Marrianne Straub OBE, Textile Designer (1909-1994)
Marianne was one of the leading commercial designers of textiles in Britain in the period from the 1940s to 1960s. In 1950 Warner & Sons bought Helios and transferred its dobby looms to New Mills, Braintree. Marianne set up her studio at New Mills and continued to design mainly for the dobby looms, producing over 1,000 designs between 1950 and 1970. Richard Humphries was apprenticed at Warners during Marrianne’s residency.
You can view some of Marrianne’s best loved designs on the V&A collections website.
‘Surrey’; Festival of Britain Exhibition 1951
The Surrey tissue was originally featured at the Festival of Britain exhibition in 1951 where it was used for window drapes at the South Bank Regatta Restaurant. It was inspired by medical microscopic drawings of human organisms and crystal structures.
The original design is retained in the Warner Textile Archive and features a 61cm wide repeat which was later reduced by half for domestic use. The colouring of deep olive black and rayon in gold was in keeping with one of the original colour ways.
Project Reference: 2169 & 2170
Waistecoats for the Thaxted Morris Dancers
Humphries Weaving was approached to weave decorative cut pile cloth in worsted and cotton in crimson and cream for unique waistcoats copied from the 1930’s originals designed by the famed textile designer Marianne Straub.
Click here to visit the Thaxted Morris Dancers project page.
Project Reference: 490
