Varvara — Collection of textile patterns inspired by women of the avant-garde
Personal project
Creative idea & Design: Kato Trofimova (Hey Kato Studio)
VARVARA is a collection of textile patterns inspired by twelve women artists of the avant-garde — the ones whose work has shaped my visual thinking more than I can fully explain.
Each pattern is named after one of them. Not an imitation of their style, but a response to their visual language, rhythm, and spirit — my way of spending time with their work.
Varvara Stepanova · Anni Albers · Sophie Taeuber-Arp · Hilma af Klint · Aleksandra Ekster · Gunta Stölzl · Natalia Goncharova · Lyubov Popova · Sonia Delaunay · Maria Likarz-Strauss · Benita Koch-Otte · Olga Rozanova
VARVARA
Varvara Stepanova (1894–1958)
A pioneering Russian avant-garde artist and designer, Stepanova was a key figure in Constructivism. She brought bold geometry and clarity to textile design treating patterns as systems shaped by function, movement, and everyday life. Her work redefined fabric as visual structure with rhythm.
ANNI
Anni Albers (1899–1994)
A Bauhaus weaver who turned thread into visual language, Albers spent decades exploring what a grid can do. Her textiles were precise, meditative, and endlessly inventive — craft elevated to the level of fine art, long before anyone called it that.
SOPHIE
Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943)
Sophie moved fluidly between textiles, dance, architecture, and abstraction — never staying in one discipline long enough to be defined by it. Her playful geometries were precise and joyful at the same time, bringing rigour to forms that still feel alive.
ALEKSANDRA
Aleksandra Ekster (1882–1949)
A bridge between the Ukrainian avant-garde and Parisian modernism, Ekster brought theatrical energy to everything she touched — stage design, fashion, painting. Her work moved fast, thought in colour, and never stood still.
GUNTA
Gunta Stölzl (1897–1983)
The only woman to head a Bauhaus workshop, Gunta rewrote what weaving could be. Her abstract tapestries were structured and spontaneous at once — deeply modern, made with her hands, and impossible to ignore.
NATALIA
Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962)
Natalia Goncharova fused Russian folk traditions with the speed of futurism — and made it look effortless. Her work spanned painting, theatre, and fashion design, always full of earthy energy and an ornament that never apologised for itself.
LYUBOV
Lyubov Popova (1889–1924)
A master of rhythm and structure, Popova moved from painterly abstraction to radical fabric prints. Her forms pulsed with energy — strong, graphic, and built to move.
SONIA
Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979)
Colour was her native language. Delaunay painted, dressed, and lived in vibrant rhythms — blending art and everyday life through her simultané patterns and fashion. She made abstraction something you could wear.
MARIA
Maria Likarz-Strauss (1893–1971)
A designer who shaped the visual identity of the Wiener Werkstätte, Likarz-Strauss worked in patterns that were refined, abstract, and quietly assured — never decorative for its own sake.
BENITA
Benita Koch-Otte (1892–1976)
A Bauhaus weaver and educator, Koch-Otte championed simplicity with purpose. Her textiles were modern and minimal made to work in the spaces and on the bodies they were designed for.
OLGA
Olga Rozanova (1886–1918)
A radical experimentalist of Russian Cubo-Futurism, Rozanova broke forms apart to find new rhythms. She died at 32, leaving behind work that was raw, poetic, and always in motion — one of the most original voices of her generation.
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