It is very sad to hear the news that Susan Collier tragically died just a few weeks ago before the opening of their retrospective at The National Theatre and just ahead of the re-launch of the Collier Campbell brand. The textile diva sisters Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell had worked together for 50 years producing textile designs for Habitat, Yves Saint Laurent, Cacheral, Liberty, Marks and Spencer, Jaeger to mention just a few of the top names the duo worked for.

Bauhaus roller-printed cotton furnishing fabric designed by Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell produced by Liberty 1972

Collier Campbell Bird fabric. Another of my favourites showing their painterly approach.

During the 80’s when I was studying textiles at Camberwell their work was thought of as some of the best around as it portrayed a painterly style that was so very lacking in the majority of prints available on the high street, distinctive for its large brush strokes and thoughtful mark making with accentuated textures all beautifully executed into flowing repeats.

As is quite often the case with textile designers their names are not known to many but most of their work would be widely recognisable and commonly found in the British household, from duvet covers and curtains to make up bags and scarves, a Collier Campbell print is iconoclastic of that time.

Do pop down to the South Bank and check out more. The exhibition is on until July 3rd but if you can’t make, have a listen to the interview about their work on Radio 4 Women’s Hour.

Susan Collier. Image courtesy of The Guardian.

Posted in colour, interior design, pattern, textiles, vintage

I’m excited to say that the lovely online design magazine Design*Sponge has just published an interview with me as part of the ‘What’s in your toolbox?’ series. This is a peek behind-the-scenes, giving readers an insight into the likes and inspirations of a particular designers. Click here to read my contribution

Thanks so much to Design*Sponge for the feature.

Something from my toolbox!

Posted in books, botanical, colour, craft, design, interior design, pattern, printing, textiles, trends, vintage, wallpaper

Returning from Paris laden down with brochures, swatches and info packs it’s taken a little to digest but here’s my take on last month’s Premiere Vision show.

Florals were a strong presence again, described as ‘bucolic’ at times, other times they were more painterly. There was a dominance of tropical motifs (either palm trees or parrots!), tribal/ethnographic prints and geometric patterns.  In terms of colour, there were loads of really modern-feeling warm brights, sometimes perhaps inspired by Pop Art and Jackson Pollock. Edges of fabrics were often frayed, scalloped or laser cut in ways to deliberately enhance the qualities of the material.

Fruit has been an emerging trend recently (see Stella McCartney’s lemon print dress below) and featured again, mostly lemons, strawberries and cherries but sadly on fabric, these don’t count towards your 5-a-day.

Citrus print dress by Stella McCartney.

Another growing trend that we’ll still be seeing a lot of this winter and next spring is sequins. Prada featured them in its forthcoming winter collection, large and like fish scales!

Extra-large sequins featured in Prada's Autumn/Winter 2011-12 show. Image from Vogue.com

At Premiere Vision there was a real sense that fabric manufacturers are continuing to experiment with sequins even more in terms of how they are applied and the possibilities of combining them with other techniques and materials.

The best thing about Premiere Vision is that it’s an opportunity to see first-hand what the very best manufacturers are doing and check out the newest innovations and creative technologies. My favourite of the show was Jakob Schlaepfer. Two of their fabrics particularly caught my eye. One was a layered piece with a butterfly print layered onto chiffon with scalloped sequined edges.

Trying to capture the intricate and delicate Jakob Schlaepfer fabric in my sketchbook!

The other was covered in white sequins that were reversible by touch. On the back they were digitally printed with a floral pattern. It’s hard to describe but it was really amazing. Here are a few images:

Visitors to Premiere Vision play with the reverse print sequin fabric. Image (c) Jakob Schlaepfer

Detail of one of Jakob Schlaepfer's intricate fabrics. Image (c) Jakob Schlaepfer

Another 'haute' fabric by Jakob Schlaepfer. Image (c) Jakob Schlaepfer

Posted in colour, pattern, printing, review, textiles, trends

The other day when I popped over to trends and fabrics fair Premiere Vision in Paris I scribbled down a few observations I thought worth sharing.

The most noticeably recurring trend was for fabrics that felt very luxurious and soft, yet weighty at the same time – whether cashmeres, silks, shearling or boiled wool. And there seems to be less and less separation between textiles for interiors and fashion.

