Giving an old classic a beach-chic twist
I’ve always been a sucker for seaside motifs, particularly of the Caribbean variety. Show me almost anything with a blue-and-white nautical feel or in a trellis or a palm pattern, even a swizzle stick or matchbook cover (and these small souvenirs are becoming increasingly hard to come by) with the curve of a shell or a funny little sea horse on it and I am like a magpie with something shiny.
Hence the immediate appeal of Kate Thornley-Hall’s new Cayman Islands collection of textiles for Hopson Grace, which has just hit the shop floor in time for Mother’s Day.
Hopson Grace is a midtown retailer of artisanal and design-forward items for the kitchen and table whose curatorial approach is nothing less than inspired. And Thornley-Hall is a London-trained, now Toronto-based, designer of housewares and interiors with a great eye for colour and pattern who’s been a dear pal since kindergarten. I can’t count the hours I have spent in her company soaking up the rays on some beach, dock or patio over the years — and we now both have the laugh lines to prove it.
Which, I guess, is very much a part of what attracts me, and perhaps most of us, to the sunny patterns of the seaside. Fresh and evocative of that wonderful laid-back feeling you get from lounging in the summer’s heat engulfed by the surf’s surround sound, with nothing but the endless blue horizon in front of you interrupted only by the sight of a passing bird or a brilliantly coloured flower on a vine — it’s really all about the bliss of just doing nothing in particular but delighting in being alive and outside.
Table linens are essentially inessential, and yet the way that they can set a tone without much in the way of investment make them gift-worthy. Beachcombing through this collection for treasures, I would have to declare the lovely Cayman toile print the big winner.
What I love most about it is its witty, modern juxtaposition of the classic French toile de Jouy, an old motif which typically featured 18th-century French noblemen and women frolicking in a very European countryside setting. But Thornley-Hall here has cleverly given the old classic a beach-chic twist, with windblown palms, driftwood signs and Caribbean colonial houses strewn amidst sea birds and schooners, instead of busty milkmaids and gentlemen in breeches picnicking beside streams and windmills.
Other finds, such as a delightful sugarbird in a shadow print and the handsome silhouette of a branch of coral, would add interest layered atop a beach-inspired summer table, whether by the sea or in a downtown condo just dreaming of it.
In a way, the whole collection is a play on memory, as most pleasing decorative motifs are. Memories of being barefoot and sandy and sitting down to lunch, so hungry and happy that you couldn’t care less about the tangle of your hair or your wet bathing suit. Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com.