“One has to dream. And one must stand out from the rest.” Armi Ratia Finnish design house Marimekko is world-renowned for its punchy, eye-catching patterns that have adorned everything from printed textiles to clothing, wallpaper, tableware and furniture. Founded by the power couple Viljo and Armi Ratia in the 1950s, the Marimekko brand transformed the…
Marimekko: The Finnish Lifestyle Brand
When it comes to 20th century pioneers, Anni Albers is the quietly tenacious artist who defied all expectations, blending technical mastery with Modernist abstraction to revolutionise the ancient craft of weaving into an art form in its own right. Pointing to the rigid divisions between fine and applied arts in her later years, she wrote,…
The earthy ginger of APRICOT linen echoes Pierre Bonnard’s spicy Mediterranean oranges, colours that became a central focus in his flickering, light speckled canvases. Recognised today as a vivid colourist, Bonnard captured the warm light of his native France with intimiste, naturally lit interiors, blooming landscapes and sunlit gardens. An early abstractionist, his paintings reveal…
The DEVIN Linen Pajamas are the perfect lounge set to boost your winter comfort! In recent years I know many, including myself, have caught on to the ideals of Hygge (pronounced HOO-GA). This lovely mindset of extreme coziness and comfort brought into every aspect of life was apparently started in the Danish culture. You can…
Fabric in the shade of SPICE Linen became billowing plumes of fire in the hands of Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, bursting out of the darkness like sparks of light. Leader in the Baroque style, Rubens’ canvases were charged with emotive, sensual energy and movement, as theatrically staged figures are engulfed in epic swathes of…
The tiny apartment got a big upgrade this weekend: linen curtains! First, a little backstory. Three years ago, I moved from Illinois to my brother and sister-in-law’s farm in the hills of southern Wisconsin. The farmhouse is tucked into a valley, surrounded by woods and grassy pastures full of grazing sheep and cattle. I moved…
“We live surrounded by cloth.” Kassia St Clair It is hard to imagine what our lives would be without textiles. From the clothes we wear to the bedding we sleep in and the furnishings that adorn our homes and work places, sumptuous patterns and textures define the world we live in. Visionary textile designers through…
Whether you were allowed to see your family this past Christmas and New Year or got to be close to some of your friends, it won’t change the fact that the turning of the year was and continues to be anything but normal for any of us. As temperatures drop even further, and a little…
Albert Bierstadt’s dreamy landscapes convey the unspoilt wilderness of the 19th century American outback, conveying the awe-inducing wonder of sharp cliffs, huge skies and cavernous valleys with soft colours and hazy atmospheric light. Refined shades of bluish-grey like that of ELEPHANT Linen stain distant, craggy mountains and heavily laden storm clouds with quietly brewing drama,…
As advertised by nearly every minimalist-chic clothing brand, culottes are making a major comeback and becoming an indispensable wardrobe item. But there is one style the fashion world is most crazy about – the high-waisted, wide-leg culottes. Charged with the ability to skim over curvy hips and elongate the silhouette, the wide-leg culottes are as…
“At the beginning of the seventeenth century, flame-like rivers of cloth could billow behind a prosperous citizen, or flow over his shoulder and across his lap.” Anne Hollander The Baroque era was fuelled by intense, fiery passion and raw emotional impact. Like Renaissance and Mannerist artists before them, Baroque visionaries from the mid-17th to mid-18th…
Who doesn’t need a good looking, sturdy pencil case? Or maybe two or three, make it four and call it a makeup bag. Intricate detailing and geometry challenge teenagers to elevate their sewing beyond simple straight lines. This is also a great introduction to sewing zippers, and the non-traditional and simple method for inserting it…
Fresh, ripe pinks like that of POWER PINK Linen streak across many of Willem De Kooning’s paintings, creating shockingly bright shards of colour amidst his frenetic expressionist visions. Leader in the American Abstract Expressionist school throughout the 1950s and 1960s, De Kooning’s paintings were often based on women, painted with flurried passages of pink in…
I celebrated the first day of winter by sewing a linen dress for summer. This might just become a tradition. I have certainly heard of buying clothes out-of-season, but sewing clothes out-of-season? That’s a new concept for me. While creating the NICO dress in a Midweight OLIVE BRANCH Linen, I discovered something about myself. I…
The flowing, ostentatious language of Mannerist art in the 16th century grew out of the High Renaissance. But Renaissance naturalism and realism was replaced by heightened, exaggerated drama, and fabric played a vital narrative and compositional role. Moving beyond reality gave artists a newfound, expressive freedom, and drapery was given a life of its own,…
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