Stories in Fabric

Phyllis Ross is an independent scholar who specializes in twentieth century decorative arts and design. Her most recent book is Gilbert Rohde: Modern Design for Modern Living (Yale, 2009). She has participated in the development of several museum exhibitions as a researcher and curator. In 2020 she was the recipient of a Schomburg Scholars-in-Residence Fellowship, in support of the Design Works project. She has participated in panels and public programs sponsored by the Yale University Art Gallery, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Bard Graduate Center, among others.

The Fabric of Activism tells the remarkable history of Design Works, a textile studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, that produced African-inspired fabrics for the American home furnishing market during the 1970s. Bringing together histories of Civil Rights activism, white philanthropy, community development, and the Black Arts Movement, design historian Phyllis Ross details the complexity of Design Works as a commercial, political, and artistic enterprise. The book begins with the patronage of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and commercial savvy of famed designers D.D. and Leslie Tillett. By the end, the story belongs to Sherl Nero, an African American textile maker and the studio's head designer, whose bestselling Bakuba fabric collection made Design Works a household name. Writing with an expert eye for the art, business, and politics of textile design, Ross illuminates an important chapter in the history of twentieth century textiles with implications for how we think about the politics of race in the business of design today.---Chris Dingwall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Design History, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis This is a fascinating book that combines, in a unique way, elements of business history, visual art history, and African American urban history. . .The author brings an original story and a deeply researched book that specialists will welcome. . . Ross's contribution to scholarship on New York City, Brooklyn specifically, and the history of the 1970s is welcomed to the field . . . I think this book is important and special.---Brian Purnell, author of Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn