AZURE_2014_09.pdf

↑↑↑ For Nike, Whelan proto typed
the glow-in-the-dark Bridge Reflection
textile, for jackets that enhance
joggers’ safety at night.
↑↑ The Flywire weaves, also for Nike,
reinterpret the cable suspension of
the Brooklyn Bridge.
↑ In 2009, Whelan introduced
Ginkgo, a colour-saturated wool
upholstery inspired by the veined
leaves of the Ginkgo biloba tree.
The fabric is used on Humanscale’s
task and conference seating lines.
On a sunny May afternoon in her midtown Manhattan studio,
Elizabeth Whelan holds up two swatches of her lightreflective
Bridge Reflection textiles for Nike jackets. “I
made two patterns inspired by the nighttime reflection of
the Manhattan Bridge on the water.” She then brings out
a few energetic fabrics for Nike bags and gloves, which she developed based
on the company’s Flywire textiles, modelling the zigzag weave structure on
her drawings of another New York icon: the Brooklyn Bridge. The Bridge
Reflection fabric glows in the dark, a property I could see in the daylight if
she had her viewer handy. But she has packed it up, along with most of her
studio, ahead of a big move to Portland, Maine, later in the month.
However, it is in this penthouse studio that her unique expertise has
evolved over many years, from finding completely novel uses for sports
fabrics – such as upholstery for Niels Diffrient’s first Humanscale task chair,
in 1999 – to designing specialized textiles for activewear. Within her modest
set-up, with a drafting table, a dye lab and a loom, Whelan has mocked up
high-performance materials for chair meshes, wallcoverings, clothing and
luggage. As she goes through samples, she tells the story behind each one,
her irrepressible energy making you forget that she is in her early 50s and
not a neophyte designer.
It all came together for her in 1997, when she established her own studio.
She had graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, had done a
four-year stint at Designtex and was teaching at Parsons. She mentioned to
60 SEPT 2014 AZUREMAGAZINE.COM