Eleanor Garnier Hewitt (1864–1924) and Sarah Cooper Hewitt (1859–1930) gave identical Spanish pleated fans to the Museum for the Arts & Decoration at Cooper Union. Eleanor donated her fan in 1924 while Sarah’s came later in the form of a bequest in 1931 (acc. no. 1931-6-150). Both fans were signed in Seville on April 13,...
Relying on innovative technologies to produce unusual surface textures, Jack Lenor Larsen (American, b. 1927) created Gin Fizz using a heat set process, which ultimately transforms a two-dimensional plane into a three-dimensional pleated surface. In his travels to Japan, Larsen met and befriended one of the most important twentieth century textile designers, Junichi Arai (Japanese,...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Cooper Hewitt is dedicating select Object of the Day entries to the work of women designers in our collection. In Fluid Green, the Danish textile designer Inge Lindqvist explores her interest in traditional stitched-resist dyeing techniques through the industrial felt medium. Primarily used in Africa, Indonesia, Japan, South America,...
Wool Dot Gather, designed by Osamu Mita and manufactured at his family’s textile company, Mitasho, is made of wool and rayon. The textile has a very rich textural surface created by a combination of patterning in the weaving process, as well as shrinking in the finishing. The white plain woven wool forms both the dots...
In Europe and the US, middle- and upper-class women followed strict and complicated etiquette guidelines in daily life, including after a family member’s death. Etiquette dictated that a survivor follow at least two phases of mourning—deep followed by half, or second, mourning—to publicly proclaim her grief. Deep mourning, when she was expected to seclude herself...
First stop: Moorhead & Moorhead’s Design Miami/ tent exterior. The Cooper-Hewitt group was greeted by brothers, Robert (industrial designer) and Granger (architect), to talk about the dynamic canopied entrance to the design show – a bris soleil of hand cut, twisted vinyl strips that perform a dance of shadows on the ground. Taking a...
