Margaret Harris; English Theater Designer

Margaret Harris, 95, a theater designer whose minimalist work helped modernize staid, gilt-laden English theater in the 1930s. Harris was the last surviving member of the design team called Motley, which she co-founded in 1931--encouraged by John Gielgud--along with her sister, Sophie Harris, and a friend, Elizabeth Montgomery. The three women had been fans of the theater since their teenage years when they would attend productions, drawing pads in hand, to sketch actors they particularly favored. One sketch caught the eye of Gielgud, now 96, who suggested that the trio design the costumes for a production of “Romeo and Juliet” he planned to direct. Adopting the name Motley from the line “Motley’s the only wear” in “As You Like It,” the firm designed most of Gielgud’s productions. They employed a pared-down style that was initially a reaction against the visual excesses that then dominated the theater. Harris believed strongly that design was more important than decoration, and her sets reflected that belief. Born in Shortlands, Kent, she was educated at Downe House School. During World War II, she worked with the designer Charles Eames, building molds for plywood splints for stretchers. These molds had an impact on later work by Eames. On Wednesday in London.