Found, Loved, Made Again

A collection of my fabric finds

I source materials from all sorts of places, which is part of the joy of the process. I love the circularity of charity shops, and because we have a house in rural France, I never miss the chance to browse village brocantes and vintage markets. I also keep an eye on online marketplaces such as Vinted, Destasher and Instagram, always looking for quality natural fabrics, particularly beautifully laundered linen.

I love brocante or vintage-markets

I enjoy mixing old and new, giving textiles a fresh purpose, whether that’s a jute stair runner becoming a shopping tote or a vintage fabric finding its way into a modern laptop sleeve. Some of my favourite finds have come from travelling. I’ve brought home textiles from New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France and Peru, and each one carries a memory as well as the potential for a new life.

The jute stair runner → shopping tote

More often than not, I buy a textile simply because I love it. It sparks something, and only later do I decide what it wants to become. I think that instinct comes from my first career as a fashion merchandiser at Hobbs. One of my favourite jobs was heading down to the storage unit to choose bolts of cloth, then taking them to designer Marilyn Anselm, who would sketch the following season’s collection. I still get the same excitement today when I discover a fabric with a story waiting to be continued.

I bought this in Peru because I loved it. I still haven't decided what it wants to become