Tip of the Hat to: Josef Frank

After admiring Google's tip of the hat to Josef Frank this morning, I couldn't help but take another look at his whimsical textile designs. If you're unfamiliar with Frank's work, consider the recent movie version of Mamma Mia! Whether you like musicals or not, the sets in that movie were absolutely breathtaking: clean whites and blues of the Greek coast as backdrop to brilliant textiles, which happen to be, eh hem, Josef Frank designs.

 Textile design by Josef Frank featured in Mamma Mia!

Watching that movie, (and yes, I like musicals), I immediately wanted to know the origin of those fabrics. Leave it to Design*Sponge to show the way. You know it's good design when even 60 years or more after their original creation, the patterns still seem contemporary. Gotta love those Scandinavians. Design is in their blood.

Textile design by Josef Frank

Exhibiting qualities of whimsy and the baroque as well as a surrealist approach to form, Frank's fabrics invoke such a different side of the imagination than his contemporaries in the Bauhaus and moderne movements. When all was being whittled down to streamlines or orthographic formalism, Frank produced these refined but expressive forms that we still love today.

 Textile design by Josef Frank on sofa by Anthropologie

I Heart Millinery

I have an undying love for all things hats, especially those which refer to that beautiful time in history when gloves, hats, and stockings with perfectly vertical back seams (or the wearer risked a tarnished reputation) were the rule rather than the exception. Okay, okay. I know there are many aspects of that time that I would never tolerate as a contemporary woman, but forget all that for now because we're talking about hats.  

I have a collection, which I know I should photograph at some point – little portraits, my children since I have neither spawn nor a pet – and each one is chosen for both its unique, individual character and its place in the collection. 

One item that is still missing from the collection is a top hat. Whether rooted in a recent affinity for the Victorian or my love of the burlesque, I have searched high and low for that perfect top hat for three years now to no avail. More easily found are the ultra traditional (refer to your local equestrian shop) and the tiny, whimsical versions (hello, hair clips), but I’ve not gotten as close to satisfying my mind’s eye as I have with topsyturvydesign’s millinery on, where else, Etsy.com. 

Below are a couple of my favorites - and yes, I realize they're all black, but top hats are traditionally formal wear. Topsyturvydesign does other colors, but, call me traditional, I dig the black.

What I think these clearly show, besides beautiful objects for the human body, is that quality millinery never strayed far from careful hand craft. It’s not just the details that require the hand’s attention, but the shaping and care with the fabrics and stitching as well. 

One of these will be meeting the other kids soon.