Marion Dorn

Marion Dorn (1896-1964) was an American designer best known for her wall hangings, carpets and rugs.

In her early career she was based in New York and focused on batik textiles, however, in the 1920s she moved to London and broadened out into using silk, linen and velvets. She gained recognition and was featured by Vogue, as well as in a Metropolitan Museum exhibition. Shops started stocking her very ‘modern’ textiles and London galleries displayed them.

In the 1930s that London Underground decided to seek out new talent and approached her along with other female designers such as Enid Marx. Marion designed several patterned moquettes (woolen fabrics) for underground trains.

This was also the period when Marion’s rug designs became very popular and she was known as ‘the architect of floors’. She gained several prestigious hotel commissions such as The Savoy Hotel and The Berkeley Hotel.

At the outbreak of the Second World War she moved back to New York and carried on her commercial career in fabric, wallpaper and carpet manufacture.

Marion Dorn rug