Anna Spiro introduces Trophy Fabric in her book “Absolutely beautiful things” . It’s the idea of a fabric so joyful it makes your heart do a little tap dance and then leads all other colour and design choices. I’m not even slightly ashamed to admit I was smitten. Yes, I probably need to get out more.
“ When selecting fabrics for a room, I always start with something I call the “trophy fabric”. It is usually patterned, will have lots of colours and, despite it’s bravado, might only be used for a cushion or on a small stool”
Anna Spiro
It’s something I’ve always done without thinking and I’ve noticed the many quilters do it too. Pick your hero fabric, then choose everything else to fall in line with it.
The magic of the trophy fabric is that it becomes your palette cheat sheet…
… informing decisions across rooms, finishes and pieces. It needs to be multicoloured, and the more colours, the more coordinating options. Trouble is, amongst the 50 shades of beige, the good ones are hard to find.
You can see examples of this in many a designer’s moodboard, one textile anchoring the whole scheme.
I did it for our guest room after falling in love with this beauty…
This week I’m on another trophy fabric hunt. In true creative form, I’ve done things backwards having already selected cornflower blue, cypress green and linen.
We’ll call it a tight brief, shall we?
The first contender is Warwick’s Picton velvet in sorbet. I’m liking the little pops of coral and peach and the organic nature of the print but I’m not done searching yet.
From the looks of this pic I should probably hunt for the iron too!
Suggestions? Favourites? What piece of trophy fabric have you fallen in love with?
Drop a comment below and in the meantime, I’m off to hunt.
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