Trinidad thumbnail 1
Trinidad thumbnail 2
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Trinidad

Furnishing Fabric
1960 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Heal & Son Ltd (designed for)
McNish, Althea (designer)
Place of origin
Great Britain (made)

Born in Trinidad and trained in London, Althea McNish was quickly taken up by the thriving British textile industry in the late 1950s. She had a successful career as a freelance designer to companies such as Heal Fabrics, Ascher, Hull Traders, Liberty and Edinburgh Weavers before working on hand-painted textile hangings. Her designs are characterised by a vibrant choice of colour and free, painterly arrangements.

Object details

Categories
Textiles
Interiors
Caribbean
Object type
Furnishing fabric
TitleTrinidad (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
printed cotton
Brief description
'Trinidad', printed cotton furnishing fabric by Althea McNish for Heals, British
Physical description
Furnishing fabric with a green, purple and blue flowers on an indigo ground.
Dimensions
  • Width: 123cm
  • Length: 274cm
The design is repeated once in the width (width repeat approximately 59 cms). The vertical repeat is 70.5 cms.
Marks and inscriptions
'woven and printed in England Heal's 'Trinidad' by Althea McNish' (English; selvedge)
Gallery label
(2021)
Caribbean patterns for the British mass market

Althea McNish was a pioneering designer in the textile industry. Depicting flora from her birth country Trinidad, this fabric is one of her many bold, vibrant designs for British fashion and furnishing companies. McNish was part of the Caribbean Artists Movement which promoted a shared sense of nationhood and highlighted Caribbean peoples’ contribution to British culture during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Patterned furnishing fabric
‘Trinidad’, 1960
Designed by Althea McNish
Manufactured by Heal & Sons, UK
Printed cotton
Given by Heal & Son Ltd
Museum no. T.444-1999

The object sits in the 'Crisis and Conflict' section of the Design 1900-Now gallery opened in June 2021.
Credit line
Given by Heal & Son Ltd.
Object history
Acquired in 1995 as part of the Heal's archive
Summary
Born in Trinidad and trained in London, Althea McNish was quickly taken up by the thriving British textile industry in the late 1950s. She had a successful career as a freelance designer to companies such as Heal Fabrics, Ascher, Hull Traders, Liberty and Edinburgh Weavers before working on hand-painted textile hangings. Her designs are characterised by a vibrant choice of colour and free, painterly arrangements.
Other number
1680 - Heals number
Collection
Textiles and Fashion Collection
Accession number
T.444-1999

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Record createdJuly 17, 2000
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41664/trinidad-furnishing-fabric-mcnish-althea/
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