Trina Turk

Our Rouge Georgia Sweater, Jumbo Houndstooth Fez Pants + Ostrich Feather Vest.

Our Solid Ponte Cubist Dress.

Our Fall 2012 “Modernist Maverick” Collection has launched!  Inspired by the graphic patterns and prints of Ultra-“Modernist Maverick”, Sonia Delaunay, this collection is packed with vintage inspired silhouettes and bold prints.

Our Shape Study Print Lisbeth Blouse + Super Gabardine Stern Shorts.

She attained more commercial success with her textile designs, and her company morphed from Maison Delaunay to Tissus Delaunay—a textile design house selling to print mills around the world. Her largest client became Metz & Co. in Amsterdam—a boutique selling exclusive objects designed by avant garde artists and architects—a circle Delaunay was already associated with. The relationship with Metz began in the 1930s, and the company continued to print and sell her incredible designs until the 1960s.

The exhibit catalog quotes Delaunay as saying it all started in 1911, when she made a patchwork blanket for her newly born son. The result reminded her of Cubism, and she and her artist husband Robert were off and running from there. They collaborated on painting, textile and fashion design, costumes, stage sets, and graphic design for 30 years, living first in Paris, then in Madrid, then back in Paris where she opened Maison Delaunay.

Some of Sonia’s first fashion clients included the wives of famous Bauhaus architects: Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and Erich Mendelsohn, in addition to other artists and journalists—an elite and highly specific group that made it difficult for her to make a living.

Born in the Ukraine in 1885, she was adopted by her wealthy maternal uncle Henri Terk, and became Sonia Terk. Her drawing talent was recognized, and she was sent to Germany for artistic studies. Sonia was one of the first painters to paint in an abstract style. Truly ahead of her time, she was perhaps overshadowed by Malevich and Mondrian because she was a woman.

Her textile print designs, which evolved from her paintings, were mostly created in the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. Her patterns remain remarkably timeless today, and foreshadow much of the textile design of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

Sonia Delaunay’s vibrant, modernist approach to fashion and print inspired our Fall 1 collection, “Modernist Maverick. The idea was sparked by a visit to the Cooper Hewitt exhibit “Color Moves: Art & Fashion by Sonia Delaunay” last year.

 I was familiar with Ms. Delaunay’s work, but the show really reminded me of her genius, and what a trendsetter she was in her day. She infused geometric prints with a sense of movement, and her energetic color sense is unparalleled. The imprecise edges of the motifs in her handpainted designs are refreshing in a world of computer generated perfection.

A preview of our Fall 2012 Modernist Maverick Collection inspired by Sonia Delaunay…

Click here to view the full lookbook…