce its finer work by hand."

My thoughts on this: It seems likely that the William Morris Gallery was willing to host the exhibition on Althea McNish's work because it saw her work as emblematic of its founder's emphasis on quality and craftsmanship in design.

Another essay in Woodhead Publishing makes this interesting assertion:

"The function of a colour palette highlights seasonal change and the opportunity to define difference. Printing processes limit the palette to usually a maximum of ten colours due to cost; but at the higher end of the market this can be increased considerably. The proportion and relationship of colour in a design is as important as the colour palette. Basic elements such as exchanging a proportionally dominant colour for another within the same palette, can change the whole feel of a collection and the designer’s role is to consider variants and permutations."

(italics mine)

This statement helps in two ways: It shows her grasp of how to use colour was intrinsic to her most successful design, the Golden Harvest, that was a best seller for several decades. It also helps to explain why Althea's use of up to 17 colours in some of her designs would have been considered problematic by so many of the printers she worked with, since the usual number is ten. The last two sentences in the paragraph also help one to appreciate that a heightened capacity to work with an extensive colour palette would have contributed to truly seminal work, which no doubt was true in Althea's case.

This essay also makes the following observation with regard to Liberty, the store that introduced Althea to the world of high fashion design: "Effort and analysis is valued in the quest for originality and ultimate identity."

The essay continues: "‘We create our colour palettes based on original research. We don’t follow trends but create them. Working to tight deadlines means there is no time to change colouration. Flexibility is important relating to individual customer requirements for colour selection from the collection. Customers also have the option of using special colours that are not in the range or to have their own colourations created for them if they wish to have exclusivity on colour. We would create between 50 and 100 colourways per design in CAD format and select eight from these to send to the printers for striking off.’ (Emma Mawston, Liberty Art Fabrics, personal communication, March 2010)

This expresses how important colour is in providing a textile collection with edge and the amount of exploration, depth and consideration required in the production and selection of a colour palette."

– 8 - The use of colour in textile design, Textile Design: Principles, Advances and Applications. Woodhead Publishing Series, 2011, pages 171-191.

My thoughts on these quotes: So from the last sentence above, it appears colour is particularly important in developing textiles that are innovative and truly special, more important than the patterns perhaps.. It would be interesting to explore this further in relation to Althea's design practice. I also found it interesting that while the essays in Woodhead Publishing reference several pioneering textile designers, none mentions Althea McNish, in spite of quoting interviews with organizations that had a very strong relationship with her, like Liberty.