WORLD OF ART: Women in Design

Anne Massey

Thames & Hudson Ltd, London, UK

Year 2022

Pages 213

Women designers have created some of the most important objects in history. Illustrated throughout, this book is the definitive history of women designers working around the world over the past 120 years from 1900 to the present day. By revealing the untold stories of female design pioneers, this wide-ranging introduction celebrates their crucial role in the history of modern processes of making. Arranged chronologically, this guide considers the structural barriers to professional success and how women overcame these hurdles, charting the works of designers including Anni Albers at the Bauhaus, the architects Eileen Gray and Zaha Hadid, interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, and fashion icon Mary Quant. Focusing on the key subjects of architecture, craft, fashion, furniture, graphics, interior, product, and textile design, the author explores the link between early 20th-century revolutionary design and lifestyle, as well as the idea of shopping and consumerism as liberatory. She also discusses the important contribution of designers during and after World War II, along with design activism, design collectives, and the current success of women working transnationally in architecture and design.