NEW BRIT CASHMERE

ONE OF THE ONLY compensations for the impending British winter - besides thoughts of hot chocolate, halves of Guinness and post-country walk roast dinners - is all the lovely new British cashmere offerings that have made their way onto the baby market in the last few years. Here are a few of our current, and largely affordable, favourites…

1. Angel Cashmere. Michelle O’Neill noted a distinct lack of hip, modern cashmere baby blankets back in 2006 when she was searching for a contemporary design for a friend’s baby. Luckily Michelle’s brother Jamie (both are from Fife in Scotland) had worked in Scottish cashmere for over eight years after studying textiles at university, and had recently moved to Beijing to join the growing Chinese cashmere industry. He was quickly able to translate Michelle’s ideas into a range of graphic, somewhat-retro 100% cashmere blankets (pictured left) that are surprisingly affordable. As a super-cheap alternative Angel Cashmere also offers a stripy version made from Lamere - a supersoft mix of crossbred animal fibres. Just £70-80 for a cashmere blanket; £30 for Lamere. www.angelcashmere.com Read the rest of this article

Posted 2 November 2009 in Textiles

TREND: Crossover Wallpapers

THE DESIGNERS behind Mini Moderns know the appeal of ‘crossover’ wallpapers. Their own designs - officially for “kids and kidults” - have for seasons adorned their own walls at home in south London (see their Do You Live in A Town?, pictured left) and not just nurseries and children’s bedrooms across the land. But then the papers were originally conceived with the idea “to cover very young children and teens and adults with a humorous yet stylish approach to their interiors,” according to one half of the duo, Keith Stephenson.

Lizzie Allen, a young wallpaper designer who rose to fame with her charming, London-themed hand-drawn paper designs - including the ‘Changing Guards at Buckingham Palace’ and ‘The Royal Guards’, believes the crossover appeal of her own papers is a result of the adult and childhood themes that come together in the designs. “One of the main inspirations is my brother as he is in the army and I’ve grown up with that always being part of my family,” says Lizzie of her Brit, retro military creations. “Another inspiration is A.A. Milne’s poem ‘Changing Guards at Buckingham Palace’ - this was one of my favourite poems growing up and Winnie The Pooh and Christopher Robin were two of my favourite characters. Thirdly, my style of drawing is influenced by the colours, style, and shapes of the 1950s: I love that era!” So presumably do many others. Note the differing appeal of her Changing Guards paper in the Spring colourway and Autumn gold - the latter is infinitely more ‘adult’, despite the motif staying the same. Read the rest of this article

Posted 28 October 2009 in Decor

DECOR: Best Bunting

FAR FROM BEING twee and patriotic, the latest bunting has kicked off its British war-time associations and has become a sophisticated way to enhance a neutral room without making significant cosmetic changes.

Bunting has become a symbol of what many of us we want from our interiors accessories today: what Beth Smith, Deputy Editor of textile-centric Selvedge magazine calls: “instant, inexpensive cheer. Put simply, it makes you smile. It speaks of street parties, birthdays and summer fetes - and it seems people have decided to celebrate all year round. Perhaps it is the interior equivalent of nailing your colours to the mast and defying current circumstances… (Let’s celebrate managing to hang on to our homes!)”

Just remember to pin ‘em high to keep them out of reach of tiny hands…

Our current favourites include:

1. Plumo’s silk bunting (pictured above left). £25 for a 5 metre length, it is made from 80 per cent vintage silks so each length has its own individual charm. Buy at www.plumo.com Read the rest of this article

Posted 5 October 2009 in Decor

ORGANIC FOCUS: Aravore Babies

THANKFULLY - for the guilt riddled among us - the range of organic clothing and blankets for wee ones is on the rise. But one of the originals and the best, is Aravore.

Started by Yanina Aubrey, pictured left with daughter Thea, in 2005 in collaboration with her sister Norah, the collection is entirely made by hand in London, where Yanina and her family is based, and in Asuncion, Paraguay, one of the areas where Yanina and Norah grew up.

Here, the sisters gradually developed an appreciation of the handcraft skills around them, thanks to their high-achieving economist mother, who could also produce “the most glorious summer dresses” according to Yanina, and a grandmother who taught the sisters to crochet, knit and sew on an ancient Singer. Finally, with the birth of Yanina’s firstborn, (”there was no knitwear available in organic cotton at the time and very little in organic merino wool”), they decided to launch a fashion range for kids that didn’t just make use of traditional South American skills, but was intended to help local women carve out a living for themselves, and support Paraguay’s ethical farming developments. Today, apart from employing over thirty knitters and seamstresses in their workshop in Asuncion (and five in London), the company has helped mothers and those unable to travel to the workshop to develop mini workshops at home - and offered basic business training too.

All that good stuff is before we even get to the clothes. These are a refreshing, slightly retro, heirloom quality clothing and blankets for babies and small children (£15-£110), such as ruffled cotton rompers and embroidered dresses, where there’s not a logo, ‘clever’ slogan or cartoon character in sight. Instead there’s a focus on tactile knitwear.

This, says Yanina, is not just because hand-knitting and crochet is a particular skill area of Asuncion, but because: “There is something quite wonderful about knitwear. It’s very Read the rest of this article

Posted 6 July 2009 in Textiles

CULT REISSUE: byGraziela

“I REMEMBER THE 1980s’ prints most clearly. My mum did an ’80s black and white floral and stripe collection - and I remember me and a friend, aged about 12, going out into our quite suburban town wearing these matching floral outfits - including these weird little leggings. It was really embarrassing. “
So says 32-year-old Nina Nägel, daughter of renowned German textile designer Graziela Preiser who grew up so immersed in her mother’s bright, happy, retro graphic ’70s and ’80s prints on bedding, wallpaper, clothing and crockery that to her they were always just a part of the landscape. That was until Nina, a graphic designer based in London, had her son, Jakob, now 1.
“It was then I think that I really realised how they were more than just a really substantial part of my life. Especially when I dug some of the old ’70s pieces out of my mum’s attic and all my friends starting asking where they could get them. ”

Graziela Preiser’s famed prints were never commercially available. Nina explains how her mother used to work for a magazine (”the equivalent of Red magazine today”) that offered the pieces as mail-order specials to its readers. The magazine made her mother famous, and such was the cult that resulted in her native Germany that Nina gets fans sending her emails detailing the bedlinen they had when they were little. “But then even I used to have sleepovers and all my friends would turn up wearing her pyjamas. Everyone was matching!”

For Nina, this was all impetus for relaunching the brand - a move she started with her One, Two, Three bedlinen range earlier this year (see the print, top picture) - which has since grown to include wall organisers, pyjamas, posters made from original 1970s wallpaper cuttings (see picture, bottom) and a brand new collaboration of graphic mugs and plates with UK design maestro Thorsten van Elten (above). Reissued wallpapers and new posters are just some of the items coming soon, as soon as Nina can decide which of her mother’s amazingly modern-looking patterns to reissue next. Read the rest of this article

Posted 15 June 2009 in Decor