“There are many textiles widely accepted as ‘background’ to routine activities – travelling, working, theatre going, and so on – as well as those chosen with care for one's own environment. Marianne Straub is one of the few designers of mass-produced textiles who has embraced both design tasks successfully. In doing so she has shaped public taste and set standards for industrial production.” (Mary Schoeser, 1984)

Marianne Straub was born in September 1909 in Amriswil, Switzerland. Between 1928–1931 she studied handloom weaving at Art College in Zurich. In September 1932 Marianne moved to England to study at Bradford’s Technical College, undertaking an intensive training course in cloth construction for a year. By the end of the course she’d become one of the few textile designers in Britain during the 1930s with a background in both aesthetic and practical design.

In 1950 Warner & Sons bought Helios and transferred its dobby looms to Braintree. Marianne set up her studio at New Mills and continued to design mainly for the dobby looms, producing over 1,000 designs between 1950-1970. Her trial samples and notebooks now form an important collection within the Warner Textile Archive. Many of her designs were produced under contract to wholesalers such as Liberty’s and furniture manufacturers such as Parker Knoll. As so many of Marianne’s designs were sold under other company’s labels most of her designs became anonymous.

The Ministry of Works was another major contract, which ordered and purchased her designs in bulk for use in hospitals, offices and other government owned property such as military barracks. Marianne also designed radio cloths for both Murphy and Ecko wirelesses. Her designs were also used in trains, ocean liners, restaurants, universities and hotels.

One of the most successful collaborations during her time with Warner & Sons was with Tamesa Fabrics. This company, launched by Isabel Tisdall in 1964, used Straub's loom-woven fabrics from the beginning, as they proved particularly popular with architects.

 When she retired from Warner & Sons in 1970 Marianne continued to work for a few more years, as a freelance designer for Tamesa. Marianne died in November 1994.