Margaret Leischner (1908 - 1970) German textile designer

Education

She studied in Dresden and then at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1930.

Biography

She began teaching weaving at the Bauhaus in 1931. She worked at the Dresdener Deutsche Werkstatten in 1931, designing woven textiles, and was the head of the weaving department at the Berlin Modeschule from 1932 to 1936. She worked as the head designer for Gateshead, a British fabric manufacturer.

Between 1938 and 1944. She worked as a consultant designer for R. Grey and, for a short period, for Fothergill and Harvey on car upholstery and radio baffle cloth from 1944 to 1950. She was the head of the weaving department at the Royal College of Art in London from 1948 to 1963. She consulted for Chemstrand’s Acrilan fibre and designed Tintawn sisal carpeting in 1959. In 1969, she was appointed as the Royal Designer for Industry.

Margaret Leischner Collections

Her works appear at MoMA, an extensive collection with V & A and Bauhaus Dessau.

Furnishing fabric of spun rayon, designed by Margaret Leischner

Sample of handwoven gauze of silk and cotton, designed and woven by Margaret Leischner at Bauhaus, Dessau, 1929-1930

Sample of handwoven double cloth of wool, silk and cotton, designed and woven by Margaret Leischner at Bauhaus, Dessau, 1929-1930

Furnishing fabric of jute and viscose, designed by Margaret Leischner, made by R. Greg & Co., Stockport, 1947

Sources

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

Design Books – Amazon

* This website may contain affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission when you click on links at no additional cost. As an Amazon and Sovrn affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More Fabric designers

De Ploeg Dutch Fabric Group

De Ploeg has been making and designing high-end upholstery and curtain fabrics since 1923, gaining international recognition for its innovative designs and high-quality fabrics.Read More →
André Mare (1885 – 1932) french furniture designer

Mare André was a french painter, decorator and furniture designer. He studied painting, at the Academie Julian, Paris. Read More →
Laura Ashley (1926 – 1988) British fabric and fashion designer

Laura Ashley was one of the first British designers to experiment with the concept of lifestyle marketing. Her romantic vision of nineteenth-century rural life, adapted to modern domestic realities, inspired a generation of middle-class Britons who returned to country life in the 1960s and 1970s. LEARN MORERead More →
Minnie Macleish (1876 – 1957 ) British textile designer

She collaborated with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Constance Irving at London’s Foxton textiles and Amsterdam’s Metz store. Macleish was a prolific designer during the 1920s and 1930s, creating patterns for Morton Sundour fabrics.Read More →
Margaret Leischner (1908 – 1970) German textile designer

She began teaching weaving at the Bauhaus in 1931. She worked at the Dresdener Deutsche Werkstatten in 1931, designing woven textiles, and was the head of the weaving department at the Berlin Modeschule from 1932 to 1936. She worked as the head designer for Gateshead, a British fabric manufacturer.Read More →
Masakazu Kobayashi (b.1944) Japanese textile designer

Masakazu Kobayashi studied at the University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. He manifested traditional textile techniques and aesthetics in his work. Between 1966 and 1975, he worked as a textile designer for Kawashima. His 1982 fabric evoked komon, a textile dyeing technique which uses paper patterns with small motifs.Read More →
Maya Romanoff (1941 – 2014), American textile designer

Maya Romanoff (1941- 2014) was an American Textile Designer. He studied at the University ofRead More →
Shirley Craven (b.1934) British Textile Designer

Shirley Craven (b.1934) was a British textile designer. She studied at Kingston upon Hull and the Royal College of Art, London. Craven ‘pioneered an aesthetic more akin to painting than textiles’, breaking ‘all the rules’.Read More →
Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) Japanese textile designer and producer

Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) was a Japanese textile designer and producer born in Kiryu, Gunma. As the sixth generation of a mill-owning family, Arai grew up with fabrics being woven for obis and kimonos. He held traditional weaving methods in high regard and the skills that only the human hand can have in the…
Helen Abson (b.1942) Australian Architect and Fabric Designer

Helen Abson, who trained as an architect, is an Australian designer. She pursued architecture for five years; founded ZAB Design where she designed fabrics that exhibited a preoccupation for texture achieved through pattern and colour.Read More →
Tammis Keefe (1913 – 1960) American Textile Designer

Tammis Keefe (1913–1960) was an American textile designer. She designed everything from dish towels to glassware in her airy Dorothy Leibis Studio. Her work can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt and the Fashion Institute of Technology.Read More →
Marianne Straub Swiss weaver and designer

Marianne Straub began weaving as a child and later trained under Heinrich Otto Hürlimann Between 1928-31, at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Zürich. Between 1932-33, she was involved with machine production, at Bradford Technical College.Read More →
Gertrud Preiswerk 🇨🇭 Swiss textile designer

Gertrud Preiswerk was a Swiss textile designer she was born in Basel. Between 1926 andRead More →
Angelo Testa (1921 – 1984) American fabric designer

Angelo Testa (1921 – 1984) was an American fabric designer. He studied at the Institute of Design, Chicago, to 1945. As well as being a fabric designer, he was a painter and sculptor. He designed the 1941 Little Man abstract floral fabric, widely published and hailed as a new direction in textile design. It all…
Allan Walton (1891 – 1948) British painter, decorator, architect and textile designer

He commissioned some of the most innovative screen prints of the 1930s, designed by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, as a principle of Allan Walton Fabrics. Read More →
Ray Komai (1918 – 2010 ) American Graphic, Industrial and Interior Designer

Ray Komai was a Japanese American; he was a graphic, industrial and interior designer. He studied in Los Angeles at the Art Center College. He settled in New York in 1944, where he worked in advertising and set up a graphic design and advertising office (with Carter Winter). J.G. Furniture created Komai’s 1949 moulded plywood…
Candace Wheeler (1827 – 1923) American textile and wallpaper designer

THE MOTHER OF INTERIOR DESIGN She is noted for helping to open the field of interior design to women, supporting craftswomen, and for encouraging a new style of American design.Read More →
Alexander Girard (1907 – 1993) American interior, & Textile designer

Alexander Girard (1907 – 1993) was a man of many design talents. He trained asRead More →
Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx (1902 – 1998) British textile and graphic designer

Designs for London Underground seats. She studied painting and wood engraving at the Royal College of Art in London, as well as at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.Read More →
Primerose Bordier (1929 – 1995) French textile designer

Primrose Bordier (1929 – 1995) was a French designer known for her colourful and innovative home textiles. She studied at the Atelier Charpentier in Paris.Read More →

You may also be interested in

Maya Romanoff American textile designer – Encyclopedia of Design
Maya Romanoff 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 $18 million company known for its handmade wall coverings.