Maya Romanoff (1941- 2014) was an American Textile Designer. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley. When he saw tie-dyed t-shirts at Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, Maya Romanoff discovered the magic of dying t-shirts. His profound fascination with colours and fabric led him to start the Skokie Corporation, a business that has grown into an $18 million company known for its handmade wall coverings.
Biography
With his wife Rebecca, he began experimenting with resist dyeing, using the results first for clothing and later furnishings, and developing the process for mass production. During the 1970s, he introduced ‘textile environments,’ for which unique commissioned pieces, coordinated wall and floor coverings, and upholstery textiles were produced. The first was the 1971 ‘Garden-Room,’ created for the magazine House and Garden. For the installation, he made a resist-dyed canvas floor covering, a concept he introduced in 1976. He was the first to use quilting in domestic furnishings and advanced resist-dyeing methods on suede and leather.
His resist-dyed canvas floor coverings won the 1976 Resources Council award in the USA for the best technological innovation in American Domestic furnishings.
Romanoff’s business and products are based on making beautiful things from nature and turning them into sophisticated and elegant wall coverings. Silk, cotton, canvas, leather, wood, and even mother-of-pearl and glass beads hand-glued on backing become shimmering and vivid backdrops for the interior spaces built with Romanoff products.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.