Seeds of design
She’s designed textiles for the likes of Chanel and Dior, with her work sometimes being spotted on the catwalk or on high street. In this q&a we learn more about Jayne Emerson, her textile designs, and ‘fabric recipes’.
Hello, who are you? Tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi, my name is Jayne Emerson and I’m a textile designer.
I work mostly with reclaimed/vintage fabrics and reinvent them into new textiles, more often than not with stitch. I use a variety of techniques that I mix together and call ‘fabric recipes’.
Your inspiration walls are very intriguing! What sort of pieces make the cut onto here?
I love having all my inspiration on show and the walls are basically my sketchbook. I pin magazine cuttings, vintage fabrics, ideas that I want to develop further, motivational quotes and objects that inspire me. They are ever changing!
I’ve seen few dolls with animal heads scattered through your Instagram. What is this all about?
Ha ha! Years ago, a friend asked me to do a window installation for a Halloween party. I gathered lots of car boot sale toys, took them apart and reassembled them. At the end of the party a cat with a dolls head disappeared on the shoulder of a particularly glamorous guest as did a cats head on a dolls body! I decided to make a few more and now most of my good friends have one in their possession. I sell them occasionally but they are rather marmite!
You have many initiatives that seem to encourage community in the textile world. Can you tell me about #fabricrecipes, your workshops and The No Rules Textile Society?
I love sharing my ideas and encouraging others to play and discover their unique style. Over lockdown I particularly felt the need to do this but homeschooling two children and filming my online courses left me with little time. I had been writing down ideas about word prompts for a long time and in February decided to do a hashtag challenge on Instagram called February #fabricrecipes. I warned my children that I would be on my phone a lot and invited my followers to join me! It was such a wonderful challenge and I (virtually) met lots of new and lovely people. No one seemed to want it to end so I decided to take another great leap and launch a membership called the No Rules Textile Society. It’s an expansion of the word prompt idea where, instead of a word a day, we explore a word a month. There are inspirational videos, interviews with other artists and zoom calls where we share our work and ideas.
You’ve sold your work internationally to clients including Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. This sounds incredible! Can you tell me a bit about this journey and are there any pieces by these brands that you had a hand in helping create/design?
I’ve been selling my textile designs to fashion and interiors companies for well over 20 years. It’s a job I adore as I get to create the seeds of ideas without worrying about putting them into production! Designers buy my work as inspiration for a print or a weave; sometimes they directly translate my embroideries but often it’s the texture or composition they are interested in. Occasionally I will spot one of my designs on the catwalk or on the high street. They have been used on everything from duvet covers to couture gowns!
What influences your creative style?
I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot recently. I love all things ethereal, romantic, rustic but then mix them with grids, texture and abstract qualities. I love to create ‘weaves’ with my sewing machine and find new ways of using traditional textile techniques. I find inspiration everywhere – it’s a matter of always looking, knowing when a spark flies and usually capturing it on my phone!
What does a normal day look like for you?
I usually wake up wishing I had gone to bed earlier! I’m a real night owl and my creative brain clicks into gear once the sun has set. After getting my children off to school I return to my studio where I rebel against the plan that I have written in my journal! I work quite intuitively and do admin jobs, designing or filming depending on what mood I am in. Unless something is urgent! 3.30pm and the return of the school bus always seems to come around in a flash.
Jayne is also currently filming her third online course called Water Soluble Magic.
Gloucestershire, UK