There were lots of surreal, fairy-tale inspired prints – artist Frederique Morrel combines this with another trend; tapestry.

Image © Frederique Morrel

She also has an exhibition on at the Galerie Chevalier where she’s using 18^th and 19^th century tapestries to create a series of animals, if you’re in Paris, I’m sure is worth seeing.

The inspiring thing about Premiere Vision is seeing the key themes brought to life in huge styled and curated spaces. These included ‘Disruptive Weaves’ (tight yet soft textures), ‘Deceptively Austere’ (antiqued looking super-soft boiled wools), ‘Luxurious Heaviness’ (faux fur and satins), ‘Fierce Softness’ (strong velvets) ‘Natural Knop’, ‘Beyond Tradition’ (contemporary, sculptural lace), ‘Strange Nature’ (spooky, leaf-less trees) and ‘Zoo’ (bizarre monkey and bird imagery)

Last time I was there, blues were a key colour and they’re still very much in evidence, especially turquoises – often combined with yellows and golds, and sky blues. The other colour that seemed to pop up a lot was a burnt orange as well as misty pinks and reds. A palette called ‘Candied Fruits’ summed this up. Here’s my take on the new colours, which I’m thinking of exploring:

A palette of colours I'm playing with

Posted in colour, design, fashion, pattern, review, textiles, trends

All summer I was meaning to check out this year’s Serpentine pavilion. French architect Jean Nouvel was in charge of the latest garden addition and what an amazing job he’s done…

Nouvel's pavilion with matching flowers!

The pavilion as seen from the gallery

Red has so many associations with Britain and London in particular with our red buses, Beefeaters and so on. But the colour doesn’t just mean tradition, it’s sexy and is definitely having a bit of a moment right now. Along with camel, red has been bubbling under for a while and is a colour we’re going to see a lot of this season, in both fashion and interiors.

For me, red is a colour I’m quite careful with in my work; it can really dominate. Yet even here where it’s such a dense, dare I say ‘true’ red, it doesn’t appear overpowering.

The structure has very bold geometric shapes, the steep slopes and slanted angles give the red its sharply tailored footprint.

The structure and geometry in detail

With seating under retractable awnings it is a great place to stop and just feel the space. With a café and ping pong tables outside, it has a real sense of fun and warmth that will cheer one up even on these rainy days as we head towards autumn.

A table tennis game at the pavilion

Posted in architecture, colour, trends

I stumbled across this website and it literally brightened up my day! It’s called the Let’s Colour Project.  Initiated by Dulux but powered by the people, it combines photos and films of people taking it upon themselves to tart up dreary walls and neglected buildings, as well as pictures of anything bright and cheerful that has been spotted around world. Here are two of my favourites from the Let’s Colour blog:

The vibrant colours of the Jodhpur old city markets in India.

Colourful calico drop sheet art

Posted in colour, trends

At the weekend I popped into town to have a look at some of the 250 elephants that have been painted by well known designers and artists which are scattered all over London for WWF. It’s worth looking at the Elephant map there is an awful lot of them!!!.

I like this one by artist Patrice Moor called Josephine she looks beautiful wrapped up in a coat of flowers, you can spot her at Sloane Square.

Patrice Moor’s elephant ‘Josephine’

But if you miss seeing them in situ you can see the entire herd at the Royal Hospital Chelsea from 24^th June – 4^th July.

Posted in art, colour, design, fashion, handmade, pattern

Continuing my cultural whirlwind, I went to see Chris Ofili’s exhibition at Tate Britain. One of the most acclaimed British painters of his generation, Ofili won the Turner Prize in 1998 and was also chosen to represent Great Britain at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. The current exhibition is a major survey of his work, gathering together his intensely coloured and intricately ornamented paintings with pencil drawings and watercolours from the mid 1990s to today.

For me it was The Upper Room that took my breath away, even though I have seen it before it still captures my gaze and transports me into a blaze of colour and pattern, I love David Adjaye’s wooden room installation it really makes it feel very organic and smells wonderful too. I also loved the line drawings and how your focus is drawn to the dots or circles that seemed to have little faces and Afro heads in them. His latest series of paintings are much less decorative and have a magical and spiritual feel.

