Hip Haberdashery30/4/2014 The Haberdashery captures the spirit of early New York, in N16. A brilliant cafe on Stoke Newington High Street where homemade cakes are brought warm out of the kitchen and hot chocolate is served in bowls. The owners smile and it has that stylised raggedness that photographers love. A photographer friend Kristin Perers gave me the nod and to have such a place on your doorstep is a treat. Another treat is haberdashery in the true sense of the word by those that do it best - V V Rouleaux. If you want an antidote to white walls and the tyranny of monochrome then head to the technicolour world of V V Rouleaux. This haberdashery heaven has every ribbon, trimming, flower and frippery imaginable. A kaleidoscopic whirl of colours and ideas. Devotees flock from the worlds of fashion, interior design, theatre and royalty. Keira Knightley wore silver tin birds in her hair as Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, while the Duchess of Cambridge selected silk-satin ribbon for her bridesmaids’ dresses. House & Garden said ‘V V Rouleaux is for those spurred on by the thrill of discovering something unique. For here is indeed something for everyone.’ Last week I wrote about how Matisse’s cut-outs should inspire us all and V V Rouleaux is a place of eye-popping wonder where I believe each of us can have a creative moment. Check out the V V Rouleaux courses: Tassels and Knots; Ribbon Flowers and if you need a hat for Royal Ascot try the Headdress Course. the-haberdashery.com vvrouleaux.com
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Master Cuts23/4/2014 A modern-day illustrator par excellence is Michael Roberts who has worked with Gillian Newberry the owner of Bennison Fabrics, to create the Cut-Out fabric collection. Michael has a unique way of making graphic collages out of paper cut outs and it is this technique that Bennison have now transferred to linen, hand screen-printing his designs for use in interiors. The landmark show at Tate Modern called Matisse: The Cut-Outs explores the final chapter in his career in which he began ‘carving into colour’ and his series of spectacular cut-outs was born. For Matisse this practice was a way of ‘making my colours sing without…rules and taboos.’ The use of paper is liberating. I spent a happy Bank Holiday Easter Monday at Matisse’s exhibition enthralled by his luminous papier découpé. To create such a body of work in the final years of his life is extraordinary. Colour bathes whole rooms at Tate Modern as each maquette dances across the walls. With painted paper as his medium and tailor’s scissors as his tool, Matisse gave coloured sheets the radiance of stained glass, infused contour with sculptural presence. Young and old marvelled and left enthused and eager to just have a go. bennisonfabrics.com tate.org.uk Colour me happy16/4/2014 Apart from comfort, surely the other main ingredient on an interior designers shopping list should be to create a joyful home. Colour should be fun and at its best joyful. Simon March’s collection of paints from Siecle called “Colour Makes People Happy” does just that and he is now making all at Jamb chuckle too. It may surprise some that such colours have entered the sacred world of Jamb. But considering the exotic parade of objects and artefacts that crosses the threshold of its Pimlico showroom on a daily basis, these unconventional paints are perfectly at home. Colourways of this superior quality Dutch pigment include Lint, Trelleborg and playfully unusual names such as ‘I resent that snide remark’ and ‘I apologise for the two week hiatus’ and ‘The world has too many things in it why add something.’ Viewing the three dimensional form of the clog painted in each of the colours allows the surface to be seen under a number of lighting conditions simultaneously. Jamb’s double-fronted Pimlico Road showroom houses its unique collection of antique and reproduction chimneypieces, grates, lighting, garden ornaments and furniture, as well as Will Fisher’s Hawker Antiques. There is now a wall dedicated to this selection of sixty shades of paint. ‘Colour Makes People Happy’ from Siecle, now available at Jamb jamb.co.uk Categories
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