Illustration: Lotte Frommel-Fochler. Printed silk textile design, c1913.
Lotte Frommel-Fochler was an Austrian textile designer who produced a range of dynamic design work for the Wiener Werkstatte for some years before the outbreak of the First World War. She produced both fashion and interior fabrics and was one of the leading innovators in textile design during the first few years of the twentieth century. She studied directly under Josef Hoffmann, the dynamo of the Wiener Werkstatte, until about 1908, and therefore in some respects at least, her work could be said to have been influenced by Hoffmann as designer and innovator. However, much of Frommel-Fochler's work is her own and is easily identifiable and individualistic enough within the Wiener Werkstatte framework to confidently say that she added to the Austrian experience in contemporary textile design during this period.
It is perhaps interesting to note that Frommel-Fochler was originally trained at the Fachschule fur Kunststickerei (College of Embroidery) in Vienna. Therefore, her work would have approached printed textile design from the standpoint of an embroiderer, an embellisher if you will. Although both printed and embroidered textiles are part of the same large discipline, they are very different in approach, both stylistically and practically. Frommel-Fochler's work therefore, gives a fascinating insight into interpretations between approaches within the same discipline.
Illustration: Lotte Frommel-Fochler. Printed silk textile design, c1913.
Although it would be easy to say that her embroidery skills are evident in her printed textile work, in this case it does seem quite evident. Of the four pieces of her textile work shown in this article, all of which are examples of printed silk designs, there is a lot of drawing with line as an embellisher to the pattern. Even her simpler motif led design work, images two and three, have the same intensity of layering and outlining of pattern work that would be found on embroidered work during this period. Interestingly, the first and last image which tend to show a closer link to Frommel-Fochler's embroidery roots, also give inspirational links to traditional embroidery work found across the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. There was a particular interest in what was termed 'peasant art' during the early years of the twentieth century and embroidery came in for a great deal of enthusiastic collecting with many of the large museum collections now found across much of Eastern Europe being constructed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
These collections were put together by mostly private individuals for two main reasons; one was the inevitable winding down of hand-production across Europe due to the relentless expansion of mass production, making it important to record the embroidery skills of countless generations before they ceased to exist altogether. The other reason seemed to be to provide a vocabulary of embroidery techniques, styles and regional contrasts for future inspirational research for designers across Europe. Although the second reason may well have been an addition to the main passion for collecting, it has proved a creative library of untold wealth. Eastern and Central Europe has some of the largest and most dynamic collections, luckily mostly now in public rather than private hands.
Illustration: Lotte Frommel-Fochler. Printed silk textile design, c1913.
The Wiener Werkstatte seemed to have a particular penchant for using the traditions of 'peasant art' as inspirational material. Although some contemporary critics made it clear that they were unhappy with some of the more exuberant forms of design taken on by the Wiener Werkstatte later in its career, it has to be remembered that the Werkstatte's earlier work was much more aesthetically minimal in inspiration and finish, the textile design work of such designers as Frommel-Fochler, proved how pattern could be used as a dynamic tool and could guide design work from the front, rather than being seen as an addition near the end.
Interestingly, the point has to be made that a large proportion of women employed by the Wiener Werkstatte, as with later the Bauhaus, were limited to the textile departments. For much of the modernist period of European design, women were often denied entry into the more 'manly' pursuits of architecture, wood and metal work, graphic design, even interiors to some extent. In some respects, because women were often limited to textile design, the dynamism of individual women who may well have preferred architecture, furniture design, or graphics, was poured into textile design. Therefore, textiles during the early twentieth century was probably one of the most dynamic and forward thinking disciplines at least in Central Europe, as both the Wiener Werkstatte and the Bauhaus textile departments were dominated by creatively inspired women.
Illustration: Lotte Frommel-Fochler. Printed silk textile design, c1912.
However, we still live in a world largely dominated by the traditions of a male dominated society. Therefore to pick up a book concerned with the Wiener Werkstatte or the Bauhaus for example, if we were to look for the chapter on textiles I can almost guarantee that it would be the last chapter before the index. The first chapter will nearly always be concerned with architecture. This, by definition means that disciplines exclusively historical to men end up dominating these books whilst those open to women are relegated to the last chapter. Despite the fact that textiles might well have had a more prominent position in both the Werkstatte and Bauhaus during their lifetimes this is still very often the case, perhaps traditions die hard. A pet peeve I know, and perhaps to some, not that important, but an interesting and consistent observation, even in books produced in the second decade of the twenty-first century. I can't be the only textile designer who gets tired of having to go to the back of the book every time I want to look at the textiles section. Having said that, there are one or two books dedicated entirely to the textiles produced by the Wiener Werkstatte and they are listed below.
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