Here are a few quotations from reviews of the exhibition to whet your appetite before you go:

‘Hip, cool and wildly inventive’ – The Guardian

‘You can’t fail to be entertained’ – The Times

‘Modern Master of radiant colour’ – Daily Telegraph

Think that sums it up!

The exhibition is on until 16^th May.

Posted in art, colour, review

Premiere Vision Feb 2010

Colours

As always there was an abundance of poetical verse to describe the trends and colours for S/S 2011 at PV and Indigo this week ‘colourful jellies’ ‘satirical pastels’, ‘languorous tone on tones’, ‘ limpid sea waters’, ‘ fresh skin tones’, ‘brilliant monochromes’ ‘mysterious abyss’ and ‘synthetic lights’ to mention but a few!

For me this year the colours that tooted my bells were a small selection in contrast with the huge palette available on the fashion agenda. I will try and match some to pantone references and some to our wallpapers, some may vary from the actual as I’m matching them with own ‘my’ eye chart!

Blues and greens fitted into the Aquatic and Limpid seawater themes ranging from the stronger turquoise to pale transient blues.

Turquoise

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Leaf Turquoise Gold

Pantone 15-4715 to a darker Pantone 16-5123

Soft paler blues

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Treetops Sky Blue

Pantone 14-4307 and very pale Pantone 12-4304

I would also include in the blue theme the strong trend for blue ink tones and washes starting from ink black / navy to very pale light blue. ‘Luminous darkness’ included Navy, khakis and pale aquas.

There were a lot of greens, khakis, dark greens, brights to pastel creamy greens. Pantone 17-0525, 15-0522, 14-6316

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper Cascade, Willow

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Leaf Green Gloss

A riot of oranges, reds and pinks from luminous pastel orange Pantone 12-0714, 12-1009,to dusty pinks 13-1409 12-1305

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Blossom Soft Rose

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Flora Blush

Mix pale violets with the orange violet 13-3803, 15-1905 with the orange tones 14-1311, 13-1019 and khaki with this orange

Putty tones

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Fern Putty

Raspberry reds, mulberry deep pinks .

Skin tones to camel and fauna Pantone 12-1005, 14-1210, 13-1013 , 15-1308, 15-1309.

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Fern Mouse

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Fern Chalk

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Cascade Sand

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Cascade Linen

Bronzed browns to muted gold’s

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Blossom Renaissance Gold

Mysterious abyss – Very dark mat grounds juxtaposed with shiny gloss inks , dark browns with black, black on black

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Kew Black Gloss

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Leaf Black Gloss

Jocelyn Warner Wallpaper, Leaf Black Gold

There was also a very bright theme ‘Aspirin ‘ think polka dots, Op Art Damien Hurst dots, very, very bright brightest, orange, greens, pinks, blue.

Print themes saw again a strong nature theme of  ‘floral opulence’.

In the theme ‘Today’s Yesteryear’ fabrics had a soft feel to them ‘tenderly washed’, pictorial silks with sandstone finishes, nostalgic influence. 1950’s screen-printed fabrics with a hand painterly feel, textured brush strokes and ink washes, ink jet prints with magnified water marks, a break away from the exactness of photographic prints.

Artificial nature – a ‘wonderland’ of fauna, dragonflies, grasshoppers, water lilies.

Another print theme was the very light, transparency skeletal fragile forms plants, birds, insects – fine line drawings, mono prints, semi transparent architectural scenes / structures. Exact drawn pencil lines mixed with haphazardly ink.

Tropical theme included parrots and birds, exotic flowers magnified and scaled with fruits and lush jungle looking leaves. Think Henri Rousseau and his treatment of leaves, oil pastels, paint and collage.

Indigo seems to see an increasing amount of textile designers offering vintage collections, antique, contemporary swatches, clothes and accessories mixed with the current fashion trends. Some of the prints and dresses are quite stunning, items that you would not be able to get from your local jumble or charity shop. I can see the attraction as the trend for nostalgia and the ‘yesteryear’ is so strong.

