An inspiration for Balenciaga and Dior, the flamboyant fabrics of the Trinidad-born artist brought Caribbean colour into 50s British households
The Trinidad-born British designer and artist Althea McNish’s bold textile prints rescued 1950s Britain from postwar gloom, ushering in the upbeat 60s with outsize flowers in a humid palette. Her early work with forward-thinking fabric producers such as Liberty, Ascher Ltd and Hull Traders brought Caribbean heat into British living rooms, while Christian Dior and Balenciaga used her pop-bright prints on floaty silk dresses.
“She layered two unique identities,” says Rose Sinclair, the co-curator of Colour Is Mine, a long-overdue, posthumous survey of McNish’s 70-year career. “In terms of the Black influence on British culture, her textiles say it loud and clear.”
