It was on February 26, 1947, that KnollTextiles officially launched its first collection in a newly designed showroom on East 65th Street in New York City. When it was formed, this textile company was unique in the American commercial furniture industry, uniting, for the first time, the production of furniture with the production of fabrics.

Florence Schust had partnered with Hans Knoll as both his wife and as head of the Knoll Associates' cutting edge design practice. According to Florence Knoll Bassett, the origins of the textile division lay in what she called "necessity" derived from the lack of "suitable fabrics available in the postwar period."

Bassett commented on the company's founding: "It became apparent to me that suitable textiles were not available...The current vogue in the textile showrooms was brocade and chintz with cabbage roses. I began to use fabrics from British tailors."

The initial collection was designed by what The New York Times called "half a dozen of the most talented textile designers of this country and Europe," referred to by Knoll as "The International Group."

The group included Swedish textile designer Astrid Sampe; Marianne Strengell of Cranbrook; United Nations architect Sven Markelius; Noemi Raymond, an instructor at Frank Lloyd Wright's school at Taliesin; textile designer Angelo Testa; and Swedish ceramics designer Stig Lindberg.

The combined talents of "The International Group" resulted in a radically unique collection of upholstery, casement and drapery textiles, ranging from upholstery weaves inspired by suiting fabrics to delicate geometric prints. The aesthetic was quite different to that seen in mainstream contemporary commercial upholstery fabrics.

Rather than focusing on surface ornamentation, these fabrics tended to emphasize colors and textures that highlighted the purity and strength of the Knoll lines of furniture.

Over the years, KnollTextiles has frequently collaborated with talented, well-known individuals in the worlds of art, fashion and design. This has included weavers Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks, Anne Beetz, Hazel Siegel and Suzanne Tick; fashion designers Jhane Barnes and Stephen Sprouse; architects Robert Venturi, Peter Eisenman and LTL; and graphic designers 2x4 and Abbott Miller (Pentagram).

Dorothy Cosonas, Creative Director for KnollTextiles, says of the anniversary, "This company has been writing the history of American textile design for more than half a century; beginning with Florence Knoll's unexpected use of simple menswear textiles in the 1940s through the development of technologically advanced fibers in the twenty-first century."

"Today, KnollTextiles carries on this heritage with continued innovation and experimentation with new materials, designers and product categories," she added.

At NeoCon 2007 this June, in honor of its 60th anniversary, the Company will introduce the Archival Collection, which shines a 21st century light on a few of the 20th century highlights of the KnollTextiles legacy.

KnollTextiles, a division of Knoll, Inc., maintains a marketing and design studio at 76 Ninth Avenue, 11th floor, New York, NY 10011. For distribution and customer information, call 866 565-KTKT or visit www.knolltextiles.com.

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