Dresser.
The final fabric to introduce in Vevar’s inaugural collection, ‘Dresser’, takes its name from an often historically overlooked British designer and design theorist, Christopher Dresser. Now widely known as the ‘father of industrial design’, he is one of the first people you learn about at art school and is considered the first independent designer.
Dresser was born in 1834 in Glasgow to English parents. At the age of 13 he attended the Government School of Design in London where he became an award-winning student. Whilst there, Dresser specialised in botany as the school encouraged combining science with art. As a result, he found a career in botany which included publishing books, articles, becoming a fellow at multiple societies and lecturing (including at his former art school).
Well known Arts and Crafts designer William Morris was born in the same year as Dresser. However, the fundamental difference between the two was that Dresser embraced and Morris rejected the mass-manufacturing of the Industrial Revolution. Dresser believed that quality design could coincide with machine-made products that were both beautiful and functional with affordable prices.
Acknowledging that good design would be the foundations of successful industrial production, Dresser personally designed products in a variety of media including ceramics, wallpaper, carpets, textiles, glass and pottery as a freelance commercial designer. These designs were effectively the first designer labels. They had a wide reach across the UK, Ireland, France and the US.
In addition to his own practise, he was concerned with unemployment and consequently helped found Linthorpe Art Pottery in Middlesbrough, utilising locally produced material, and providing employment to redundant ironworkers. Between 1879 and 1882 he also co-founded Dresser & Holme in London with Charles Holme. They imported Oriental goods as a result of Dresser’s travels to Japan in 1876. Dresser was the first European designer to visit Japan after the opening of Japan to the West in 1854. ‘His Majesty the Mikado’ made Dresser an honoured guest for four months which allowed him to explore over 60 pottery production sites. He found great inspiration from Japan which he translated into his own designs.
Forgotten throughout the Victorian era, Dresser was overshadowed by Morris’s Arts and Crafts movement and only rediscovered in the twentieth century. His work can be found in museums such as the V&A, the Dorman Museum, and the British Museum, where he is now recognised as not only the first independent designer, but the first industrial designer too.