Celebrating Liberty art fabrics and their impact on fashion since 1875.
Dovecot Studios brings to Scotland a major retrospective celebrating the innovative retailer and design studio Liberty. Featuring over 100 garments and fabrics spanning 140 years, this exhibition celebrates how textiles bring art into everyday life.
Liberty’s fashion aesthetic represents the major art movements throughout the 20th century, including Art Nouveau, Bauhaus and Pop Art. Such is the fame of ‘Liberty Art Fabrics’ that in late 19th century Italy the Art Nouveau style became known as the Stile Liberty. The Liberty Art Fabrics & Fashion exhibition at Dovecot presents a timeline of bohemia, from the early designs for garments inspired by the Orient, through the artistic dressing popularised by the costumes featured in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and beyond to the iconic prints of the Swinging Sixties and nostalgic Arts & Crafts revival threads of the 1970s.
From the foundation of the firm in 1875, the name Liberty has been more closely associated with textiles than with any other product. Throughout its history, Liberty’s studio collaborations with textile and fashion innovators including Jean Muir, Cacharel, Yves Saint Laurent and Vivienne Westwood have secured the company’s global reputation as the source and originator of key trends and design revivals.
Exhibition in association with the Fashion and Textile Museum
