LONDON — Giles Deacon has turned his hand to home interiors, debuting a collaboration with Sanderson, the historic English home furnishings brand and longtime royal warrant holder.
Deacon, who continues to design ready-to-wear and couture pieces for private clients, worked alongside Sanderson’s team to blend archive designs with his own illustrations and signature motifs for a collection that comprises around 34 wallpapers and 37 fabrics.
The collection, Sanderston x Giles Deacon, took two years to complete and saw Deacon and the Sanderson team create patterns including Mydsommer Pickings, which is based on Deacon’s ink drawings of poppy heads, and Oology Portal, which features eggs of different shapes and colors.
The egg pattern was drawn from one of Deacon’s archive dress designs.
Giles Deacon posing with his wallpaper mural and fabric designs for Sanderson.
The designer also worked his signature sawtooth stripe into fabrics and created a wallpaper mural called Pygmalion, a grand, theatrical design with curtains, a classical temple and giant artichokes.
Deacon said he was inspired by the work of the British artist Rex Whistler and the stage designer Oliver Messel. The mural also features Rococo dolphins, fennel, garlic bulbs and mollusk shells, strings of pearls and feathers.
Deacon said his aim with the Sanderson designs was to immerse the viewer in a world of “magical storytelling,” by mixing bold and subtle lines and shapes. Colors range from rich, deep jewel tones to softer organic shades, such as indigo, olive and berry, which look as if they’ve been bleached by the sun.
Deacon said while many of the designs and inspirations came from the Sanderson archive, “everything was completely redrawn for the collection. I wanted everything to look like it came from one hand, and belonged to one world. Very little was done on the computer, which gave everything an extra level of authenticity.”
Fabric and wallpaper designs from the new Sanderson x Giles Deacon collection.
Rebecca Craig, Sanderson’s lead designer, said the handmade aspect “whether in the repainting, hand printing, or the drawn elements, is of the utmost importance. This is how Giles has influenced the collection. His hand, whether his penmanship or his own connection to the unmistakable quality of handmade things, comes through in this collection. It is what gives life to these extraordinarily beautiful designs.”
Deacon said the work was similar to fashion in many ways. “We used the same makers and weavers in Suffolk as we do for the clothing collections and the process of design is the same,” said Deacon.
Unlike with fashion, though, he won’t be expected to knock out a new collection next season. “I designed this to be timeless — and to be around forever,” he said.
