Designer spotlight
One of Johannesburg’s leading interior designers, Tessa Proudfoot, will be in the spotlight
PROUDFOOT is one of only a handful of South African designers to be awarded the privilege of being in the Decorex Designer Spotlight. The opportunity means a premium stand at the exhibition entrance, plus unparalleled publicity. This designer exhibit has become one of the highlights of SA’s leading décor, design and lifestyle exhibition.
Tessa Proudfoot has elected to use Decorex Joburg to launch her new fabric range, a sequel to her first collaboration with St Leger and Viney three years ago. The range will again feature Tessa’s signature colour Inky Sea, but also includes other classics, such as Pale Wheat, Elephant’s Breath and Charcoal. There are also additions — Labrador, Eucalyptus and Donkey Brown — all in overblown floral and graphic patterns. The collection is printed on top-quality linens in Italy and the UK but at competitive prices.
Decorex Joburg visitors will be the first to see the new Tessa Proudfoot collection, a celebration of colour, texture and fine design. The fabrics will be incorporated into Proudfoot’s dreamy blue and white installation at the entrance to Hall 5 at Decorex Joburg.
Proudfoot pays tribute to outgoing St Leger and Viney MD Gary Searle, saying he had played a vital role in the creation of the two fabric collections.
“Gary is tremendously sophisticated. He’s got innate style and good taste — he just knows when something is right and it is his discerning … eye that provided the gravitas of this collection.”
In collaborating on a locally designed but internationally manufactured fabric collection, Proudfoot and Searle agreed that not everyone has the budget that allows for the inclusion of imported linens such as those produced by Ralph Lauren, Lizzo and Zoffany in their interiors. But by taking local designer Tessa’s designs to the same English mill, it has been possible to produce a world-class fabric for less than R1,000/
The collections celebrates both contrast, with classic paisley designs teamed with oversized florals and supersized hounds tooth and polka dots.
She is most proud of an unexpected donkey-brown floral in the new collection, as well as a golden print named after her Labrador Isabella.
Decorex SA GM of events and exhibitions, Sian Steyn, said Decorex Joburg is delighted that a designer of Tessa Proudfoot’s calibre has accepted the invitation to design and curate the Decorex Designer Spotlight installation at this year’s show –—and that St Leger and Viney have chosen to use Decorex Joburg as the platform to launch Tessa Proudfoot’s new fabric collection.