My rarest piece of fabric ever!

'Pythagorus' from my Mid Century Fabric collecting years!

I first started collecting and being completely obsessed with Mid Century Modern fabrics around 19 years ago (although it was much earlier when I was a music student in Manchester that I first attended an event at the Corner house all about Robin and Lucienne Day.) I was living in Brighton at the time and had started to discover wonderful fabrics online and also in second hand shops in Brighton. My obsession grew to becoming a total geek and a fabric dealer, buying panels from all over the world and also selling pieces too. I knew all the designers names and could recognise a fabric and its designer even if it didn’t have a selvedge name.

I bought the above piece of fabric around 20 years or so ago. I’d seen this in another colour way during a trip to Stockholm and having learnt that it is a screen printed fabric that required 18 separate silk screens to print, I’d made it my mission to own a piece one day! (I was also obsessed with screen printing and Scandinavian design too so it made sense!) My piece is in great condition as I’ve never washed it. It still has the old musty smell of old vintage fabric which I love.

It was designed in 1952 by a Swedish man called Sven Markelius. The fabric name is Pythagorus. Markelius was a designer and architect and was involved in the design of the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. He was also the architect for the Swedish Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.

A small sample of this can be found at the V&A in London and it’s also kept at the Institute of Chicago.

The fabric features on the front of one of my favourite design books and I also featured it framed in my first published book ‘Fun With Fabric’ by Pavilion Books. (see photo below)

*I’ve written other Substack posts on my fabric collecting.

I’ve also made the decision to sell this piece of fabric as I’m moving onto new tastes and interests. Should you want to purchase it, (I’m sorry but it’s expensive!) you can find it here amongst my other Mid Century finds.

*Do message me if you’re also (or used to be!) a fabric geek too! x