Mind Your P's & Q's

Next week we launch our new trio of designs at Maison et Objet in Paris. The three new fabrics are woven up in our new lighter wight lambswool yarn and will be available as blankets and cushions.

We put a lot of thought into the names for our fabrics and they often go through a number of different working titles before we finalize the names. This time we seem to be on a gastronomic theme.

The four-dot pattern above is called Peppercorn. The scale of the pattern is small and delicate but the strong contrast in the tone of the front and back packs a punch. I also like the linguistic associations of Peppercorn payments - although I am afraid that this blanket is just the same price as all the other new ones.

We have called this design Quince for the deep golden colour in the diagonal pattern. There is something both exotic and familiar about them. Quinces feature in so many still life paintings - there is a particularly beautiful one in the sixteenth century bodegon (larder) painting with 'Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber' by Juan Sánchez Cotán.

The charcoal grey and white design below is called Pontefract for the famous stamped liquorice sweets. Flavoured with the locally grown root, these 'cakes' have been made in the Yorkshire town for over four hundred years.