innovative

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Image features: Dense configuration of dark brown lines has overlapping yellow and red lines creating rectangular groupings on a white ground. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Glen Plaid
“One of the most promising newcomers in the highly competitive field of fabric design is a youthful, multi-talented New Yorker, Joel Robinson,” Ebony magazine proclaimed in 1952.[1] Robinson’s printed fabric Ovals had been shown that winter in The Museum of Modern Art’s 1951 Good Design exhibition, making him the first African American to be included...
Image features a length of patterned knit with technical and molecular references is a structured knit and engineered a net of ovals which interlock to form large vertical stripes. Evenly stacked lengthwise in size order, the staggered arrangement of three scales of ovals has a sense of ascension. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Lift
Lift is part of an ongoing series of innovative textiles designed by German designer, Konstantin Grcic in collaboration with Maharam. A sporty, patterned knit, Lift continues Grcic’s exploration of nontraditional textile manufacturing techniques. When Grcic designed his first four nonwoven textiles for Maharam in 2015 he toured production facilities throughout Europe to gain a deeper...
Image features laptop computer in a low, black rectangular housing, hinged at top center to open, clamshell-style, revealing a screen and keyboard. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Milestone of Early Laptop Computer Development
This week’s posts feature case studies from Cooper Hewitt’s Digital Collections Management Project, a conservation survey of born-digital and hybrid objects in the permanent collection. The two-year project was coordinated by an in-house team of conservators, curators, and registrar, and was conducted by digital conservation specialist Cass Fino-Radin and his team at Small Data Industries....
Image features square black form, hinged at the top and opened to reveal an LDC screen showing a black and white drawing of an office with clock and in and out boxes on the wall, a file cabinet, and a desktop in the foreground having a telephone, rolodex, letter, pad, and calendar. A row of icons for different functions is below the desk. A short antenna is attached on right side of the lid, near the hinge. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Predecessor of Today’s Smartphones
This week’s posts feature case studies from Cooper Hewitt’s Digital Collections Management Project, a conservation survey of born-digital and hybrid objects in the permanent collection. The two-year project was coordinated by an in-house team of conservators, curators, and registrar, and was conducted by digital conservation specialist Cass Fino-Radin and his team at Small Data Industries....
Image features: Crisp pleats in a series of alternating diagonals form a chevron pattern in this sheer scarf of mauve, pale green and pale blue. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Origami Pleat
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Origami Pleat was designed in 1997 by Reiko Sudo, one of Japan’s most important contemporary textile designers and co-founder of Nuno Corporation. The textile is a contemporary interpretation of centuries-old hand pleating. It is made by creating...
Image features: Yardage of full manufactured width, silver-colored, metallic coated plain woven polyester with wavy linear pattern from the embossing. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Ripple Effect
Embossed Stainless Steel was designed by Reiko Sudo, one of Japan’s most important contemporary textile designers. Educated at Musashino Art University, she and Junichi Arai (Japanese, 1932–2017) were the co-founders in 1984 of the Japanese company and store, NUNO, which produces textiles of extraordinary ingenuity and beauty. Sudo and the other designers at NUNO combine...
Image features: Bookmark or stevengraph with a portrait medallion of Abraham Lincoln surmounted by an eagle perched on a shield flag that holds a banner in its beak that reads "E Pluribus Unum." Inscription at top reads: "Assassinated at Washington 14 April 1865," and just below another inscription: "I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by. And if it be the pleasure of Almighty God. To die by. (A Lincoln). Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Lincoln Bookmark
Stevengraphs are small woven pictures that depict famous buildings, historical events, iconic scenes, and prominent public figures such as royalty, politicians and athletes. They were produced by Thomas Stevens (English, 1828–1888), a Coventry weaver who customized the jacquard loom to produce small detailed pictures in bright colors. Stevens was compelled to make these innovations after...
Image features: Drapery sheer with vertical satin stripes, with an all-over irregular crinkle pleating. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Gin Fizz
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,...
Image features a 2/2 twill with geometric pattern of projecting loops made by supplementary warp. Warp: black 3 ply string; supplementary warp of red bouclé. Weft: black 3 ply string paired with flat metallic gold. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Color in Combination
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Today’s blog post was written by Maleyne Syracuse and originally published on March 20, 2013. Weaver and textile designer Dorothy Liebes had twin obsessions: texture and color, both exemplified by this sample from the museum’s collection. Liebes’...