Posted in botanical, colour, interior design, pattern, trends, wallpaper

I’m really looking forward to going to Premiere Vision Spring Summer 2011 show next week, this is the colour and textile forecasting show held in Paris twice a year. I have been going now for around 20 years; I find it very useful for colour development work, seeing the technical advancements that are happening in digital printing, weaving and machine printing. Sadly the famous trend forecaster Li Eldekoort doesn’t have any involvement with the audio visuals, a shame as they were very inspiring, she is really one of my favorites (see Sept Blog), you can still buy Bloom magazine at the newsagents but her View on Colour and INview are no longer in publication, luckily you can still buy back issues.

Indigo is on at the same venue; where you can buy designs directly from textile designers for the following season AW 11/12.

I’m constantly looking “out there ” for colour inspiration, on my early morning jogs (um… have only just started this so don’t hold your breath!) I have been watching some wonderful colour spreads. Not brilliantly in focus as snapped with my iphone whilst listening to my inspiring jogging music!

I really love the blues; lilacs mauves with the peaches and soft pastel yellows, there are an infinitesimal amount of colourways that you can work from using nature – its mouth watering!

Colour working Primrose Hill

Colour Work London Eye

Colour Work London Sky

Posted in colour, design, technology, textiles, trends

The Pallant House exhibition included a lot of silk square designs by Moore and scarves are something I’ve become interested in again recently. Not only does Liberty have an entire room dedicated to the scarf but they recently collaborated with that quintessential home of the scarf; Hermes (and another icon less well-known for his accessories designs, Ronnie Wood). A couple of weeks ago The Guardian ran a 4-page feature on Hermes scarves coinciding in with the publication Thames & Hudson’s book on the same subject.

What’s great about scarves is that they can be like wearable paintings – their scale seems to offer a lot of creative possibility. And they are a more affordable way of having a little bit of designer luxury and a hint of pattern and colour in these grey times.

Posted in books, colour, fashion, pattern, review

This weekend we took a trip out of town to visit Pallant House in Chichester. Extended to show the modern and contemporary art collection of architect Colin St John Wilson which includes work by John Piper, Patrick Caulfield, Sir Peter Blake, Howard Hodgkin and Lucian Freud, I was there specifically to see the Henry Moore textiles exhibition.

Moore often collaborated with David Whitehead – a leading fabric printer and also with Zika Ascher – one of my true inspirations. Many years ago I spent a few weeks working at the Ascher studio surrounded by old screens whose colours told the company’s rich creative history.

Fame in Fabric, Pathe film of Ascher studio

In the mid-1940s Ascher was known for collaborating with a range of artists including Matisse, Cocteau, Derain, Piper and Cecil Beaton. He forged a long-term relationship with Moore and the current exhibition at Pallant House tells their story brilliant. Moore’s constant sketching using so many media and materials and the textiles produced with Ascher were an exercise in trying to get onto cloth was what usually done on paper.

Moore’s textiles featuring his drawings of reclining ladies, birds and his barbed wire motifs were produced using complex techniques such as discharge printing. Their joy comes from a direct sense of Moore’s mark-making and of the artist himself.

Nowadays this is often lost in fabric design, financial considerations tend to limit the ability to experiment with tricky, time-consuming processes, instead speed, volume and cost-effectiveness are the order of the day. This means that mainstream design and production that rely heavily on computers, which definitely has its own merits, but there is perhaps a kind of flatness or lack of character in the final product. I love seeing brushstrokes or the differing weights in a hand-drawn line. It’s something I try from time to time in my own pieces.

Flora detail

Like Moore and Ascher, what works best for me is mixing different aspects – a painterly feel, handmade or retro qualities – with contemporary colours and methods in order to try and create something entirely new.

Posted in botanical, colour, design, interior design, pattern, review, textiles

Saw Michael Clark’s Company perform the Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed et all  last night at the Barbican, absolutely fantastic! The dancers, costumes by Body Map’s Stevie Stewart and sets totally mesmerising, Michael Clark is an iconic artisan and so inspiring.

