We visited Pompeii last week as part of our trip to the Amalfi coast, and I took this photograph of a mosaic floor at the Villa of the Faun, one of the largest and most opulent houses found in the ruined city.
Although it looks utterly modern, the mosaic would have been created by Roman craftsmen around 200 years BC. More than 2000 years later this 3D cuboid pattern is still going strong, and in fact can be found on a multitude of super-stylish products right now.
I’m very much a geometric and abstract pattern kinda gal, and a couple of years ago I used the then newly-launched “Balyan” fabric by Osborne and Little in the blue/grey colourway (see left) to cover a pair of old dining chairs that I bought as an upcycling project (the chair below, by Andrew Martin, is a lot grander than mine!).
After taking the photo in Pompeii, I knew I would use this mosaic pattern for a C+P=J! piece, and whilst researching the motif I came across a fantastic blog entry from just last month by London-based French interior designer Fabrice Bana about this very same design (great minds etc…). So rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m giving full credit to Monsieur Bana for some exemplary research, and suggest you hop over to his blog – (I’ll definitely be a regular visitor from now on) – to see his inspired selection of interiors and fashion products featuring this ancient pattern; the fabulous Rockman and Rockman side table and Pierre Hardy shoe below are just a couple of them.
Images: Osborne and Little; via A-Gent of Style
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