Lucienne Day

One of Britain's most influential textile designers - Lucienne Day died at the end of January - after a career spanning more than 50 years. Lucienne Day attended the Royal College of Art where she met Robin Day at an RCA dance in 1940, Robin and Lucienne were married in 1942.


Lucienne Day's drew inspiration from modern art - organic shapes and colourful patterns inspired perhaps by Kandinsky and Miro. Her work was designed to be affordable and mass-produced, bringing the best of design to the public.


Lucienne Day worked for Heals before getting a commission to work with Robin Day on fabrics for the festival of Britain for whom she produced the fabric 'Calyx'. The Festival of Britain introduced the public to a new design philosophy after the utilitarian and staid designs of the war and post war era. The Day's were foremost in the new design aesthetic.


Lucienne continued to produce fabric designs and applied decoration for companies such as Heals, and Crown Wallpapers as well as Edinburgh Weavers, Royal Wilton and in this country and Rauche and Rosenthal Ceramics abroad.


Lucienne Day Switched from designing printing pattern in the 1970's to a more craft based 'silk mosaic work' often large scale wall pieces for clients such as John Lewis and the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre.
Lucienne and Robin had a shared retrospective of their work in 2001 at the Barbican and much of their work is still in production.

Lucienne and Robin retired to a house at Chichester where an exhibition of Lucienne Day's textiles and Robin Day's furniture, "Robin and Lucienne Day: Design and the Modern Interior", will be held in Spring 2011 at Pallant House Gallery.
Guardian Obituary here