Flapper Fashion: Stehli Silks at the Metropolitan Museum, New York

 

Debutantes wearing Americana Prints, rehearsing for a fund raiser.

 

The above image of a newspaper clipping, attributed to the New York Times, 1925, show several young ladies wearing dresses sewn from a line of apparel fabrics, "Americana Silks",  developed by the Stehli Silk Company and designed by American artists.

 

In October, DH and I ventured to the Met, and down a flight of stairs to a small gallery, a sort of anteroom just outside the Antonio Ratti Textile Center. There's usually a very interesting exhibit relating to textiles in this somewhat hidden away space.  Through April 8, 2025 a collection of delightful "jazz-age" silks, and contemporary ephemera, is on display.

The gallery outside the Ratti Center.

From the wall text:

The Stehli Silks Corporation was founded in 1840 as a small family-owned silk weaving firm in Obfelden, Switzerland.  At first, the company operated about thirty power looms, producing all-silk fabrics for clothing.  As the company in Switzerland expanded throughout the 1880s and 1890s (by 1895 they were running five hundred looms), they established a New York office to sell their textiles to the U. S. market.  But American tariffs on foreign goods enacted in the late 1890s made the Stehli family decide to take a radical new approach by also setting up a factory in the United States.  In November 1897, land for a large mill was purchased in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a year later, with the first mill building finished, two hundred fifty looms were producing yardage.  Other buildings followed; by 1914, more than one thousand looms were in use, and the business was making $3 million per year (about $90 million in today's money).

"Americana Silks"  on display.

Wall text continues:

In the early 1920s, the Stehli Silks management realized that the market was changing.  Following World War 1, consumers adopted a generally more informal lifestyle, favoring soft crepes and chiffons (like those used for the Americana Prints) over stiff dress fabrics like the taffetas and satins Stehli had traditionally produced.  The garment business was booming in New York City, and Stehli organized a special sales force to market their goods directly to the trade.  The groundwork for the creation of the Americana Prints line was in place.

Detail, Falling Leaves dress fabric, by Ralph Barton.

Booklet  of dress ideas, illustration by Ralph Barton, 1926.

More wall text:

In 1925, the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was held in Paris.  While the United States declined to send examples of current American design, representatives from various industries visited.  Among these was a delegation from the silk industry, including Kneeland L. (Ruzzie) Green, the newly hired art director for the Stehli Silks Corporation.  The trip inspired him to create the Americana Prints line, in direct reaction against American fashion's heavy dependence on French design.  He quickly gathered a group of American men and women illustrators, graphic designers, cartoonists, and eventually photographer, to create fabric designs for the Spring season 1926.  The saturated colors and lighthearted patterns were meant to reflect the innovative and optimistic American spirit of the 1920s.

Silk crepe dress featuring Manhattan fabric design.

Samples of colorways of Manhattan design, Clayton Knight, 1925.

An article in the New York Times, November 1, 1925, introduced the first series (of three) of Americana Prints and predicted that "possibly the biggest hit of the entire threes dozen designs will be 'Manhattan', which is so modern that it suggests a view of all of our skyscrapers piled up together, seen from an elevated train rounding a sharp curve." It was indeed one of the most successful designs. 

Clipping from the New York Times.

Concluding wall text:

The Americana Prints line, available in high-end department stores around the country both as yardage and ready-made dresses, was heavily promoted by Stehli in the general and fashion press.  It was not inexpensive when first introduced, the silk yardage sold for $4.50 per yard (about $75 today) and dresses were $39.50 (about $675 today).  The line continued for three years, in three different series.  Ultimately, there were about ninety-five designs by fifteen artists, and in 1927, the Stehli Silks Corporation had its most successful year ever.  However, by late 1928, overproduction and falling demand saw an end to this groundbreaking design line.

Unless otherwise note, all fabrics pictured are silk crepe. 

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ralph Barton, 1925.

Hollywood, Neysa McMein, 1925.

Ticker Tape, Charles Buckles Falls, 1925.

