Colorful Curves

Jack Lenor Larsen, one of the most influential textile designers of the 20th century, is noted for his pioneering use of innovative methods and materials. Bojangles, designed for the 1967 collection The Butterflies, is made from Caprolan stretch nylon designed to conform to the rounded, organic shapes of 1960’s furniture. Larsen believed that pattern should be integral to the furniture it covered, and the swirling lines of this Op Art-inspired pattern are intentionally fluid to offset any distortion that might result from stretching the fabric to fit the form. The fabrics were paired with curvaceous furniture forms designed by Pierre Paulin for Artifort for an exhibition in Larsen’s showroom; Rita Reif wrote in the New York Times “The wedding of the sinuous, brilliantly colored prints with the sculptured furniture is so successful that it is hard to imagine one without the other.”