Project Name: The Modern Archive Collection

Designer: Genevieve Bennett

Developer: Liberty Fabrics

Celebrating Liberty prints as icons, the Modern Archive Collection reinterprets their most iconic archival designs for a new generation of Liberty interiors.

The brief for this Liberty Fabrics collection was to pay homage to theor long-standing legacy as the home of design. Their in-house design team were tasked with selecting the most iconic Liberty patterns from the Liberty archive (that holds over 45,000 prints), and to rework, rescale and recolour some of the most recognisable designs to create a refreshed collection of classics that were contemporary, commercial and easy to work in to interior design schemes. 

Geneveive Bennett, Head of Design for Liberty Fabrics Interiors, was determined to tell the story of the emporium through the ages, uniting a diverse archive of hand-drawn designs. It was also important for each of colour stories of the collection to celebrate the passions of the collector, and the beautiful objects that have long been curated within Liberty’s wood-panelled walls.

As with every collection, the use of cutting-edge textile technologies to combine exquisite hand feel with exceptional technical capabilities was vital.  This was the first collection created by their recently appointed Head of Design for Interiors, Genevieve Bennett. Genevieve has been crucial in driving a new direction for their Interiors business and is responsible for their new wallpaper collection that will be launching in January 2021.

A favourite element of the collection was how to reinterpret these iconic prints, some of which are over 100 years old, to create a contemporary collection that remains true to the original nature of our design aesthetic. A favourite design story that bridges this gap is ‘Dragonfly’ which is a contemporary twist on a classic Art Nouveau-era purple – drawing from the amethyst gemstones of Suffragette jewellery, and Archibald Knox’s pieces for Liberty. The design is inherently Liberty in design and inspiration, though has been modernised with updated colourways and new scales.