Liberty to Launch New Interiors and Fashion Collection, FuturLiberty, at Milan Design Week 2023
The new collections created in collaboration with Federico Forquet are celebrated with two major exhibitions in Milan, and the launch of a book published by Thames & Hudson
14 April 2023
In anticipation of its 150th anniversary, Liberty will launch a new Interiors and Fashion collection, FuturLiberty, at Milan Design Week 2023. To mark the milestone, Liberty presents two dedicated exhibitions in the City of Milan, at Museo del Novecento and Palazzo Morando, open now through to September 2023.
Liberty invited esteemed couturier and interior designer, Federico Forquet, to collaborate on the creation of FuturLiberty. The collection began with Forquet issuing a challenge to the Liberty Designers - to experiment and develop Liberty’s archetypal Arts and Crafts designs. In researching the Liberty archive, home to over 50,000 designs spanning from the 1880s to present day, the team were drawn to the experimental work of famed Liberty designer, Bernard Nevill. The team were inspired by Nevill’s love for the 20th-century avant-garde art, specifically taking cues from the rebellious Italian Futurists and their English contemporaries the Vorticists.
FuturLiberty reinterprets these archival designs and twentieth-century masterpieces to present a new collection that offers a refreshed intensity and loud optimism through dense brush strokes, delicate lines, and playful collage. The geometric patterns within the collection are composed of marks made by hand - not only instilling a contemporary take on these typically regular shapes, but also introducing a liveliness and rhythm into the designs. These artistic impressions were transformed into designs that can repeat with flow and balance across a body, or introduce vibrancy into an interior space.
Whilst taking inspiration from Liberty’s archives, FuturLiberty also draws on Forquet’s personal home in Southern Tuscany. In collaborating with Forquet, the Liberty Design team visited his home - surrounded by a setting rich with architecture, flora, and fauna, the team were inspired to create a colour story that encapsulates the colourful landscape.
FuturLiberty will launch across 17 interior fabric designs, in various finishes including embroidery and weaves. The interiors fabrics will be available in a home accessories collection comprising 26 cushion designs and 5 throws. Meanwhile, 19 fashion fabric designs will debut across a selection of menswear and womenswear designs, and scarves and foulards. Created in collaboration with textile mills in Italy, Belgium, and India, the artworks are translated into an array of woven, embroidered, and printed fabrics, whilst the finishing touches are hand-painted in the Liberty Design Studio, in the heart of London.
Following Milan Design Week, Liberty will be showcasing the FuturLiberty collections in its iconic department store in London, and online at LibertyLondon.com.
EXHIBITIONS
Open now through to September, Liberty presents the story of FuturLiberty across two landmark institutions in Milan - Museo del Novecento and Palazzo Morando. Working alongside an internationally renowned art historian and curator, Ester Coen, the exhibitions place the fabrics alongside prominent Futurist and Vorticist artworks loaned from the likes of the Tate; the British Council; Bowie Archive, New York; and MART-Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto.
One half of the FuturLiberty story is presented in Museo del Novecento, located in the central Piazza del Duomo. The exhibition takes over eight dedicated rooms within the museum, guiding visitors through the multi-layered relations between Italian Futurism and English Vorticism, and spotlighting the artists and artworks that played a key role in influencing Liberty and FuturLiberty.
Meanwhile, the second half of the story is on show across eight rooms in Palazzo Morando, the ornate 18th-century palace with period furnishings and paintings. The exhibition presents Liberty’s artistic journey and the ties between the avant-garde figures who have been influential in its history - from William Morris and the Arts & Crafts, to Bernard Nevill in the 60s and Federico Forquet today.
From 18 April the new collection will be unveiled in an additional, limited-time installation within Palazzo Morando. Cabana Magazine will also host a pop-up cafe in the courtyard for the duration of Milan Design Week. The pop-up space will be filled with custom Bonacina seating featuring FuturLiberty fabrics, with two three upholstered chairs from the Bonacina archive integrated within the exhibition space.
The walls of the exhibition spaces have been painted 16 shades from sponsors, Farrow & Ball. Each paint colour has been carefully chosen to complement the FuturLiberty prints and artworks on display.
FuturLiberty at Palazzo Morando; Wall colour courtesy of Farrow & Ball - Sudbury Yellow No.51(Image courtesy of Lorenzo Palmieri and Electa)
FuturLiberty at Palazzo Morando; Wall colour courtesy of Farrow & Ball - Off Black No.57; Bonacina archival chairs upholstered in Shadow Stripe Weave - Amalfi and Zig Zag Velvet - Cetona (Image courtesy of Lorenzo Palmieri and Electa)FUTURLIBERTY: LIBERTY FABRICS AND THE AVANT GARDE
To celebrate the collection launching at Milan Design Week 2023, Liberty will release a detailed account of FuturLiberty, published by Thames & Hudson. Across 160 pages, the highly visual study will illuminate the process by which FuturLiberty came into being, revealing how art can inform design, making it contemporary, relevant, and engaging. The hardcover book will feature texts by Futurism expert and curator of the exhibitions, Ester Coen; Vorticism expert Richard Cork; and former Liberty archivist Anna Buruma. The FuturLiberty range is brought to life in this beautifully produced study featuring 300 illustrations - from LIberty archival designs, to the inspiring Vorticism and Futurism artworks, to the final fabrics collection.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
ABOUT LIBERTY
Liberty is a movement dedicated to discovery, animated by arts, culture, design and the pursuit of beauty. Liberty is famed for its original curation, directional design and celebration of craftsmanship. In the spirit of our founder, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, we remain unapologetically eccentric and committed to bringing good design to all.
ABOUT LIBERTY FABRICS
Liberty Fabrics has been at the cutting-edge of design and decorative arts since 1875 and now forms an international wholesale business, working with retailers, brands and designers across womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and homewares. Designed by an in-house team in the heart of London, printing takes place at our mill in northern Italy, which uses both innovative digital technology and age-old techniques. From signature, obsessively fine-tuned Tana Lawn™ cotton and luxurious silk to lightweight linen, Liberty Fabrics are brilliant canvases for bespoke creations of all kinds.
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