From the archives, an Object of the Day post on an example of iridescent design from the collection.
Akira Minagawa opened his first minä perhonen fashion boutique in Tokyo’s Shirokanedai district in 2000, and began showing his collections in Paris in 2004. Forest Parade, introduced as part of the Spring/Summer 2005 collection, has become an iconic design for the brand. “Perhonen” means butterfly in Finnish, and this design includes butterflies, birds, flowers, branches,...
Today, indigo-dyed cotton cloth and clothing are emblematic of Japanese folk traditions. But cotton is not indigenous to Japan, and for most of Japan’s history, rural clothing was made from available plant fibers: paper mulberry, ramie, nettle, hemp, and wisteria. Cotton, which was originally introduced through Korea and China, was first cultivated in the warmer,...
This charming cotton dress fabric was anonymously donated and remains anonymous itself, as there are no designer or manufacturer markings in the selvedges. It was probably intended for the home-sewing market, for which many so-called “conversational” prints were produced and made into women’s full, gathered shirts or men’s casual shirts. This piece satirizes the postwar...
This single saddle blanket features five rectangles, each filled with the zigzag and diamond patterns the Navajo adapted so successfully from the Mexican serape. While in the 1870s and 80s these motifs were paired with exuberant use of color, by the 1880s some traders, such as J.L. Hubbell and C.N. Cotton, began to push for...
Witold Gordon was a Polish-born artist perhaps best known for his illustrations of regional architecture and typography, which were shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in the exhibition “American Scene” in 1941. New York’s idiosyncratic storefronts were the inspiration for a series of New Yorker covers in the 1940s. Shell Chest was Gordon’s...
As research for the exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018–January 13, 2019), the curators interviewed color specialists working in diverse industries and fields, from fashion forecasting to early childhood education. For our Careers in Color blog series, we asked these specialists to tell us about their work and how their love of color...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. Raw Color, the Eindhoven-based studio of Christoph Brach and Daniera ter Haar, explores the materiality of color through research and experiments that cross disciplines. In 2012, Raw...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. This post was originally published on February 1, 2017. New York-based textile design firm Designtex collaborated with Harriet Wallace-Jones and Emma Sewell of the British textile studio...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. Nike’s high performance running shoe, Flyknit Racer, uses advanced knitting technology and only the most essential materials to create an ultra-light racing shoe. Nike’s design team precisely...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. Verner Panton believed that color played a greater role than form in design. Fascinated by color theory and the physics of light throughout his life, he published...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. This post was originally published on December 12, 2014. Grethe Sørenson’s digitally woven hanging Rush Hour 2/ Shanghai is part of her Traces of Light series, created...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Knoll Luxe was launched in 2008 as a luxury fabric division of Knoll Textiles. The brand utilizes a global network of specialized and highly skilled textile mills to realize fabrics that combine classic modernism with a strong...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. In 2012, Knoll Textiles’ Creative Director Dorothy Cosonas approached Dutch graphic and book designer Irma Boom to develop a collection of textiles based on two of her books: Colour (Kleur) Based on Art, 2005 and Colour Based...
Skiers, skaters, and other winter athletes run an increased risk of lung and bronchial infections when training in cold weather. Stoll, a German manufacturer of knitting machinery, worked together with academic and industry partners to incorporate smart textile technology in this balaclava. A mesh panel over the mouth and nose is knitted with copper wire...
