Books of old paisley and chinoiserie prints are a particularly special part of the Liberty archive – their bindings have frayed over time from too much love and repeated searches. Generations of Liberty designers have taken influence from these books which are rare, beautiful, and notable for their spectacular flower-forms and curiously stylised creatures.
Here, you can see the artwork for Milo which was painted in 1972 by the Liberty Design Studio. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the fashion for travel and alternative lifestyles give new relevance to designs that had arrived in the Liberty archive 100 years earlier. 1970s bohemian style borrowed patterns from India, Indonesia, China, and North Africa. This growing trend led the designers to turn their attention to
examples found in some of Liberty's earliest samples books from
the time Arthur Lasenby Liberty was importing most of his fabrics.
Milo's characterful combination of foliage, flowers, bright-eyed deers, and sinuous climbing tigers is a celebration of traditional motifs recoloured for modern times. It is a testament to the enduring beauty of patterns drawn many years ago in different lands by designers who probably couldn't imagine the power of their designs living on.