style scout
Our design magpie investigates how her lifelong love of fashion has informed her interior-design decisions fantastical fabrics and wallpapers.
Whether it’s Christopher Kane with his ‘More Joy’ collection (now sadly no more), Henry Holland with his ceramics and glassware or Rixo’s recent homeware launch, the fashion crowd have been showing their interest in interiors for some time now, and these days it feels like the line between fashion and the home is more blurred than ever.
Personally, I’ve always been very influenced by fashion, which I suppose is an inclination I’ve poured into the creation of my homeware brand Glassette. When creating moodboards for it, I always find myself drawn to colour blocking and, for me, nobody does that better than Marni – the fashion house’s use of strong combinations of khaki and yellow, or red and lilac, is a big influence. Years ago, I remember seeing an Emilia Wickstead dress that she’d turned into a tablecloth, and I think that was the first time I really considered the transition between a fabric made to be worn and a fabric made for the home. For some designers, the link is as literal as that: Lisa Corti is an amazing Milanese designer who makes beautiful kaftan fabric, which she also turns into tablecloths. They’re so bright, loud and brilliant and, although I don’t have a lot of bold hues in my house, I do love to add pops of colour by layering textiles.
Fabric-wise, Josef Frank has been a firm favourite of mine ever since I saw his work at the Fashion and Textile Museum many years ago. Seeing the designer’s bright, joyful patterns hanging in a gallery space, it really felt to me that they should be made into an outfit. I spent a lot of time lusting over items on the Svenskt Tenn site and setting alerts on auction pages for remnants of Frank’s
One obvious thing that fashion and homeware have in common is the dreaded word: trends. I’d love to say I don’t follow them but, let’s be honest – Ido. The aim, however, is to select the trends that I am going to truly cherish forever – astriped pillow from Paul Smith’s collection or a super-soft cobalt-blue blanket from Victoria Beckham’s at-home range. Investing in a few trend-led forever pieces that work in several places around the home means that, when I get bored of them in one room
