
Above, Alfred Latour's 1929 block-printed French cotton,
Coquillages
Above, Raoul Dufy's untitled circa 1923 French block-printed silk satin; Below,
Fleurs, a French block-printed cotton Toile de Tournon designed by Raoul Dufy in 1918

French artist Raoul Dufy wrote a great line that perfectly captured what was happening in early 20th-century art and design: "Paintings have spilled from their frames and stained our dress and our walls."
In 2005, textile specialists
Cora Ginsburg and rare books gallery
Leonard Fox in a sense illustrated Dufy's point by organizing the exhibition,
Fabricating Modernity: The Spirit of Art Deco in French Textiles and Fashion, 1910-1940. In the show, woven and printed textiles were exhibited alongside the graphic designs that inspired them. Works from innovative artists such as Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, and Paul Poiret were included. To me, the patterns still feel fresh.
To learn more see
Art Deco Textiles: The French Designers.
All images above from Cora Ginsburg.
Above, Kate Spade's Oleander Avenue china pattern reflects that energetic 20th-century modernist spirit too. Available through
Dillard's.