There are myriad different lenses through which to examine the past, but few are as intimate—or illuminating—as the story of the home. In honor of the United States’s semiquincentennial, the Washington Winter Show returns to the Katzen Arts Center at American University from January 9–11 with a focus on “Celebrating 250 Years of the American Home, Here and Abroad.”
In concert with the show, legendary design brand Schumacher is exploring its own key role in the story of American textile and interior design—from the homes of the country’s most celebrated architects and authors to the halls of the White House— in a can’t-miss exhibit called “The Fabric of America.”
This George Washington Toile dates from the 1920s–1930s and was produced by Schumacher around America’s 150th anniversary. The textile is based on a circa-1790 copper-printed original at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Designed by Mamie Eisenhower, decorator Elisabeth Draper, and illustrator Katherine Sturges Knight, the Eisenhower Toile was created during President Eisenhower’s campaign for a second term. Mamie wore a dress made from the toile for the couple’s 40th anniversary celebration.
National Parks Service
Based in Massachusetts, the Folly Cove Designers (active 1938–1969) were a mostly female block-printing collective of primarily Finnish immigrants, known for designs that celebrated Americana and native flora and fauna—like Polka Dot Pony, which was used on the set of I Love Lucy.
courtesy of schumacherFrom Schumacher’s founding in New York City in 1889 amid the grandeur of the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties to the hardships of the Great Depression and two World Wars to the technological advances of the 21st century, the story of the nation is echoed in many of Schumacher’s fabric and wallpaper designs, says company archivist Kristen Robinson. Over the course of a year, she combed through the company’s collection of more than 40,000 pieces to select documents that evoked, contributed to, or commented on historical events in intriguing ways. “We have such a legacy over 137 years that we really are able to tell the story of American design through our archives,” she says. The Winter Show exhibition, she adds, “is a special opportunity to see pieces from our archives that are not usually available to the public.”
Published for Schumacher’s 75th anniversary in 1964, this advertisement highlighted the many iconic places where Schumacher textiles could be found.
Courtesy of SchumacherThe Schumacher story is one of creative collaboration, American ingenuity, European influences, and the vital contributions of immigrants like founder Frederic Schumacher, who himself emigrated to the U.S. from France. From a first-of-its-kind collaboration with French couturier Paul Poiret in 1930 to ongoing collections with Colonial Williamsburg starting in 1942, a partnership with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1955, and even a toile designed for Dior’s 50th anniversary in 1997, Schumacher has engaged the culture’s leading creatives in a wide range of fields.
During their research, Robinson and her team also learned more about some of the women artists whose contributions to the Schumacher library had gone largely uncredited until recently. “The Folly Cove designers, for example, were a group of largely female weavers, many Scandinavian immigrants, working in Folly Cove, Massachusetts, whose designs are still a part of our collections,” she explains.
This illustration by George Barbier depicting fashion designs by Paul Poiret, one of Schumacher’s first collaborators, was featured in Les Modes magazine in 1912.
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This 1949 ad featured a collection by Dorothy Draper celebrating the Hawaiian Islands (which had not yet gained American statehood) and the significant role they played during World War II.
courtesy of schumacherSince its founding, Schumacher has also designed fabrics, wallcoverings, and more for some of America’s most iconic residences and public places, from the gold-and-blue lampas that Stanford White commissioned for the Blue Room at the White House in 1902 (and later showcased in Jackie Kennedy’s televised tour in 1963) to the commemorative toile designed by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower with decorator Elizabeth Draper in 1956 to a Matisse-inspired stage curtain woven for the Metropolitan Opera’s debut at Lincoln Center in 1966.
Schumacher’s artistry has long been showcased on the silver screen and the small screen, from Hollywood classics like Gone With the Wind (where Hobe Erwin’s beloved Hydrangea Drape wallpaper made its debut) and I Love Lucy (which featured the Folly Cove–designed Polka Dot Pony) to modern-day favorites like …And Just Like That.
For this bedroom in And Just Like That . . . , set designer Carolyn Silverman selected Schumacher’s lyrical Toile de Femmes wallpaper, created in collaboration with Peg Norris, featuring women socializing, horseback-riding, and playing musical instruments, as a nod to the main characters’ unique female friendships.
Craig Blankenhorn/HBO MaxThis year, Schumacher will be introducing three collections honoring America’s legacy featuring both archival designs reimagined for today and brand-new introductions. Be sure to look out for them this summer. “The collections underscore how Schumacher is grounded in tradition, but always looking forward,” says Robinson.
Also at the Washington Winter Show, don’t miss the Saturday, January 10th panel with designer Amanda Lindroth and architect Russell Windham, moderated by FREDERIC Style Director Eugenia Santiesteban Soto, on “Cultivating Spaces: The Art of Design, From Coastal to Classic.” Tickets for the panel and show are available here, and the Schumacher exhibit is free of charge.
