Blog Post No.47
The wallpapers of the White House
14 / 07 / 2021
For Jennifer, art has always been a way of life. After falling in love with painting and drawing at a young age, she began attending art classes to master the techniques of oil painting and watercolour. Upon moving to England as an adolescent, she discovered textiles originating from different parts of the British empire.
“I was lovestruck when I saw them,” said Jennifer, whose fascination with textiles only grew as she started going to fairs and auctions to source them. For many years, her interest in traditions from 17th Century French brocade to strip-woven cloth from West Africa was just a hobby. “It was a weird little thing I did on the side,” said Jennifer about her relentless search for textiles from Genoa to India to Uzbekistan.
After studying History of Art at L’Ecole du Louvre, Jennifer began to buy and sell paintings – a career cut short due to the financial crash, when many collectors were no longer buying art. “Suddenly the textile rescued me. This was the one thing I still could do,” she said of her serendipitous success selling textiles when selling paintings went bust. Realizing just how in-demand textiles were, Jennifer found a manufacturer from a friend in Italy and selected patterns for her new repertoire. “It was kind of this amazing moment where everything came together,” she mused.
Jennifer began to ask herself important questions, such as “If I were a great collector of paintings, what textiles would I want on my furniture? What would I choose?” After launching her eponymous textile label in 2013, she attained representation from Michael Smith – the ‘decorator in chief’ of the Obama White House. With her textiles in the private wing of the White House, Jennifer grew to be recognized for her modern vision of elegant fabrics that marry old-world craftsmanship with a contemporary flair.
“I was lovestruck when I saw them,” said Jennifer, whose fascination with textiles only grew as she started going to fairs and auctions to source them. For many years, her interest in traditions from 17th Century French brocade to strip-woven cloth from West Africa was just a hobby. “It was a weird little thing I did on the side,” said Jennifer about her relentless search for textiles from Genoa to India to Uzbekistan.
After studying History of Art at L’Ecole du Louvre, Jennifer began to buy and sell paintings – a career cut short due to the financial crash, when many collectors were no longer buying art. “Suddenly the textile rescued me. This was the one thing I still could do,” she said of her serendipitous success selling textiles when selling paintings went bust. Realizing just how in-demand textiles were, Jennifer found a manufacturer from a friend in Italy and selected patterns for her new repertoire. “It was kind of this amazing moment where everything came together,” she mused.
Jennifer began to ask herself important questions, such as “If I were a great collector of paintings, what textiles would I want on my furniture? What would I choose?” After launching her eponymous textile label in 2013, she attained representation from Michael Smith – the ‘decorator in chief’ of the Obama White House. With her textiles in the private wing of the White House, Jennifer grew to be recognized for her modern vision of elegant fabrics that marry old-world craftsmanship with a contemporary flair.
“ I was always interested in art and painting, so I studied the History of Art at the Louvre Museum, but on the side I was always collecting these little pieces of random cloths from Genoa, India, Uzbekistan, or anywhere.”
Jennifer
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