Michael Clark Company © Jake Walters. Dancers Oxana Panchenko and Clair Thomas

I love his mix of punk with classical, it has an anarchical pulse to it. Memories of 1988 I am Kurious Oranj, Leigh Bowery and The Fall. It reminded me of the 80’s just left Camberwell and set up my print studio in Rotherhithe, a time in London that was full of negative influences on art and design beset by the Thatcher government. There was a growing movement of rebellion, art students holding sit ins at the Tate Britain in dispute with the forming of the London Institute which was to bastardise the London art colleges as we knew them, Nicholas Serota informing us that although he sympathised with our goal we would be carried out of the building by the police one by one, which we were!

It was a time when designers were challenging the craft aesthetic, following on from Punk, designers such as Stevie Stewart of Body Map the Hemmingway’s ‘Red or Dead’ at Camden market, John Moore’s inspirational shop ‘The House of Beauty and Culture’ in Hackney, Pam Hogg, with Tom Dixon, Judy Blame and Fric and Frack at the pivotal 1987 Crafts Council show ‘The Makers Eye’ that pushed the conceptual boundaries of craft and production methods.

“we were rebelling against the conservative, the bland….. We are striving for excitement” says Stevie Stewart of that time (Vogue UK, March 2003).

So seeing Michael Clark again reminded me of the movement – expressional, confrontational and non-conformist times which feels so different to the mass-production tribe of fashion of today. There may not have been much money around but there was the mentality of Do It Yourself which was much more inventive and personal.

Michael Clark mixes Punk with classical, creating a tantalising explosion in sound and colour especial in ‘COME, BEEN, GONE’ – stripy jackets over bright red body suits, against brilliant blue and orange backdrops with Jean Genie and Heroes blasting out loud from gigantic speakers… jaw dropping dance movements – it had a similarity to the Anish Kapoor I saw last week, the feeling of being immersed in to the deep rhythms of colour – pure genius! Thank You Michael Clark and team!

Go see at the Barbican till end of this week.

PS … forgot to mention great programme in the shape of a record sleeve designed by Malcolm Garrett.

BBC Michael Clark Interview

Posted in colour, design, fashion, review

Some friends and I visited the major solo exhibition of Anish Kapoor last Thursday. It was a masterclass in the use of material, form, colour and surface texture in which immense power, movement, absolute stillness, stickiness, dryness, weight and delicacy are all juxtaposed.

The monumental work Svayambh, (from a Sanskrit word meaning ‘self-generated’) is a gliding, destructive piece made of red oil paint mixed with wax that moves slowly through the galleries across the entire breadth of Burlington House, mutilating itself as it goes.

Anish Kapoor Svayambh at RA

There was more drama and spectacle with ‘Shooting into the Corner’, a really exciting piece. We gathered round and waited for a few minutes for the countdown of the cannon firing. It really makes a booming noise and is sensationally anarchic in its splaying of crimson wax high up onto the plaster work of the Royal Academy ceiling – surely the old RA’s will be rocking in their graves! What’s great is that you really feel like you have seen a live piece of performance art even though the only performers are the person firing the cannon and the cannon itself.

Anish Kapoor Shooting Into The Corner

Here’s the cannon on YouTube.

After all the drama of these two pieces, I loved the quietness of ‘When I Am Pregnant’. A pregnant tummy form protrudes out from the wall, seemingly effortless as there are no joins in plaster work or signs of its making. The urge to touch it was almost overwhelming, just like when you see a friend who is pregnant there is always an urge to ‘cup the tum’. To me the piece really captures the essence of human form and makes it tangible. Similarly captivating were ‘Yellow’ and ‘Hive’ both for their scale and form which make you want to climb inside and inhabit them.

The exhibition is on until 11^th December so do try and see it if you’re in London.

Posted in art, colour, review

It’s not just part of my job, I’m fascinated by colours and what they might mean so I was especially intrigued by a story in this morning’s Times reporting some research conducted by Sandtex, the paint manufacturers. According to the survey ‘people with blue houses are more successful than those living in homes of any other colour’. In this case, ‘successful’ is denoted by salary, job title at work, number of holidays taken and help employed around the home. If you live in a green house, you’re the bottom of the pile. One of my favourite colours is pink which, apparently, puts me in the second to lowest position. Oh dear!

Here’s the article.

Posted in architecture, colour, interior design, trends