The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting Sarah Campbell at her Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition ‘The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern’. About 20 years ago, while studying textile design at university, I met a relative of Sarah Campbell. We are both now truly in the design industry, with her at Soho House, and bonded over our love of textile pattern and our childhoods surrounded by Collier Campbell fabrics. Interestingly, we both grew up in or near Cambridge (which is where the brand Holland Street comes from — the creative first home and hierophany).

My friend arranged a private preview of the exhibition, with Sarah herself walking us through some of the most iconic fabrics from her career and our childhood memories. (Read more in Our Story page). I asked questions about her process, materials and inspiration a plenty, and it was lovely to share with her how much my work has been inspired by her vision and aesthetic, as well as get some tips on improving my work. There is a dedication to design, a focus, a staying true to print in particular, and a confidence in colours and consistency that I find inspiring. I love that the industry still recognises talent and the wholesomeness of traditional textile techniques and the tangible skills needed to be a successful textile designer.

Images below of me and Sarah on this fabulous day. The location brought back interesting memories of being employed as Zandra Rhodes’ print designer in the studio and print room above the museum; I saw many an exhibition installed there and learnt a lot about design within those walls.

Every sketch, painting and object in the Archive reveals Susan and Sarah's creative process and tells a fascinating story of their lifelong passion for painting and pattern. The Archive is important in that it preserves not only the stages of their developing ideas and all the ways they were re-conceptualised and reworked over the years but also the physicality of their designs bearing their hand-made marks.

The Collier Campbell Journey

Creative childhood

"We were very singular as a family. There were many things that set us apart, and we didn't fit into conventional society at al!™

The sisters grew up in an unconventional and creative household.

Their father, Henry (Harry) Collier, was a pharmacologist and inventor, and their mother, Patience, was an actress. From Harry the girls acquired a keen sense of observation as they explored nature on long walks together, while Patience instilled in them an understanding of colour and a critical eye, regularly asking her daughters to match colours on shopping expeditions.

Her parents' book about Henri Matisse attracted young Susan's attention, the artist's name written in a beautiful blue on the cover. Matisses treatment of colour and his brush marks provided lifelong inspiration for both sisters.

Susan and Sarah grew up accepting that it was normal for women to have careers and work from home. Both their grandmothers earned their own living working from their kitchen tables. 'Granny Collier was a dressmaker, while maternal grandmother Eva Ritcher made and sold hats and was the author of the glamorous ABC of Millinery. In addition, nearby neighbours and artists, Pamela and Frank Freeman ran a small textile printing company, Boquet and Freeman, from their kitchen.

Harry and Patience were committed to cultivating creativity and promoted a strong work ethic. The sisters' childhood and close bond proved key in shaping their future creative partnership. As Susan's work for Liberty gathered momentum, she asked Sarah, still a schoolgirl, to help her paint in the evenings. With a shared visual language, their partnership evolved organically, their work becoming like a third sister, keeping them in order!

The dream of their art becoming a viable career quickly became a reality.

 

Becoming Collier Campbell

"We loved redrawing the scraps from Liberty. We used to imagine the original designer - always a woman at her table - and wonder what her solution would have been."

The 1970s were a formative period for the sisters' artistic development and the growth of their business. This was a time of opportunity and creative resurgence and, inspired by the success of contemporaries including Mary Quant and Biba, Susan and Sarah became confident they could earn a living through their art.

In 1971 Susan was appointed Liberty's design and colour consultant and Sarah retained as designer, while the sisters continued their freelance work together. That same year, impressed by their freely painted designs, Yves Saint Laurent chose two of their patterns for his first off-the-peg fashion collection.

As their artistic language evolved, the sisters honed their skills creating repeats from Liberty's archive while exploring traditional paisley and floral designs and producing their own fresh interpretations, experimenting with colour and scale. In 1972 their Bauhaus design not only rejuvenated Liberty's image with its first abstract print but also pioneered a novel style of vibrant, dynamic pattern-making. In the mid-1970s Terence Conran approached the sisters and asked them to breathe new life into Habitat's textiles - their designs played a significant role in Habitat's success.

In 1977 Susan left Liberty to join Sarah at the fabric company Soieries Nouveautés. Both sisters were frustrated that their work for Liberty was marketed anonymously and wanted further recognition. To this end, they ventured into designing and converting cloth independently to sell off the page through fashion specials in magazines. In 1979 the sisters' dream of building their own business became a reality - Collier Campbell Ltd was born.

