HELGA GOLDMAN, who has died recently, devoted much, if not most, of her career to supporting British creativity, designers and, especially, many young graduates of textile design from British art colleges. She was the main organiser of Texprint, later to become TexSelect and now in its newest incarnation: TEX+. Her attention to detail, perseverance and knowledge of how to work through the incredible bureaucracy of government, officialdom and the international exhibition world was her forte. There are many unsung heroes of textile design – fashion and interiors - all over the world who owe their initial launch onto the international scene to the determined efforts of Texprint, and Helga in particular.

After fashion forecaster Nigel French Enterprises Ltd. Helga worked at the Design Council organizing exhibitors to international trade fairs. It’s restructuring in the early 1990s meant her job suddenly disappeared, she set up on her own as Goldman Design. Part of her freelance work was for the newly created Texprint to launch 24 carefully selected new graduate designers. It showed at Fabrex, later at Interstoff, Frankfurt, and then Première Vision in Paris. Hong Kong and Shanghai followed later for the year’s six prize winners.

Many of the textile design industry world have expressed how her calm approach to any eventuality was a much-admired trait. She was a natural ‘problem solver’. When she decided on a well-earned retirement, the charity retired with her, but her legacy lives on in a new iteration: TEX+.

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Christian Dewar-Durie. Precis 7.iv.2024