Hue: Lavender

Please welcome a new and extraordinarily talented guest editor to CLOTH & KIND! Molly Velte has joined our team and will be periodically writing in our Journal as a contributor to our Hue and Fab Five columns. 

Molly is a textile artist & stylist based on the east coast, by way of France & California. Her surface patterns are represented by select studios in New York, whose clients include Kate Spade, Anthropologie and Free People amongst others, and she is regularly commissioned to create custom textile prints for companies around the globe. Molly is a past contributor to Bri Emery's wildly popular and well-loved blog, Design Love Fest... check out her Patternfest posts here, and also be sure to spend time on her fantastic personal blog ROOT for a peek into her process, inspiration & creative happenings.

With a similar vibe for textiles, color & interiors, we are nothing short of thrilled to have Molly contributing to CLOTH & KIND's Journal. Welcome aboard, Molly! We hope you all dig her first Hue post below, inspired by Madeline Weinrib's Lavender Remy Ikat fabric, as much as we do.

FABRIC // Remy Ikat from Madeline Weinrib // Lamp // Fabric // Art // Pillow // Accent Table

EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Molly Velte.

Mary Bergtold Mulcahy // Les Indiennes

what is your idea of perfect design happiness? 
WHEN I FINALLY FINISH PHOTOGRAPHING MY LATEST COLLECTION.

what is your greatest fear in design? 
ACTUALLY, I AM FEARLESS.  

which historical design figure do you most identify with? 
ELSIE DE WOLF.
'I BELIEVE IN PLENTY OF OPTIMISM AND WHITE PAINT.' 

which living designer do you most admire? 
INES BOESCH OF ZURICH SWITZERLAND.

what profession other than design would you like to attempt? 
I WOULD LOVE TO WORK IN FILM AS A SET DESIGNER.

what is your greatest design extravagance? 
TEXTILES.

when and where were you happiest with your design?
WORKING IN INDIA DESIGNING WITH MY PARTNER, PITCHUKA SRINIVAS
AND THE BLOCKMAKER, GANGADHAR.

what do you consider your greatest achievement in design?
THE OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE JOBS TO OVER 50 ARTISANS
IN IN THE SMALL VILLAGE OF PEDANA, INDIA .  

if you died and came back as another designer or design object,
who or what do you think it would be? 
A BLANK SHEET OF PAPER.

what specific design related talent are you lacking
that you would you most like to have? 
THE  ABILITY TO DRAW.

what is your most treasured design related possession? 
A SIMPLE WHITE WOOD PIET HEIN EEK CHAIR.  

what do you regard as the lowest depths of misery in design?
MAUVE AND TEAL.

what curse word do you most frequently use? 
THE F-WORD, UNFORTUNATELY.  

what is your favorite design related word? 
CUTE.

what is your least favorite design related word? 
OVERSTYLED.

what turns you on in design? 
A CHALLENGE OR AN IDEA THAT POPS IN MY HEAD OUT OF NOWHERE.

what turns you off in design? 
PRETENTIOUSNESS.

what is your motto in design? 
IMPERFECTION IS THE ESSENCE OF BEAUTY.  

Proust on Design with Mary Bergtold Mulcahy // Les Indiennes

IMAGE CREDITS // Images provided by Mary Bergtold Mulcahy of Les Indiennes.

ABOUT PROUST ON DESIGN //  Answered by our design icons, these must-ask questions come from a 19th century parlor game made popular by Marcel Proust, the French novelist, essayist & critic. Proust believed the direct questions and honest responses that they elicited revealed the true nature of the individual. For this column, we have put a design related spin on the traditional questions. While this method has been used by many journalists throughout the years, we were primarily inspired by The Proust Questionnaire, which appears monthly on the back page of one of our all time favorite magazines, Vanity Fair (also Krista’s alma mater). Read all of the previous Proust on Design questionnaires here.  

No. 40

Judging // A Keen Eye for Rugs

You know how we have a thing for textiles, yes? So we are altogether enthralled with the idea of being included on the judging panel for the 2015 Rug Market's America's Magnificent Carpets Award that's taking place this week at the AmericasMart in Atlanta.

Tami will be representing CLOTH & KIND, joined by Robert Brown of Robert Brown Interior Design and Sharian Garner from Sharian Rugs, and will lend her keen eye in selecting best-in-class rugs in several categories. Be sure to watch her Instafeed as there will undoubtedly be some peeks of what she's loving, live from the judging floor.

Once the winners are announced, we'll most definitely let you know and share images of those gorgeous floor coverings with all of our fellow textile addicts out there.

Tennyson + Knoll

QUOTE // Alfred Lord Tennyson + FABRIC // Arezzo, Knoll


Hue: Salmon

FABRIC // Starlight from LuLu DK // Lamp // Pillow // Wallpaper // Framed Textile // Rug

EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Molly Velte.

LuRu Home

Hi. Our names are... Claire Russo & Liza Serratore

Our company is... LuRu Home

We're the... Claire: I’m the New York half; Liza: I’m the Shanghai half

We make/design/create... LuRu Home crafts traditionally-dyed textiles that are relevant to a contemporary way of living. For the past three years, we’ve worked with indigo hand-dyed cottons printed outside of Shanghai, China. Nankeen soy-paste resist dyeing is a 3,000 year-old technique which remains, today, sustainably produced by hand. It’s our mission to support the artisans who print our fabrics by bringing patronage back to their craft through our line of textiles and accessories for the home. A fondness for Chinese motifs underpins our work as our collection evolves.

Copyright 2014 | Talent - Chad Ingraham | Music - Onra

Something you need to know about us is... Claire: I collect miniature things (tiny lucky-cricket cages, petite cooking utensils, baby porcelain bowls....); Liza: I love insects and oriental carpets 

Here’s how this company came to be... Old friends who ended up in Asia, we convened in Shanghai in the fall of 2010. Shanghai truly is the Paris of the East, a city of 22 million where traditional culture, art-deco internationalism and modern commerce collide. Nankeen indigo fabric was a diamond in that rough, and we found our niche updating traditional Chinese design.

Our absolute favorite thing we sell right now is... Claire: Our Dot Dot Dot yardage, where East really meets West. The dots were extracted from a more elaborate, traditional Chinese pattern, and reconfigured in the most playful of all Western motifs; Liza: Flower dinner napkins; growing up with a chef-dad, this is where my worlds collide. The juxtaposition between our graphic, bohemian Flower print and the formality of a cloth napkin is a bold treat. 

Here’s a sneak peek of something we’re working on now... And that is launching TODAY! Several years, and many cups of green tea later, we’re launching a color yardage line to bring our Nankeen fabric and Chinese design aesthetic to a wider audience. We’ll be screen-printing our yardage by hand using water-based dyes here in the US. 

We’re most proud of... Learning first-hand how East meets West. Whether speaking (choppy) Mandarin with our artisans, or presenting our products to interior designers in New York City, we’ve created cross-cultural links for LuRu Home’s friends the globe over. 

“Who says you can’t have your mooncake and eat it too?”
— Claire + Liza, LuRu Home

We really detest... The the assumption that Made in China is bad. Our authentic Nankeen textiles are Proudly Made in China by hands which have printed it for generations. Our new yardage line will be Proudly Made in America. Who said you can’t have your mooncake and eat it too?

We could never have done it without this person... Liza: Our team on the ground in China. They’re my family here, picking me up at the airport when I arrive, inviting me to their own family celebrations, and cooking Dragon Boat Festival treats for me.

We consistently read these for inspiration... Claire: House Beautiful, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, Architectural Digest, Tokyo Jinja; Liza: Here in Wild Wild East, most of my reading is digital due to distance; snail mail takes six weeks and hard copy subscriptions cost a fortune. I can't get enough of Of a Kind's 10 Things weekly email, which is full of quirky and helpful links that remind me of home. I really enjoy Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast. There's no end to inspiration in Shanghai itself. Between its Art Deco abundance, markets galore, and street food on most corners, I'm a happy camper. Sometimes it is good to be a bit isolated from design trends, as you have space to let your own ideas brew. 

We would like to share the limelight with... Amanda Pickens. She was our first pal in Shanghai, a creative force who supported LuRu's dreams, and an incredible graphic designer and photographer in her own right.

No. 39

A fresh and vibrant palette, inspired by Mally Skok's newest pattern, Sofia.

TOP // Sofia in Multi from Mally Skok Design (#SF-01)
BOTTOM RIGHT // Venice in Scarlet from Michael Devine (#103-1B)
BOTTOM LEFT // Line in Indigo from Clay McLaurin for Bungalow Classic (#CB02-03)

Happy Friday, friends!

Fab Five: Animalistic

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 

Not all animal prints are created equal. Our design philosophy is to use them oh-so-sparingly and with great tact. The chair above is an example of how we recently used a ZAK+FOX print with stunning and sophisticated results. But just as the quote above (which we adore) indicates, you need not lose sleep over the opinion of others. If you love it, it works. Period. So tell us... what's your take on animalistic interiors?

Palette No. 38

The huge, dramatic scale of this Sanderson wallpaper pairs in the most lovely way with two watery blue green Ellisha Alexina linens. So serene.
TOP // Paisley Circles in Blue from Sanderson (#DCAVPC103)
BOTTOM RIGHT // Alexina Stripe in Indigofera from Ellisha Alexina (#AS106C)
BOTTOM LEFT // Farla in Indigofera from Ellisha Alexina (#F106D)

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!