When we featured Juliet Glynn-Smith in last week’s Designer Desire post, we discovered the work of Gillian Farr who was one of her contemporaries at Terence Conran Fabrics Ltd.
Two of Farr’s best known patterns for Conran are Master Tuggie’s and Gilliflower; both from 1964, the latter winning a Cotton Board Awards prize that year.
Prior to working at Terence Conran Fabrics, Farr was part of Liberty of London’s studio in the 1950s where she designed their now re-issued Mitsi print (the 5 colourways can be seen at the bottom of the montage). She later created Mirabelle – also re-issued – for the company in 1962 (the 3 colourways are at the top of the montage).
According to Anna Buruma, Liberty Archivist and author of Liberty and Co. in the Fifties and Sixties: A Taste for Design, she designed the pattern, circa 1964, of the pictured Jean Muir Liberty-print silk dress that once belonged to Joanna Lumley.
Gillian Farr’s work is included in a new exhibition (which runs until Sunday 2 June 2019) at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Her work also features in the accompanying book by Geoffrey Rayner and Richard Chamberlain (to be published 25th Feb 2019).
Additional image credits:
Kerry Taylor Auctions
