Material used in Costume c. 1938

Isabelle De Strange created this design for costume material sometime in the 19th or 20th century, using watercolor and graphite. Looking at the composition, it's hard not to think of this as a painterly approach to pattern making. There's a real feeling of texture at play here, the dark ground set off by pale lines that have a lace-like quality. The overlapping leaf shapes are intriguing, a layered effect achieved with subtle variations in tone and hue. It's a delicate balance, and if you look closely, you’ll see how De Strange subtly varies the density of the marks and the weight of her lines to give the design a kind of breathing room. I'm reminded of the fabric designs of William Morris – although De Strange has a very personal sensibility, where the natural world takes on a slightly dreamlike quality. The design sits somewhere between representation and abstraction, echoing Morris’s attention to detail but with a looser touch, leaving us space to fill in the gaps.