Legendary textiles designer Susan Collier, 72

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/6/2011 3:09:56 PM

London - Groundbreaking textiles designer Susan Collier, who died of cancer on May 7, is being remembered by colleagues and design lovers around the globe for her impact on fashion.

Known for her richly saturated palette and refreshing prints, Collier sold her first designs to Liberty in 1961. Seven years later, she established her own studio and was joined by her sister, Sarah Campbell.

Collier Campbell developed into a major European supplier of wholesale fabric whose prints turned up everywhere from Yves St. Laurent ready-to-wear to Marks & Spencer aswell as the interior design trade.

The UK Guardian noted: "The most famous patterns are in every textbook as exemplars of the art, and many readers would recognise their mother's curtains, their aunt's scarf and their wedding-present sheets, but be unaware of the partnership of Collier and her sister Sarah Campbell, who created them."

In the United States, Collier Campbell home textiles lines had several revivals, most recently a fabric deal with Fabricut. In 2005, Kohl's carried a Collier Campbell collection of bedding, bath and decorative accessories. Prior to that, now-defunct W-C Designers introduced a Collier Campbell bedding line for the department store channel.