American textile designer, weaver, and color authority Dorothy Liebes (1897–1972) had a profound influence across design fields, helping to shape American tastes in areas from interiors and transportation to industrial design, fashion, and film. The “Liebes Look”—which combined vivid color, lush texture, and often a glint of metallic—became inextricably linked with the American modern aesthetic.

From the 1930s through the 1960s, Liebes collaborated with some of the most prominent architects and designers of the time, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Dreyfuss, Donald Deskey, Raymond Loewy, and Samuel Marx. Fashion designers, including Pauline Trigère, Adrian, and Bonnie Cashin, also used her fabrics, yielding some of the most distinctively American fashions of the mid-20th century.

Despite widespread recognition during Liebes’s lifetime, her powerful impact on 20th-century design remains largely unacknowledged. Featuring more than 175 works—including textiles, textile samples, fashion, furniture, documents, and photographs—this exhibition reveals the scope of her achievements and adds a new thread to the story of mid-century modernism. 

More information on the event can be found here.