The Women Behind Liberty

When I headed off for my freshman year at Davidson College, I did not know I would be sleeping on sheets that were part of a textile legacy begun in London in 1875 by Arthur Lasenby Liberty.

Who else took a small U-Haul to college with Collier Campbell safely packed inside? I think I was pretending to be the turtle carrying its own shell here.

Mom surprised me and went down to Dillard’s department store in Nashville. She bought the sweetest Collier and Campbell “Gypsy Dance” sheet set for my dorm room bunk bed and I still have offcuts of that fabric in my sewing room today.

Sisters Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell were two amongst the many women whose designs defined the look of Liberty from Victorian England right up to now.

Collier and Campbell’s design for a scarf depicting Liberty’s iconic mock Tudor building in London. 1974, Pencil and watercolour on paper, The Collier Campbell Archive

You can see this delicious parade of color and pattern at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, northeast London. “Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textiles” takes you through two floors of designs by the women who’ve made Liberty of London an essential destination for textile enthusiasts the world over.

Let’s start with Collier Campbell because there’s a whole room devoted to these exceptional sisters. A few samples of their work are in the header image.

Sarah Campbell says that she and her sister loved the challenge of getting a free-flowing design into a repeat pattern, so that the wearer or decorator hardly knew it was a repeat. Susan Collier was Liberty’s Design and Color Consultant from 1971 to 1978. Together with her sister Sarah, they created some of Liberty’s best-loved designs.

Working with Liberty catapulted the sister’s careers, which is how their designs ended up in Dillard’s in Nashville and on my college bunk bed twenty years later.

But not all Liberty designers were well known.

“Betsy.” D. Stoneley. 1933. Liberty Fabrics Archive.

Take, for instance, the mysterious D. Stoneley, also known as D.S. and Mrs. Stoneley in Liberty’s pattern books. Nothing is known about her except her designs. Everything about her life is lost to history—but in the 1930s she created some of Liberty’s most iconic designs, many of which are still in production today like “Betsy.”

Unknown maker; fabric designed by MADELEINE LAWRENCE (1896-1952), C.1935. Printed linen. John Bright Collection.

By the 1930s nearly half of Britain’s textile designers were women, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were well paid, even at Liberty. Liberty bought designs from the Silver Studio and Madeline Lawrence, who designed this print, earned under £2 for a 48-hour week, less than the wage of a shop assistant. A single yard of Liberty’s printed cotton cost more than half a day’s wages for a female Silver Studio designer.

AKARANA IN LIBERTY SAMPLE BOOK. ALTHEA MCNISH (1924-2020). 1961. Screen-printed cotton and card. Liberty Fabrics Archive.

Thankfully, attitudes and wages changed as women demanded more equity in the workplace. Liberty became a magnet for women at the forefront of creative design. Take Althea McNish.

McNish’s abstract floral forms and tropical palette were inspired by her upbringing in Trinidad. Her bold, vibrant patterns appealed to Liberty’s 1960s buyers, who were seeking fresh designs to attract post-war customers with a taste for color and modernity. McNish went on to create over 60 silk scarves, dress and furnishing fabrics for Liberty.

Another 1960s designer whose work captured my heart was Jacqueline Groag.

BOOKS. JACQUELINE GROAG (1903-86). 1954. Screen-printed linen furnishing. Collection of Meg Andrews.

Groag and her husband escaped Nazi Germany and, after settling in Britain, they became hugely influential in the British design scene. I want her book fabric in a skirt, on my bed, for curtains, and a table cloth. Book fabric everywhere, please!

With literally dozens of designers featured and hundreds more in the wings, my article can only tempt you to make a trip to London and see for yourself. The exhibition lasts through June 21, 2026, so there’s time to make a plan.

A view of the sweeping staircase in the William Morris Gallery.

The William Morris Gallery itself is a treat because. Liberty’s designers, with their leaning toward floral and naturally inspired patterns, embodied many of the values that Morris espoused in his work and writing: “‘I think it will be enough for us to clothe our daily and domestic walls with ornament that reminds us of the outward face of the earth.”

“The Pilgrim Finds Love.” the final panel of a large embroidered frieze for the dining room at Rounton Grange (a house now demolished). Wool, silk, and gold thread. William Morris Gallery via Hugh Bell and the V&A.

There are several gorgeous permanent exhibition rooms dedicated to William Morris’s illustration and textile designs.

The walk from Walthamstow station to the William Morris Gallery takes you along a typical London high street replete with cafes. The Gallery has a popular and busy cafe. The gallery is also a house where William Morris once lived and is set in a huge park so you can take a fine walk to muse on all of the delicious print and color.

 

Across the street from the gallery, there’s a Salvation Army shop where I found a pristine set of 1930s double pointed knitting needles still in their packet and an uncut wartime child’s coat sewing pattern. So, it’s well worth a look!