April, Clayton Knight, 1927.

Plum Blossoms, Katharine Sturges.

Dress made with Plum Blossoms fabric.

Inca, Charles Buckles Falls, 1925.

Model wearing dress stitched from Inca fabric.

 

The images of models in dresses were produced by the Kadel and Herbert Commercial Department, in New York City, 1925.  I love seeing the hair styles and shoes of the era.  Below is one of my favorite patterns, created after the artist made a trip to Paris. You can see the Ile de la Cité and the Cathedral of Notre Dame. 

 

My Trip Abroad, Ralph Barton, 1925.

My Trip Abroad detail with Eiffel Tower.

Model in My Trip Abroad dress.

 

Many of the fabrics and other items in the exhibit were donated to the museum by Hilary Knight, the son of featured artists Clayton Knight and Katharine Sturges. Hilary Knight is still alive (at the time of this post) and may be best known as the illustrator/co-author of the Eloise books.

16th Quilt Japan exhibit, at the New England Quilt Museum

 

Flower Spinning, detail.

With a small group of friends I took in the an exhibit of award-winning quilts from the 16th biannual Nihon (Japan) quilt competition. This show is sponsored by the Japan Handicraft Instructors Association.  Quilts may be entered in three categories: Traditional, Contemporary and, a new category for this competition, Miniature. There are cash prizes and the winners are exhibited first at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and then at select international destinations. for a number of year now, the New England Quilt Museum has been one of the venues.

Flower Spinning, Kazuyo Minami.

 

The Director of the museum, Nora Palermo, introduced us to a delightful docent, Mary, who gave us some of the background on the competition. She noted some general changes in the "flavor" of the entries this year, including the addition of beading and other embellishments on some of the quilts.  Beads are used in the exquisite miniature quilt below; the color palette seems appropriate in this year of "Barbie" pink.

Heart Beating, Kaori Akamatsu.

It's a lttle difficult to see in my image but there are beads at at the centers of some of the blocks as well as on the ribbon bow motifs. The hints of blue and yellow balance all the shades of pink and mauve nicely.

Heart Beating, detail.

Another outstanding miniature quilt is below, a Mariner's Compass variation in vibrant colors. The curator and staff did a great job hanging the quilts so that the objects "played" nicely together, not an easy task with so many varied, strong approaches to color.  The maker says that the title of this object is a play on words.

Piece, Peace, Peace Sing, Miyoko Watanabe.

 

Another quilt with an intriguing title, and strong visual impact, is the work below, with the intriguing name of Octopus Arabesque. According to the wall text, the octopus is a symbol of good fortune, as the sound of octopus in Japanese, tako, sounds just like the word takko, or happiness. 

 

Octopus Arabesque, Chizuko Kojima.

 The quilt above has quite a visual impact from quite a distance, which reminds me of something a visual art instructor once told our class: the viewer should see one aspect of a work at a distance of, say, twelve feet, then something more at a distance of six feet and finally a distance of six inches should reveal some new aspect of the design, maintaining the interest of the viewer.

Although all the quilts feature breath-taking workmanship, not all the quilts have much impact from a distance - many are meant to be enjoyed primarily at a close distance I think, such as the quilt below, in shades of red and pink.  The Irish Chain pattern, normally a graphically emphatic design full of movement, is here disjointed and discontinuous. The applique and pieced motifs deployed  asymmetrically on top of the piecing make for a very busy surface.   However the applique, piecing and embroidery are masterfully done and the border is especially delightful.

 

Chatty little birds!, Kikue Nishiya.

Chatty little birds!, detail.

 

Below is a red and white quilt in miniature - about 30" square.  In the wall text the maker share that she could only work on this detailed quilt during the day, with natural light. The quilt is primarily machine stitched.

 

The Beginning is a Red House, Yasuyo Kon.

The Beginning is a Red House, detail.

As much as I love red and white quilts, the quilts featuring a variety of traditional fabrics - many vintage - were a special treat as I drank in the profusion of polychrome prints, stripes and hand-dyed materials.

