Q&A with Isla Simpson
I’m excited to continue my partnership with Isla Simpson, releasing a limited edition collection of printed bed linens to add Isla’s signature whimsical charm into your bedrooms. The collaboration brings together Isla’s beautifully hand drawn designs with our expertise in linens to create timeless, heritage pieces for your home.
For those of you who haven’t come across Isla previously, she is a London-based designer and illustrator who is known for her love of a chintzy, cottage-style aesthetic. Isla designs everything from stationery and wallpaper to fabric and lampshades, as well as collaborating with fashion, beauty and events companies to create unique designs with her signature flair.
To celebrate her second collaboration with REBECCA UDALL, we caught up with Isla to ask a few questions about how she designed the print for the bed linen.
I’m excited to launch our bed linen collaboration, following the success of the table linens last year. Could you share the process of how you designed the print for this new collection?
Aiming for a pretty but understated print, I began drawing lots of posies and floral motifs, most of which didn’t make the cut. Connection and spacing, and how the pattern will be cut and sewn are thoughts whirling round my head when I’m designing. It’s an instinctive process I have to feel my way through. It’s designing something I would want for myself – that’s the rule.
Why did you choose forget-me-nots and roses for this print?
I like classical flowers with timeless appeal, that I can draw in a stylised and designed manner, rather than an accurate botanical drawing.
I love your aesthetic; it translates so well into linen design. Where does your love of chintzy, cottage-style designs come from?
Thank you. It’s an inherited style I grew up with; lots of ruffles and feminine patterns that brought the garden into the home. It’s a look that never seems to date, because it’s just so comfortable to live with.
Where do you look for inspiration for your designs?
Auctions, National Trust houses and increasingly old books from the eighties. I’m also obsessed with Swedish style at the moment.
How will you style these linens in your own bedroom?
With my cast iron bed, frilly valance and quilted blanket for when the nights draw in. Heaven!
Read more about our table linens collaboration with Isla here, and shop the new collection of Isla Simpson bed linen.
