Why old is gold

‘Lockdown made designers ever more resourceful’

OF all the names closely associated with interior design, it is those that have innovated with pattern that are imprinted most clearly in the memory; the Victorian simplicity of Laura Ashley, the folky vibe, compiled by the influential Victorian architect Owen Jones, to realise that the possibilities of pattern are almost infinite. His book—still easy to track down—is a celebration of pattern from the four corners of the globe, but, 170 years later, it would seem to have barely touched the surface. That infinite possibility is what keeps the collections coming; each spring and autumn, designers unveil new additions to an art form that never stops evolving.