 

"If our patterns were people, then you are about to see their working lives - and many of them have worked hard. They have been painted - sometimes overpainted and intercut - and annotated; lines have been drawn or ruled on them to mark out the repeat."

 

Changing Times

"Good design should be available for everybody. It costs just as much to draw, engrave and colour a bad design as it does a good one."

As the 1980s approached, the economic outlook was gloomy but this did not deter Susan and Sarah. By the time the recession was in full swing, Collier Campbell was working with fashion brand Jaeger, designing and supplying the fabric for its biannual collections. Learning as they went, the sisters' strong drive made them fearless in approaching industry. Their clear vision and unwavering commitment to value made them stay true to their mission - to preserve the quality of the printed mark onto the cloth.

In the interiors market, Collier Campbell offered a fresh alternative to the prevalent chintz mania and country house style. Throughout the decade, its fabric and wallpaper collections for Habitat further popularised the company's painterly, life-affirming patterns. In 1983 its celebrated 'Six Views' collection for Christian Fischbacher presented an innovative design statement with eclectic prints grouped in colour moods rather than a colour co-ordinated group, winning both the Duke of Edinburgh's Designers Prize and the Design Council Award. 'Côte d'Azur', an evocative landscape of palm trees, balconies and vivid blue skies, quickly became iconic.

With the success of their wholesale range, Susan and Sarah felt the time was right to open a shop, expanding their range to include shawls and clothing. The Collier Campbell shop opened near Bond Street in May 1989, a colourful treasure trove of exhilarating pattern, while Susan and Sarah continued to create new work for clients including Marks and Spencer and John Lewis. Collier Campbell had become a high-street hit.

Collaborations and Commissions

"Everything has influence. I have a very large storage place in my brain."

Sarah views her creative partnership with her sister, Susan, as her most remarkable collaboration. Today, as Sarah Campbell Designs, Sarah continues to cultivate close partnerships with a long list of clients pursuing a diverse range of projects. These have included long-term collaborations in America with Michael Miller Fabrics, which specialises in cotton fabrics for home sewing, and she is now in an ongoing design partnership with FreeSpirit Fabrics USA. West Elm Designs, one of the most successful and distinguished US homewares stores, has been another long-standing collaborator.

In 2020 Sarah worked with American company Anthropologie, filling its King's Road gallery in London with handmade work in a selling exhibition called Painted Treasures. Two years later, a further collaboration focused on a range of summer homewares and clothes. A collection for giftware company Magpie and a range of vibrant designs for British fabric company Pukka Print Linen celebrating the brand's tenth anniversary and its commitment to traditional Indian block printing are just two of her UK collaborative projects.

More recently, in celebration of its 150th anniversary, Sarah was asked by Liberty London to license 'Cottage Garden', first designed for Liberty in the 1970s, reissuing it on both silk and Tana lawn dress fabric. As part of that Liberty anniversary, Susan and Sarah's work is also celebrated by William Morris Gallery in their exhibition Women in Print.

In addition to collaborations, Sarah accepts special commissions, creating unique hand-painted pieces. Whether a whimsical garden design to enliven the jacket of a horticulturalist, or a hand-painted linen with colourful blooms and birds to reupholster a chair, Sarah's playful nature and passion for painting bring energy and joy to each project.

Industry Pioneers

William Blake's words, Exuberance is Beauty, have led our way.

We have been and still are exuberant - we have always wanted to give the best value we can."

In the early 1990s Susan and Sarah explored their love of the folk tradition of painting in two major collections: 'Gipsy Dance' and 'Paysanne. As the decade progressed, however, it became clear that the design market had changed as 1980s exuberance gave way to Minimalism. Commercially, mills were selling bed linen at very low prices and the big retail chains were producing their own designs. Susan and Sarah found themselves doing the same volume of work for a smaller slice of the market at a lower price - their business model became unsound.

The release of their bestselling One Step Ahead' collection in the early 2000s heralded a change in their fortunes. Their lively decorative visions for the high street became highly sought-after, including collections for Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and House of Fraser. The changes in the market and production developments provided new creative opportunities.

Returning to their remarkable archive for inspiration, the sisters revisited long-loved themes, resulting in three successful collections with the American fabric distributor Fabricut.

Over the decades Susan and Sarah survived the ups and downs of the economy and the textile industry as well as shifting tastes, remaining consistently productive and successful. Forging strong personal and design relationships, they graciously accepted what the market demanded and made it relevant with their own look, always staying true to their initial vision. Collier Campbell's distinctive style and the integrity of its designs assured longevity, while its remarkable archive remains a never-ending source of inspiration.