Cutting edge and retro, simultaneously.(Design notes)

Pierre Pozier (1880-1952), who joined the fabric house F. Schumacher and Company in 1899 as a textile designer (later serving as president and secretary), possessed that rare combination of a gifted aesthetic eye and a sharp intuition for business. Additionally, as the nephew of the founder of the company, Frederick Schumacher, he was lucky enough to be born into the right family at the right time. He spent part of each year in Paris where he enjoyed contact with some of the leading designers of the day. Thus, at the internationally acclaimed Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes, held in Paris from April through October 1925, he not only knew what type of cutting-edge designs would be featured, but had the marketing savvy to ride the crest of the wave of publicity before he introduced some twenty new designs to the American public at Schumacher's New York City showroom just as the exposition was drawing to a close that autumn. The room the firm had created in France and shipped to New York contained objects that were made by craftsmen whose names today are among the art deco firmament: Edgar Brandt, Rene Lalique, Jean Luce, Emile Galle, and Maurice Dubocq. Not surprisingly, the innovative interior garnered wide acclaim in many reviews.

The radically new art deco look did not meet with universal approval on this side of the Atlantic, and Pozier smartly lobbied for this new style in two leaflets he wrote for his sales staff and potential customers. In one of these he stated that Schumacher was presenting a more "conservative modernism." At the same time, Pozier refrained from putting all of his eggs into one basket, for not all of the fabrics released during the art deco craze were avant-garde. The firm continued to manufacture chintzes, toiles, and other more traditional fabrics, many of which were based on historical documents.

During this period Pozier and his colleagues were also forming a collection of antique textiles for the company. Examples they purchased were used as sources of inspiration for the designers of the firm's future offerings. At the time, Paris was a wonderful place to purchase antique textiles, and at Schumacher, like ...