Having spent the last six months predominantly at home, how we furnish our personal space has never felt so prescient. The tone of a wall colour can provide uplift, the ergonomic design of a chair offers relaxation after a long day at a laptop, and the particular tactility of a blanket can provide comfort in times of emotional crisis.
Tactility is integral to the design ethos of Colville, the community-focused and exuberant fashion brand founded by fashion stylist Lucinda Chambers and designers Molly Molloy and Kristin Forss in 2018. Its kaleidoscopic collections feature colourful prints resembling ‘splish-splashy sploshy’ hand-painted flowers, and silhouettes constructed from patchworks of striped knitwear. Touch is also central to the brand’s debut homeware collection, an energetic offering of super shag rugs, woollen blankets, knitted throws and jute floor mats, that we can’t wait to line our floors with and snuggle ourselves into.
Photographer: Barbara Franzo. Stylist: Isil Gunn
‘Whether it’s for the body or for the home, we’ve always been obsessed with design,’ Chambers explains. Colville developed an even keener interest in interiors, when after two years of operating from Fors’ lounge at home – ‘She’d had enough!’ laughs Molloy – the trio set about picking up furnishings for their first Milan studio. Molloy visited a carpenter who worked from the mountains in northern Italy, designing a studio desk, followed by showroom display cabinets. Juxtaposed against these graphic pieces were vintage Turkish rugs from the Seventies.
While a host of luxury brands expand their product selections according to strict commercially-approved categories, Colville operate more on instinct. ‘A Turkish girl I was working with said “I know a weaver who can make those shag rugs!”’ Molloy explains. This expert artisan has created soft 100 per cent organic styles, coloured using natural vegetal dyes in tones of mustard, lime and orange, and imagined in chubby and narrow stripes.
Additionally, Colville’s polka dot woollen blankets were informed by an ancient felting technique practiced by Cistercian Monks, and created by the 1795-founded Italian mill Paoletti. Its jute floor mats, patterned with splice and dice stripes and arrowhead tesselations, were designed in Dhaka, Bangladesh in collaboration with Maison Bengal, a factory which trains women to develop traditional craft skill and encourage employment. ‘Collaboration is a huge part of Colville,’ Chambers adds. ‘We’re really interested in bringing craftsmanship into the 21st century.’
‘Lucinda texted me one night, saying “wouldn’t it be great to have these textures in our bedrooms and our sofas,’ Molloy adds, reflecting on the organic evolution of Colville’s homeware. We can’t wait to see what exuberant interior designs their next messages bring. §
