Page 26 - JOA August 2020

Designs of the Times

Erica’s designs often referenced historic prototypes but with a
contemporary aesthetic, like her adaptation of a painting by Edward
Hicks or her embroidered illustrations adapted from children’s books
by authors such as Beatrix Potter and Edward Lear. She also
created designs for upholstered chairs, clothing, and, in the 1990s,
versions of the Unicorn tapestries at the Met, making them available as
kits. Her influences were international; she adapted designs from Chinese
and Indian embroidered clothing that she acquired on her tours and
featured in her television shows, which are available to watch on
WGBH’s Open Vault. Erica particularly enjoyed designing special
commissions for private clients. One of her earliest was for Eleanor
Roosevelt Jr., a school friend of Ruth Wales du Pont (wife of Henry
Francis du Pont, Winterthur’s founder) and a noted embroiderer whose
work is in the collection of the Smithsonian. Her last was for the
comedian Joan Rivers. Erica’s sense of color was outstanding and
widely admired.
Everyone who knew her says that Erica was always working. She had
no sense of time and was often notoriously late. Erica loved owls,
perhaps because she was a night owl herself, often working into the
early hours of the morning on the floor of her dining room. Erica was
interested in teaching a wide variety of techniques using an array of

Shown on her 1972 program on Oriental Gold, this is adapted from a
five-clawed imperial dragon robe. Erica suggested that people use Lurex thread
rather than real gold. Erica’s television programs are available to watch through
WGBH’s Open Vault.
2015.0047.010 A, B, Gift of the Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum
on Nantucket, where many of her students spent the summers. She and
Vladi first rented and then purchased a house on Liberty Street, where
she sold embroidery materials before opening a store in town. Lectures
and demonstrations were held at Erica’s in the mornings, and the
group would divide in two for afternoons of stitching in Erica’s and
Edie’s backyards.
Erica and Vladi created what would later be called a lifestyle brand
and her business was multi-faceted. She designed and fabricated kits
and distance learning courses, wrote 21 books, created a television show
on WGBH in Boston (where her studio was next door to Julia Child’s),
designed and published for women’s magazines, organized international
embroidery tours and cruises, undertook many public appearances, and
operated another
shop on Madison
Avenue. Her
most lucrative “Country Life,” one of Erica’s perennially popular designs, was introduced as part of
business venture her Signature Collection with Columbia Minerva in 1971. It was inspired by 17th
was her contract century needlework in the V&A that she felt was “quite in keeping with today’s
with Columbia interest in ecology.” According to her 1971 catalog, she used fifty colors and thirty
Minerva, signed different stitches to make what she calls “a masterpiece of crewel embroidery.”
2015.0047.016.001 A, B, Gift of the Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum
in 1962 for the
then astonishing many beautiful colored yarns, but she was under increasing pressure
sum of $100,000. from Columbia Minerva to keep the cost of her kits down by using less
Embroidery was expensive yarns, cheaper ground fabrics, and fewer colors. Throughout
a big business her career, Erica continued to produce designs and kits of her own
and was very using higher quality materials, but it was her Columbia Minerva kits
popular through- that reached a mass market in department stores and needlework shops
out the 20th around the country.
century. In the
1960s and 1970s A Legacy of Finding Joy
embroidery Erica’s public persona was friendly, engaging, and informal.
materials and Although her training at the RSN stressed a uniform technique,
kits were sold on because many people worked on their large commissions where
the ground floor consistency was important, Erica was more interested in getting people
of many high- to enjoy embroidery and not fuss about messy threads or knots on
end department the back. She was supportive and encouraging both in her personal
stores, where teaching and on her television show.
cosmetics are sold While Erica focused on design, Vladi spearheaded the financial side
today. Erica’s of her business, as well as running his own business. His furniture had
Designed by Erica’s student, artist Mimi Housepian,
newsletter, The the original owl was signed “Mimi” in the upper left corner. been hugely popular in the middle of the century, but it was Erica who
Creative Needle, With Mimi’s permission, this colorful owl became was the main breadwinner in the 1970s and 1980s. Then when Erica’s
had a readership one of her best-selling kits. business was shrinking in the early 2000s, Vladi’s mid-century
of 300,000. 2015.0047.028 A, B, Gift of the Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum modern designs once again became fashionable, winning him many

24 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles