‘An old vintage dress fabric inspired my first ironing-board cover-the idea proved so popular that many more vintage-Style items, ranging from tablecloths and seat cushions to tea towels, followed.’ CATH KIDSTON, DESIGNER AND BUSINESSWOMAN THE MINIMALIST 1990s was a period when essentials were laid bare, particularly in the kitchen where […]

‘The best shabby chic is not created but an expression of how you are by nature. Natural grace and style helps.’ MIN HOGG. FOUNDING EDITOR OF THE WORLD OF INTERIORS MAGAZINE, 1981 INCREASINGLY known as the ‘ designer decade’, a newly expanding consumer culture during the 1980s bought into the […]

  ‘There was a move towards graphic design and illustration; it was very much part of the times-everyone was designing tea towels. ’ IAN LOGAN,GRAPHIC DESIGNER SEVERAL disparate threads informed the design aesthetic of the 1970s. These shared a commonality by being rooted in the past, from the tightly organized patterns inspired by […]

‘Since teacloths are a fairly cheap and expendable product, the design of them can be experimental. When paying a small amount of money for something that is not going to have a very long life, people are prepared to take a risk and buy exciting designs.’ PAT ALBECK, TEXTILE DESIGNER […]

‘It takes a woman to think up a design idea that other women have been wanting for years.’ LUCIENNE DAY. TEXTILE DESIGNER FOLLOWING the bleak austerity of World War Ⅱ, engineering brilliance and creative energy once deployed for wartime necessities became focused on domestic design. Colour and pattern were introduced […]

‘The trusty tea towel is good -not the grubby rag that has been hanging on the door for a week but a crisply linen one. I love tea towels. I love having a constantly high pile of them in the cupboard and I really like them to be pressed.’ — […]