Dorothy Liebes on the set of a television show, 1940s. Dorothy Liebes papers, 1850–1973, bulk, 1922–1970, Archives of American Art. By 1939, Liebes was a well-known name in textile design, particularly for her use of metallic threads, which helped project an image of luxurious modernism, and her incorporation of reeds, bamboo, and rattans, sourced from San Francisco’s Chinatown. She delighted in her image as a flexible experimentalist able to break through industry’s self-imposed rules. “The only reason I am not a frustrated woman,” she liked to say, “is that weavers do not frustrate easily.”
