Karen Morton: Moquette on the Underground

Karen Morton describes her research on historic moquette fabrics and how they informed her own textile practice.

Karen Morton visited MoDA as part of her research for her MA at the Royal College of Art. Karen was interested in moquette, a fabric that is familiar as the hard-wearing but colourful choice for seats on buses and underground trains. Moquette is a woven pile fabric with a combination of cut ends (similar to velvet) and loop ends (as in towelling). This makes it both soft and durable, and therefore ideal for the upholstery of seating on public transport.

Karen was interested in moquette’s contribution to the sensory experience of passengers on the London Underground between 1930 and 1950. Travelling at high speed underground was initially a frightening prospect for many passengers. So seating which used familiar, comfortable textiles associated with domestic interiors helped to reassure them.

Chevron moquette textile designed by Enid Marx, 1938

Karen’s historical research at MoDA and elsewhere was the basis of her dissertation. She looked at the work of designers such as Enid Marx, who designed moquettes for the Underground.

But Karen’s research also fed into her own practice as a textile designer and maker. She created her own designs for woven textiles inspired by what she had learnt about London Underground designs for moquettes.