The Pattern of Life: Enid Marx and Modern British Design
Anna McNay | Studio International | 18th August 2026
Marx’s house was full of kitschy, “enjoyably silly” items, not what one might expect of such a widely influential designer. Training as a pattern designer, she was exposed to the abstract pattern making of various Indigenous cultures. With WW2 creating opportunities for women, Marx designed the seat fabric used on the London Underground, among many projects. More widely acclaimed at the time than now, she moved past the “waning Arts and Crafts ideas” to establish “a distinctively British Modernism’”.