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Marianne Straub, 1909 - 1994.

Main details

Main details for this item.
Reference number
2001/8286
Name
Marianne Straub
Preferred name
Marianne Straub
Born
23/09/1909
Died
Collection
Object type
  • Person
Completeness
17%
  • Biography

    AttributeValue
    Biography
    Marianne Straub was born in Switzerland on 23 September 1909. She was taught by ex-Bauhaus weaver Heinz Otto Hurlimann at the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule. It was there that she decided she wanted to become an industrial designer. Straub came to Britain in 1932 and attended Bradford Technical College as there was nowhere in Switzerland for a woman to learn powerloom weaving. In 1933 Straub joined Ethel Mairet's Ditchling workshop and by 1934 she had become consultant designer to the Welsh mills, designing more than 100 cloths a year for them. In 1937 Straub left Wales and worked as head designer at Helios, who were later taken over by Warners. It was at Helios that Straub designed mass-produced textiles which had the quality of design and production of hand-made cloths. It was during this period that she was commissioned by Professor Misha Black to design moquette for London Transport. The resulting moquette design featured blue and green rectangles and was used extensively on LT's passenger vehicles. Straub retired from Warners in 1970 and went on to pursue the teaching career she had begun in 1966. She took on the part-time post of head of woven textiles at the Central School and went on to teach classes at Hornsey and the Royal College of Art as well. In her seventies she took on a physically demanding schedule of lecturing all over the world. In 1977 she was a founder trustee of the Bath Craft Study Centre. She returned to Switzerland in 1992 after her last retirement. During these last few years of her life she was to accrue honours and doctorates from the RCA and Manchester, honorary fellowship of the Textiles Institute and the RSA's Misha Black Medal.
    Date of birth
    Date of death
    Nationality
    Swiss
    Employment
    LT, 1965
    Role
    Artist,