Edited by Susan Brown and Alexa Griffith Winton

Contributions by Susan Brown, John Stuart Gordon, Alexa Griffith Winton, Emily M. Orr, Monica Penick, Erica Warren, and Leigh Wishner

In her lifetime, Dorothy Liebes (1897–1972) was called “the greatest modern weaver and the mother of the twentieth-century palette.” As a weaver, she developed a distinctive combination of unusual materials, lavish textures, and brilliant colors that came to be known as the “Liebes Look.” Yet despite her prolific career and recognition during her lifetime, Liebes is today considerably less well known than the men with whom she often collaborated, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Dreyfuss, and Edward Durrell Stone. Her legacy also suffered due to the inability of the black-and-white photography of the period to represent her richly colored and textured works.

Extensively researched and illustrated with full-color, accurate reproductions, this important publication examines Liebes’s widespread impact on 20th-century design. Essays explore milestones of her career, including her close collaborations with major interior designers and architects to create custom textiles, the innovative and experimental design studio where she explored new and unusual materials, her use of fabrics to enhance interior lighting, and her collaborations with fashion designers, including Clare Potter and Bonnie Cashin. Ultimately, this book reinstates Liebes at the pinnacle of modern textile design alongside such recognized figures as Anni Albers and Florence Knoll.

Co-published with Yale University Press.

This publication accompanies the exhibition A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes on display at Cooper Hewitt July 7, 2023 through February 4, 2024.

Learn more about Dorothy Liebes and her work on the digital platform.