“Neutral is a colour, but it can easily become dull. With texture it gives life. Every detail matters.”
Interior designers, architects and design aficionados gather to see Tricia Guild at the new headquarters of Wilhelmine van Aerssen in Amsterdam. It is a rare moment to hear her speak in person about the inspirations behind the newest collections.
This season, Guild works with several palettes. Palette Provençale is drawn from the tones of Provence: sandy orange, muted blues and soft greens. Alongside these are natural ecru shades and deeper neutrals such as coffee, as well as green tones. Primevère introduces delicately scaled floral patterns of primrose and auricula in soft greens, occasionally lifted with a pop of colour. These muted greens become a new neutral. The collections pair naturally with Cocquelicot.
Guild’s fabrics are highly tactile. The dessins are painted first, then translated into digital printing and further enriched. The hand remains visible throughout the process. At times through embroidery by Indian craftspeople, at times through additional hand painting to introduce another layer of dimension. Different qualities of thread, from matte to shine, combine. Embroidery and hand-painted accents bring depth and a three-dimensional quality. Artisan quality, handwork. The motifs extend across fabrics, upholstery, wallcoverings and home accessories.
Patterns also appear within the weave, in stripes or checks. Natural fibres return throughout, often in wide widths, allowing the fabric to fall with weight and ease. Variation across tones and combinations gives each fabric a distinct presence and mood within a space. Alongside the more expressive textiles, Guild introduces recycled threads, vegetable dyes and fabrics that are easy to maintain. Function and material are closely aligned, without disrupting the visual language of the collection.Colour shapes energy. Multiple variations allow shifts in mood and atmosphere. The same pattern in another palette becomes another presence.
Tricia Guild and her Designers Guild collections
Her approach to styling appears in a short film, where interiors come together in layered settings. Texture, tone and motif interact across the interior, where combinations of different motifs create a vivid and cohesive whole. There is a sense of maximalism in her work, a layering of texture, pattern and colour across the space. That same visual language continues through her photography and the many books she has published throughout her career of more than fifty years.
Founded in 1970, Designers Guild reflects a longstanding career shaped by material, surface and colour, with her brother Simon Jeffreys leading the company alongside her. Collaborations include Ralph Lauren Home, Christian Lacroix Maison, John Derian and William Yeoward, as well as projects with English Heritage and the Royal Collection Trust.
It is inspiring to see Tricia Guild present. At one moment someone in the audience refers to Guild as a “Detail Queen”. Every thread, every surface is given full attention.
Discover more: www.wva.nl
Images taken by author, courtesy of Designers Guild.
