Susan Collier

A Complete Fabrication

1970s, Heals, interior design, interiors, ken scott, laura ashley, liberty, liberty's, Over 21, Susan Collier

Have you looked at your living-space lately? Is it tired, jaded, faded and thoroughly November-ish? Now imagine it with new curtains, blinds, cushions and covers. A complete re-fabrication is the quickest, easiest and cheapest way of turning old into new and giving any room a winter face-lift. Shown on this page, covering large and small cushions, books, and even made into the prettiest pictures, are the brightest and best of the current furnishing fabrics. Take your pick, and then turn the page for details.

Photographer sadly uncredited. All fabric and furniture credits (Liberty’s, Heals, Ken Scott, Laura Ashley, Valentino, Pallu and Lake, Boussac, Sue Collier, Artemide, Sekers etc) using the key are in the image below.

Scanned from Over 21, November 1974.

Liberty on the tiles

1970s, bill gibb, Elle, interior design, interiors, James Mortimer, liberty, liberty's, Sarah Campbell, Susan Collier, Vogue
The Countess Emma de Bendern’s dining-room and kitchen, left: Terrace wall and floor tiles to match cotton union curtains, green as green. Paint, Carson’s Grassy green no 7Q. Emma’s dress, a Liberty print Bill Gibb, to order from Elle, her hair cut by Karin of Derek Roe.

Liberty has covered another few indoor acres with flowers and trellis and the acres are acres of tiles made by Fired Earth. Refreshingly pretty as might be expected, with fabrics to match exactly or very nearly. The _project was initiated by the late Blair Pride, co-ordinated by Susan Collier, Liberty’s design consultant, who with Sarah Campbell produced the designs. Here they are in situ.

Photographed by James Mortimer.

Scanned from Vogue, May 1974.

Designer’s Liberty, above. Susan Collier’s Primrose tiled kitchen, the table set for an Easter tea party on matching Primrose Cloud cotton cloth. As her daughter Sophie said : “The kitchen’s so lovely I’m almost jealous of myself.”
The Collier house is Queen Anne, the oldest in Clapham, but the corner room, right, is a Victorian addition, with Kazak tiles, Karabag blind and cushions of luscious Mercury satin from Susan Collier’s Summer Dance Collection. All tiles in Liberty pattern by Fired Earth, 6 or 8 ins square, from £16.50 a sq metre four days delivery, from 102 Portland Rd, W.11. Fabrics from £2.45 a yd, 48 in wide, at Liberty.