Luxury fashion and home textiles by Claire Gaudion

Today we’re cheering ourselves up with the bright, colourful and beautiful work of textile designer Claire Gaudion, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting briefly on a couple of occasions at design shows. Her abstract and geometric patterns and vibrant colour palettes are inspired by the coastal landscapes and seascapes of her home island of Guernsey. As her website explains:

Guernsey and its’ neighbouring Channel Islands off the coasts of southern Britain and northern France have dramatic and beautiful granite coastlines with ever-changing light and shadows across the sea and skies.

Claire Gaudion’s abstract patterns capture this continual movement and interpret these island qualities in layers of colours and interlacing forms.

Claire matches her exuberant, contemporary designs with luxury textiles – I’m coveting one of her super-fine, soft and light wool scarves – see above. There are wool/cashmere and wool/silk blends to choose from, and both are that perfect combination of warmth and comfort mixed with refinement and luxury – delicious. As an extra bonus, they come beautifully presented in a bespoke, British-made, grey buckram box. Now that’s what I call really special.

Claire also produces a range of home accessories, including printed cotton cushions, lambswool throws and cushions, and silk/merino blend mini-throws which also double up as a cosy wrap, like the one below. They’re perfect for the back of the sofa, ready to be used for extra warmth on chilly evenings.

You can also buy some of the designs printed onto organic cotton twill fabrics by the metre – here are my favourites above.

Claire mixes modern and traditional processes like printing and weaving techniques. Her designs are developed and sampled on the dobby loom in her Hampshire studio, and then larger runs are produced in specialist British mills. She says:

Provenance, heritage, and production methods are very important, and we have chosen to manufacture our collections exclusively in the UK, due to the exceptional quality and craftsmanship of our British manufacturers. We work with selected specialist mills across the UK and our processes use hand-finishing, traditional heritage power looms as well as new technologies in digital print, and weave.

Last but not least, there’s a selection of stationery items, including these fabulous greeting card sets, as well as notebooks and sketchbooks, any of which would make lovely gifts for colour and pattern lovers in your life, or as a treat for yourself. Personally, I’m still hanging on for one of those scarves …