With My Whole Heart, Toshiko Akashi.

With My Whole Heart, detail.

 

With My Whole Heart, detail.

One thing I really like about the quilt above, in addition to the fabulous Japanese fabrics, is the artist's use of a traditional technique called Cathedral Windows, where layers of fabric are folded to form a "window" into which a square of contrasting fabric is inserted. The method uses a lot of fabric thus resulting in a heavy artifact. The technique is not often seen in quilt shows, as it is perceived, along with the traditional yo-yo quilt, to lack scope for artistry and some quilt shows even banned quilts which employed the technique. 

However, as Lynne Edwards demonstrates in her wonderful book Cathedral Window Quilts, variation on the traditional approach can result in stunning results.  Ms. Akashi employs the technique very effectively in her quilt, providing a release between the central motif and the corner blocks. 

Below is another quilt which features an enchanting assortment of fabrics; I've always had a special fondness for the Grandmother's Fan pattern, which Ms. Honda used for her border blocks.

 

Kaleidoscope, Mutsumi Honda.

Kaleidoscope, detail.

 

Kaleidoscope, detail.

 

Some of the quilts pack a punch without the intense embellishment but through emphatic pattern and contrast such as the quilt below, which makes the most of striped and gradient fabrics.

 

Crack of Time - Hazama, Mutsumi Honda.

 

View of gallery.

View of gallery.

 

One of my favorite quilts presented images of a small city with a fishing tradition. According to the wall text:

Salmon come up the Miomotegawa River in Murakami City, the northern part of Niigata Prefecture.  In winter, salmon are hung to dry under the eaves of ordinary homes in the streets where machiya (traditional townhouse [sic]) buildings still stand.

The artist has done a great job of rendering the objects and buildings without becoming too literal. (Iyoboya means salmon in Japanese.)

The City of Iyoboya, Miyoko Sekiya.

The City of Iyoboya, detail.

To finish up this blog, I'll just post more of the miniature quilts; that such tiny pieces could even be manipulated is a feat in and of itself but the designs are also delightful.  Apologies for my shadow on the images - these quilts were placed in a display case.  Each miniature quilt is about 20" square.

Hanabiyori [Flower Park], Yoko Yehara.

The Garden with Butterflies, Terumi Goto.

 

 Finally a little quilt which punches above its weight, below. Think those are beads creating the arabesques? No - zillions of Colonial knots; a Colonial knot is a kind of cousin to the French knot.  A symphony in texture - low relief sculpture in fiber.

 

Arabesque, Yuki Yokoi.

 

Arabesque, detail.

Timna Tarr at the New England Quilt Museum

I Woke Up Like This, 2021.

In August a group of friends met me at the New England Quilt Museum. We journeyed to the city of Lowell to see the Quilts Japan exhibit, but there's usually more than one exhibit at the museum and, indeed, we got a "bonus" in the form of the show Circuitous Routes: the Quilts of Timna Tarr. Ms. Tarr lives and works South Hadley, Massachusetts. 

 

From the exhibit wall text:

Timna Tarr comes from a long line of quilters, but did not begin quilting until after studying art history in college.  She bought her first longarm machine in 2001 and began quilting clients' quilts shortly thereafter. 

Her nationally award-winning quilts are in private and corporate collections and [have] been seen in exhibits, publications, and on The Quilt Show and QuiltingArts TV.

Ms. Tarr's techniques include piecing and applique and she utilizes both techniques to create her  photo mosaic quilts, which remind me a bit of the work of painter Chuck Close and quilt artist Ruth McDowell. She explains her methodology in her book Stitched Photo Mosaic Quilting and teaches the techniques in workshops.

The Neighborhood Association, 2022.

The Hare Apparent, 2019.

Exhibit overview.

The Duchess of Dirt, 2018.

The Queen of Calico, 2018.

The last portrait is of the artist's cat, Caleigh.  This enjoyable exhibit is on view through September 30, 2023.