Primerose Bordier (1929 – 1995) French textile designer

Primrose Bordier (1929 – 1995) was a French designer known for her colourful and innovative home textiles.

Education

She studied at the Atelier Charpentier in Paris.

Biography

Between 1949 – 54 she worked as a textile designer.

1954-57, as a stylist at Cosserat.

1958-60, at Au Printemps department store.

During a trip to New York in the early 1960s for Le Printemps, Ms Bordier noted that the use of colour in sheets and towels was unknown in Europe at the time.

Paris, in 1962, she set up her textile design studio, CDM (Coleurs Dessins Modéles). Bordier’s reputation was for sound design at a reasonable price; they, together with her five associates, specialised in the design of medium-priced furnishing textiles, household linen and wallpapers. Her bed-linen collections had delicate, often humorous designs in subtle colour combinations that became classics. Upon starting her company in 1962, she persuaded manufacturers to produce coloured sheets and towels.

She designed tableware for Descamps.

Recognition

In 1976, Ms Bordier was the first woman in design to receive the French Legion of Honor.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Primrose Bordier, Linens Designer, 66. (1955, November 24). New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/24/nyregion/primrose-bordier-linens-designer-66.html.

Schoeser, M. (1991). French textiles: from 1760 to the present. Verlag nicht ermittelbar.

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