The art of matching your tablescape to your outfit
With a new craze for elaborate table settings, eating at home has never looked so good, says Caroline Leaper
If the best that this summer is going to offer us is a socially distanced garden gathering with up to six guests then, naturally, we’re going to want to make the very best of it. Tablescaping – the art of setting your table in the most visually exciting, stylish way possible – is the lockdown activity to try if you aim to impress. It’s about turning every at-home meal into a theatrical event, providing some much-wanted wowfactor for the family, and eventually for guests who may have only seen their own chipped crockery for the past 12 weeks.
For those who used to enjoy channelling their creativity into curating a perfectly accessorised outfit for an occasion, the lockdown summer tablescape is your new, alternative outlet. Getting all dressed up with nowhere to go is entirely the point – we’re still dressing for our setting, it just so happens that we’re not leaving the garden.
There are trendy pieces and fashionable tableware brands in the same way as there are clothing labels – Bordallo Pinheiro’s cabbage leaf plates, Dinosaur Designs’ marbled bowls, and Summerill and Bishop’s rainbow napkins all sell out again and again. Fashion retailers such as Matchesfashion, Arket, Zara and H&M have all made it their mission in recent years to mimic their trenddriving fashion success in the tableware market.
The alpha move, of course, is to bring fashion and food back together and be the consummate host in the ideal matching outfit. There are plenty of trends that cross pollinate both worlds; rickrack trims, rainbow colours, organic linens and raffia have been applied as liberally this season to shoes and dresses as to table cloths and placemats.
“I never could have predicted that tablescaping would take off in the way it has, I thought it was just a quirk I had,” says Fiona Leahy, the event planner who has been outfitting fashion designer dinners since 2005 (one reason that the two activities have merged so seamlessly is because Leahy has influenced clients in both camps, encouraging, say, Dior to show editors its new clothing collection over a suitably themed table). “Last summer was a huge tipping point, it’s now a cultural phenomenon. Now if anyone’s got friends coming over, they think about how they’re going to set the table. It’s an aesthetic thing, but it’s centred around food, and entertaining people.”
In lockdown, even more of us have found the time to have a go. Leahy says that even those who are dining alone in front of the television can try a “trayscape” for one. However many you are catering for, the only rule is that you need to pick a theme that ties together all elements. Different textures, colours and heights can then be incorporated via napkins, cloths, placemats, china, cutlery, glassware, plants and candles – think of it as a landscape scene.
“Just have fun with it,” Leahy insists. “Not everything has to match. In fact it’s often better when it doesn’t; now’s the ideal time to go through all the old things in your cupboards and experiment with what goes together.”
Tablescaping is an incredibly photogenic activity and the trend has been amplified on social media. This summer, the world’s chicest will be dressing to match their garden table set-ups, rather than their Greek holiday vistas – a vibrant tablescape would make for an ideal Instagram backdrop. There are more than one million #tablescape posts to take inspiration from on Instagram alone.
Under the handle @tablescapestyle, Oilbhe, Countess of Belfast, has started sharing images of some of the world’s most beautiful and elaborate set-ups. The barrister founded the account just a month ago in lockdown as a source of escapism and encourages her followers (a whole community of table-laying enthusiasts) to submit pictures of their own at-home efforts.
“Each person reflects their own personality at their table,” she explains. “I see a lot of people repurposing what they have to create different looks, combining old china with modern pieces. Many tables are decorated with wildflowers and green foliage picked from the garden. Blue and white is back in fashion, as is chintz. Decorating the table has been intertwined with entertaining since the Georgian period, so it is not a phenomenon particular to the digital age, but there has been a surge in the popularity [of sharing posts] in lockdown.”
Elsewhere, Alice Naylor-leyland, a Vogue writer, has influenced more than 130,000 followers on Instagram, an audience compelled to watch how she will be setting her lockdown dinner table in Cambridgeshire each night. Just like a fast fashion fix, you can buy a ready-made tablescape in a box from her for around £340 (alicenaylorleyland.com), while other “stars” of the sport include Laura Jackson, a television presenter, and Liz Linkleter, former publicist for Alexander Mcqueen.
London-based brand Summerill & Bishop was founded in 1994 and has welcomed the return to maximalist table settings, following years where the market was dominated by Scandi minimalist design. In lockdown, Seb Bishop, the CEO, says, customers have been splashing out on joy-bringing, bold homewares.
“Bright colours and happy patterns have been the strongest sellers over the past few months,” he says. “Our Rainbow Collection, designed last year and always scheduled to launch this March, quite by fate tapped into the lovely global movement for the rainbow as the sign of hope and thanks during the pandemic.”
But can a lockdown dinner table ever be as experiential as a trip to a favourite, bustling restaurant?
“Get a different member of the family to style the table each day, putting their own creative stamp on mealtimes,” Bishop suggests. “It is a great way to get kids involved too.”
His top tips? “Start from the foundation, the tablecloth, as it transforms the table and room instantly, lifting even the simplest meal. Don’t be afraid to mix and match and include items that mean something to you and bring you joy. We are always telling our customers not to save things for special occasions; every day should be special and never more so than now.”
‘Don’t be afraid to mix and match and include items that bring you joy’