Some of Jackie O.'s favourite fabrics are back on the market

NEW YORK (NEW YORK TIMES) - The party that introduced the Design Works of Bedford-Stuyvesant textile collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in October 1971 drew quite a crowd.

Ethel Kennedy was in attendance along with Babe Paley, the socialite; so were Diana Vreeland, the editor of Vogue, and Bunny Mellon, the philanthropist and horticulturalist.

The guest who got the most attention that evening, however, was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The collection was an initiative of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp., the first community development corporation to be established in the United States.

The result of legislation championed by Senator Robert Kennedy in 1966, the corporation sought to stimulate the local economy of Bedford-Stuyvesant with programmes for employment, education, health care and development.

In 1969, inspired by her brother-in-law's efforts, Onassis created Design Works to help amplify the talents of artists in the area.

She asked her friends, D.D. and Leslie Tillett, the husband-and-wife design team behind Tillett Textiles, to collaborate.

The couple's vivid, large-scale, screen-printed fabrics - created by hand in their small Manhattan-based printing operation - were favored by top designers and influential figures, including Onassis, who used the textiles for upholstery and draperies in the living areas of The White House.

The late Tilletts's grandson, Patrick McBride, 48, now owns and operates the business.

The idea at the time was that the couple would teach their signature techniques for silk-screen design and printing to young people in Bedford-Stuyvesant, who would then go on to produce hand-printed fabrics for the design trade on their own.

The fabrics created by Design Works of Bedford-Stuyvesant were designed by members of the community.

They featured motifs that included abstract fish scales, zebra stripes, oversized banana leaves, roosters, and cowrie shells along with bold geometric prints and stylised abstracts.

"The colors were incredibly saturated," he said.

In the 1970s, ready for a slower pace, his grandparents moved operations to Sheffield, Massachusetts, where they remain.

The library there contains more than 900 patterns designed by the Tilletts dating back to the 1940s, including several created in collaboration with Design Works.

"There are a lot of stories in those hundreds of patterns," McBride said. "I felt like the Design Works story was one that needed to be told."

His way of telling the tale now is to reintroduce the fabrics from the collaboration of Tillett and Design Works, with a portion of the profits to be donated to the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club.

Four patterns in three colourways have recently become available to the trade.

Tote bags, throw pillows and face masks in the patterns may be ordered through the company Instagram account.

"We'll release other patterns from Design Works gradually," said McBride, noting that the fabrics are made of Belgian linen, which is more modern and luxurious than what was available during the 1970s.

"There has been a resurgence of using vibrant, rich colours in interiors," he said.

"People are feeling excited about colour. Releasing these fabrics in their original saturated rich, tones is authentic to history and lends itself to what's going on in the design world today."