As an award-winning and pioneering textile designer, Margo Selby has pushed the boundaries of woven textiles. She combines industrial and technological innovations with hand-crafted sensibilities to produce fabrics that are luxurious, extremely tactile and instantly recognisable. Her trademark patterns, 3-D textures and colour palettes are highly contemporary yet also have a rich subtlety that allows them to work equally well in both traditional and contemporary settings.
Margo trained at Chelsea College of Art and Design, followed by a postgraduate degree at The Royal College of Art (RCA), graduating in 2001. Her RCA degree show produced an overwhelming demand for her textiles; to explore the possibilities for their production she immediately started developing relationships with textile mills, a process which is on-going today.
The next steps in creating her unique 3-dimensional fabrics occurred during the 18 months she worked at The Ann Sutton Foundation, a research centre for woven textiles, and where Margo was one of the founding fellows. As well as working on industrial projects, she was also developing her own work; it was here that her hand-woven techniques were combined with industrial machinery to create her signature textured fabrics.
Her continued success led to the opening of a shop and gallery in Bloomsbury, central London in 2007. Her own textiles are designed and developed in the basement, where a 24-shaft dobby loom is used to develop fabrics for future production. Experiments with structure and fibre combinations can be carried out during this hand-woven stage of the process.
Development completed, the fabrics are produced at specialist mills and then made up into a variety of products back in the studio. In addition, hand-woven scarves are made on the loom and sold both in the gallery and through the online store.
Upstairs, the gallery space showcases the work of British designer-makers, including jewellery, textiles, glass and ceramics. Details of exhibitions and featured artists can be found on the Events page of her website.
Available both from the shop and online are a growing range of products; the interiors collections includes cushions, lampshades, woven and knitted throws, furniture, wallpaper and rugs.
Jackets, scarves and ties are also available for those not wishing to confine their Margo Selby designs to indoors, and zipped wash bags and purses are perfect for travel.
All her fabrics are also available by the metre, and samples can be requested. The designs can be produced in a range of weights, making them suitable for everything from clothing, to home accessories and heavy-duty upholstery. Exclusive and bespoke fabrics can also be custom-made for large projects or collaborations.
To date the designer’s enthusiasm for collaborating with designers across a range of disciplines has seen her fabrics being used in fashion, architecture, interiors and lighting. These projects have included giftware collections for many of the London museums and galleries including Tate, The British Museum, The National Gallery and The Hayward Gallery and, pictured below, clockwise from top left: shoes and boots for The Old Curiousity Shop; the ‘Bloomsbury’ range of bedlinen and rugs for Habitat as part of the ‘Eureka’ project through Design Nation; a specially hard-wearing fabric for the Healthy Back Bag Company; Trellick fabric with People Will Always Need Plates; and fabrics for a couture collection of coats and jackets by Sarah Rees.
Workshops are also run by Margo in her studio. Sewing enthusiasts can make products such as cushions and luxury gift sets from a choice of fabrics; or maybe try a 2-day weaving workshop where you can learn the basics of weaving, experiment with different structures and yarns, and produce your own woven cloth or product.
For more information about products and events, to buy products online, request fabric samples or book workshops, visit www.margoselby.com
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