Do you always wear blue?
Yes, it appears I pretty much do. An observation from a friend the other week (whilst I was riding my blue Tokyo bike, with my blue helmet & my blue bag and later, having left said bike in my blue hallway, surrounded by blue coats from the hooks above) made me take stock of both my wardrobe and my house. I clearly like blue.
These little peeks of my home were shot (by photographer Ben Anders) a few years back for a magazine and illustrate that I’m quite partial to a range of hues and I’m quite happy to mix it all up, a life-size living paint chart I s’pose. Which is handy as I love nothing better than perusing paint ranges, imagining what my next colour scheme will be. It’s just lucky that Blue is having it’s moment so I don’t need to bring in the decorators just yet but instead lust after the possibility of dotting new shades around the home.
This week saw the launch of the new Blue collection from Little Greene; inspired by the indigo/denim trend found all across the catwalk, they’ve translated this versatile colour group into a capsule collection of 21 shades (plus new wallpapers to boot).....of which Smalt and Air Force Blue would be a welcome addition somewhere in my house. I just need to find that long forgotten corner.
L - R Little Greene, Ian Sanderson, Boro, Eden Hassell CSM
Ian Sanderson furnishings tap into this too (along with many other Blue collections from the interiors world as indicated by the numerous press releases I’m receiving of late). Their Indigo Revisited collection is an enticing mix of prints and weaves, putting their own twist on traditional techniques, offering a tactile range of fabrics that would sit well with the paints mentioned above (and in that corner if I ever find it..)
I love a bit of handicraft so their interpretation of Shibori and Ikat along with bold textural gestures reminded me of the stunning Boro exhibition I saw at Somerset House last year. This in itself requires far more than just a sentence or two but the spectrum of blue alone was a delight. Patched together, lovingly restored and passed down the generations make these Textiles a fascinating study in necessity as-well as simply being appreciated for their very contemporary appeal.
This exhibition visit developed into a Denim brief for my Fashion & Textile Students at Central St Martins. Taking the humble cotton cloth and re-working it into a myriad of surfaces and garments; an inspired use of unusual materials such as the blue tack and porcelain above, made us appreciate the universal appeal of blue (denim) in many new guises.
L- R Colour Makes People Happy paints: Winkle, Blue Robin, Next To This Is Nothing, La Sacre Bleue
Fortuitous to me, the wonderful Colour Makes People Happy paint shop is round the corner from home and they very kindly let me loose on their paints a few months back. I happily whiled away the hours working out colour combinations and throwing in concrete, lino, plasticine and card just because. The results being small snippets of tactile colour rather than seeing them solely as a flat colour on the wall.
And only last night, my dad proudly announced that he was ‘getting with it’ and painting his front door Grey. I gently informed him that he now needs to revert back to his paint chart and start over again. Greys are going (or at least into the wings for now) and the Blues are back.
(Picture from Lepusitmidus on Pinterest)
* I’m not a journalist or an expert of anything in particular, I merely observe & muse. Facts are true in my mind but not necessarily factual to others *