JOHN BIDDELL SPRING FORWARD
As I write this my trusted right-hand lady, chief designer and showroom manager (my elder daughter Jenna) has just informed me that this year Mothering Sunday falls on the same day as British Summer Time begins. This means that instead of enjoying a well-earned lie in, all the hard-working mothers out there will actually be woken by their little treasures an hour earlier than usual. That doesn’t seem fair.
However, the weather is currently fabulous (it’ll probably be snowing by the time you read this), and things are getting back to more or less normal in the interior design industry.
So much so that after an enforced gap of 2 years, a couple of weeks ago we closed the showroom for a day and headed off to Chelsea Harbour Design Centre to enjoy the delights of London Design Week. For those of you not in the know, this is one of the two annual events (the other being in the autumn) at which the movers and shakers in the design industry traditionally launch their spring collections of fabrics and wallpapers. Although during the Covid era many manufacturers tried their best to launch via Zoom, it was soooo good see new collections in the flesh, as it were. Our lovely industry, dear reader, is as much about touch as it is sight. While it was obvious that some manufacturers were erring on the side of caution, there were many glorious highlights, of which I’ll be regaling you in the coming months.
But let’s start with the latest offering from one of my long-time favourite companies, G P & J Baker. The company was founded in 1884 by brothers George Percival and James Baker, establishing an inheritance full of innovation and drama. Avid and discerning collectors of rare and iconic designs, the brothers began what has become one of the largest and most exciting privately owned textile archives in the world. Initially concerned with the import of Persian, Turkish and Turkoman carpets which they would re-export to Paris and the United States, they gradually progressed to textiles. GP & J Baker has been the proud holder of Her Majesty the Queen’s Royal Warrant since 1982 in recognition of the supply of GP & J Baker fabrics and wallcoverings to the Royal household. In fact, we were lucky enough to be invited to the Royal Warrant holder’s garden party some 10 or so years ago, and made to drink Pimms on the Queen’s lawn – a tough job!
Whilst classic, the Baker handwriting is never stuffy, and always appropriate to the prevailing mood of the time. This year’s offering, entitled Ashmore, is truly lovely, and is described as a collection “To embrace a renewed desire to return to nature as a retreat from the day to day”.
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HOME S & INTERIORS JOHN BIDDE L L - INT ERIORS EXPER T
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