Of Shoes and Ships and Surface Prints

If you’re into surface patterns (designing or just admiring), this lovely little A5-sized book is a wonderful resource for vintage cotton fabrics collected in New York. About 600 prints cover patterns from the 30s to the 60s, with chapters on florals, checks, dots, stripes, novelty, and more. Textile designers of this era seem to have been inspired by a plethora of everyday objects, turning them into novelty prints that amuse and delight. And how many ways are there to do spots and stripes? Dozens!

Although the text is minimal and entirely in Japanese, the quality reproductions of the prints make actually reading the book unnecessary. Unfortunately the book is out of print, but if you can get hold of a secondhand copy, snap it up, as it really is an inspiring resource – I’ve flagged almost every page! Or Google it and you’ll see a lot more than these examples below.