Engelgeer begins with yarns at her studio, then develops sketches and color patterns, which are converted into digital files at the TextielLab and woven on a Jacquard machine, enabling her to make adjustments and experiment with new materials. Courtesy Wolf-Gordon
Irregular shapes shaded in a shiny ombré gradient emerge from a solid-groundlike terrazzo studded with precious stones. The rigidity of a rectilinear grid is disrupted by the sinuous winding of a rogue line in metallic fiber. An intricate veil-like form partially obscures a field of pinpoint dots, suggesting shifting layers of overlapping pattern. These complex compositions aren’t computer graphics or digital artworks; they’re an expressive new collection of upholstery textiles by Dutch designer Mae Engelgeer. With Mass, Points, and Merge, the three new releases of the Matter collection for American design company Wolf-Gordon, Engelgeer defies contract-market convention not just with her novel designs but with contrasting materials and textures that betray a fascination—seldom seen in commercial fabrics—with tactility, dimensionality, and luxury.
This new suite of textiles marks a departure from the reserved line play of the Wolf-Gordon + Mae Engelgeer collection, Engelgeer’s first collaboration with Wolf-Gordon in 2016, which featured digital wall-coverings, upholstery, and drapery fabrics rooted in Dutch Modernism. With Matter, Engelgeer draws from her cross-market expertise, designing a range of softer, domestically influenced upholstery fabrics that mix natural wool and cotton with polyester and metallic yarns to bring a warm, luxuriant feel to both workplace and hospitality interiors. Marybeth Shaw, Wolf-Gordon’s vice president of product design and marketing—who has masterminded licensed partnerships with design superstars such as Karim Rashid, Tsao & McKown, and Boym Partners—worked with Engelgeer throughout a roughly yearlong process to shepherd the collection from concept to finished collection launching at NeoCon in June.
Engelgeer’s design process began with conjuring up what she describes as “an atmosphere…a sort of feeling” rooted in inspiration gleaned from her travels, museums, and fashion, and the storefronts near her Amsterdam studio. She sketched shapes and used photos, material samples, and color swatches to help visualize concepts and give them texture. “I don’t do any hand weaving,” she says of this early stage, pointing out the lack of weaving equipment in her studio. “I try to keep free and open-minded in what could work, and I really like to play.”
With initial sketches in hand, Engelgeer visited the TextielLab, a resource center and fabrication workshop associated with the TextielMuseum in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg. There the sketches were first transformed into digital files and then into physical prototypes on the center’s weaving machines. Standing at the Jacquard machine as her samples were woven in real time, Engelgeer was able to revise the design on the spot and experiment with different yarns and fibers. “It’s a totally different process than sending out a sketch to a mill and trying to explain what you want,” she notes. Engelgeer eschews the constraints of practicality during this process of creative exploration: “What is important at first is to be super free in using the weirdest yarns, then to later start to make it more suitable for upholstery.”
The collection’s palette of colorways ranges from versatile neutrals to bold and unexpected combinations inspired by what’s happening in fashion. From top to bottom: Mass in charcoal; Merge in copper wire; Points in deep space; Mass in lake; Points in spring pond; and Merge in starlight.