This graphic block print was produced by the Vereinigten Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Arts and Crafts), a collective of artists, architects, and designers formed in Munich in 1898. In the late 1920s, when this fabric, Manila, was printed, the Vereinigten Werkstätten was designing interiors for many Weimar building projects and ocean liners. While most of their textiles were specifically designed for furnishing, the group also experimented with fashion; the below photograph shows a woman in a beach cape made of Manila. We have cotton and linen versions of Manila, in addition to a cache of other designs by the group, in our current stock.
Undated photograph reproduced from Fanelli, Il Tessuto Art Deco e Anni Trenta (Florence: Cantini, 1986), no. 322.
Manila block-printed fabrics, Vereinigten Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (German, Munich), ca. 1929–31.
