Cooper Hewitt Collection Adds two New Textile Designs

The Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum has recently added two fabrics created by futurist designer Elizabeth Whelan. Whelan’s mesh textiles named Silver Check and Pinstripe are considered by the museum as exemplars of contemporary textiles and are added to its permanent collection.

In a letter to Whelan by Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director and Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, McQuaid noted that the textile “will help to tell an often overlooked angle of the story of furniture manufacturing and of how textiles are integral to the structure of the chair.”

Whelan’s Silver Check was created with a vibe of aesthetics and resiliency that reflect the natural movements of the human body. It is also designed with flexibility and enough strength to allow the fabric to be supportive when used in furniture. Silver Check won an award from I.D. For Design Distinction in 2005.

Pinstripe creates an illusion of suspension with its design inspired and informed by the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge. The fabric is lightweight but it gives an image of being a strong, supportive, heavy mesh. 

The addition of Whelan’s Silver Check and Pinstripe is a good complement to the museum’s modern seating collection. Both of the fabrics are utilized on Humanscale’s mesh-backed chairs which include Liberty, Different Smart and Different World in the collection.

Over the past few years, Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection has grown when it comes to textile designs. The museum department has also acquired Irma Boom’s Drawing Lines and Crossing Colors which were developed for Knoll textiles and fabrics designed by Shiela Hicks.