Full description
Collection of material relating to Ailsa Graham Art Fabrics including table linen, furnishing fabrics, handkerchiefs and scarves, as well as drawings for textiles, pages from sketchbooks and media clippings. Ailsa Graham Art Fabrics (1948 ̶ 1958), textile studio. Ailsa Graham Art Fabrics (AGAF) was established by Ailsa Graham (1925-2015) in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy in 1948.The Studio produced furnishing fabrics, dress materials, scarves, handkerchiefs, table linen and soft furnishings, such as cushion covers using a hand silk screen process. Graham was born in Kerang in 1925, and attended Firbank Girls Grammar School in Brighton (1934-1942); she subsequently studied at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University) (1943-1946) taking out a Diploma in Applied Chemistry. Graham was an active member of the Student Representative Council at the College, and in 1945 was elected Chief-Editor of Catalyst, the student magazine and the following year elected the first female editor of Jargon magazine (1946). With just one assistant, June Alexander, Graham’s business began to flourish and they were distributing small articles to city and suburban gift store, and beginning to make furnishing fabrics as well. Graham worked in close collaboration with others on the textile designs including Beverley Knox (1932-2010), who attended Methodist Ladies College and then studied fabric design and art at Melbourne Technical College (1949-1950). Knox began working for Graham in 1951, later becoming her business partner and chief designer (1951-1956). Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski (1922-1994), fabric designer John Rodriquez (1928-2000) and interior designer Lesley M. Perrott (née Austin) (1925-2002) also worked briefly for the Studio as textile designers. Ailsa Graham married Kenneth Matheson in 1953, and after the birth of her first child in 1954, Beverley Knox managed the Studio; Graham returned to the Studio the following year. In 1956 Beverley Knox married Robert Graham, and subsequently left the business. The Ailsa Graham Art Fabrics Studio closed in 1958, following a fire which destroyed the entire studio. The collection was donated to the RMIT Design Archives by Ailsa Dunmore Matheson and Beverley Graham (née Knox). The collection is arranged according to media, there are 4 boxes of material. The textiles are housed in Boxes 1, 2 and 3, while Box 4 largely contains drawings and pages from sketchbooks and other related material. There is an inventory available online, and the majority of the collection has been digitized.
Data time period: 1948 to 1958
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