His unmistakable floral patterns – awash with willow, blackthorn and pimpernel – are now on everything from walking sticks to the seats submariners sit on. We go behind the scenes of a dazzling new show
He has papered our walls and carpeted our floors, enlivened our curtains, coats and cups, and even infiltrated Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet. Almost 130 years after his death, the Victorian arts and crafts designer William Morris has blanketed the world with his unmistakable brand of busy floral patterns, wrapping our lives with tasteful swathes of willow, blackthorn and pimpernel, peppered with cheeky strawberry-eating robins. There’s no escape.
“I started seeing Morris everywhere,” says Hadrian Garrard, director of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, east London, speaking with the air of someone trying to shake off a stalker. “He’s on phonecases, umbrellas, walking sticks – and about a third of the Victoria and Albert Museum gift shop. I thought it was time that we addressed how we got here – how did William Morris, Britain’s greatest designer, go viral?”
