15 Sep The Joy of Florals
“I think we’re in a ‘country moment’,” says Colefax and Fowler’s design director Sarah MacGregor, introducing the showroom’s latest Jardine collection as part of Focus/20’s virtual programme (above). As the collection’s name suggest, the new fabrics and wallpapers celebrate beautiful blooms, tapping in to the company’s heritage.
“People are spending more and more time in their homes, or thinking about their gardens. They want to bring the outside in and use designs that remind them of nature,” says MacGregor. “There’s a great interest in florals, and we don’t expect them all to be used in a country setting.”
She puts the new collection in two broad camps: simpler designs that focus on a single type of flower, and chinoiserie-inspired patterns that are more complex, colourful and exuberant. ‘Greenacre’ (above right), which depicts a flowering gingko, falls in to the former category: “it’s completely fresh and has that simplicity, which makes it very compelling,” says MacGregor. “It’s been very well received.”
Archive designs have also been recoloured to bring them up to date, including the rose-motif ‘Bowood’, based on a document originally discovered by John Fowler at Bowood House. A collection of plain natural wallcoverings in materials such as Japanese woven paper and rustic seagrass complement these joyful florals.