Pia’s Picks: rebels from the North
4.6.2021
I like many things, but my apartment can’t fit them all. So, many products end up in my watch list instead of my shopping cart. Here’s a few of them in case you’re looking to be inspired. This week, it’s things that scream summer non-traditionally.
Navy stripes are chic, no doubt about it. However, they also get boring quickly. I put up with them on sunshades, blinds or towels. But I keep them away from my living room. I don’t want a yacht club vibe. Block stripes, however, are a totally different story. Thick, rich and colourful – rebelliously they crisscross the surface. Their striking style is reminiscent of the Middle Ages, their period of origin.
Stripes have a long-standing history in fashion – a history that Nordic brands HK Living and Oyoy are certainly familiar with. They first appeared in the Middle Ages and were worn by sailors to make them more visible as outsiders. In 1858, the French military officially determined what a sailor’s blue and white marinière should look like.
Le corps de la chemise devra compter 21 rayures blanches, chacune deux fois plus large que les 20 à 21 rayures bleu indigo. Source: Wikipedia
In English: the shirt must have 21 white stripes, each twice as wide as the 20 to 21 indigo blue stripes. Equal in size or not, the stripe was adopted by Coco Chanel, the Beatniks and the youthful counterculture of the 1960s. Until it finally became a classic – and for me somehow a bore – in the closet. Fortunately, there are rebellious Nordic thinkers in interior design who are reinterpreting the maritime pattern in a new way and sometimes use more or fewer than 21 stripes. And since the pattern screams «summer» like no other, it’s time to stock up.
All aboard no yacht
Use block stripes carefully or boldly. If you want to start small, I recommend making a single object the starring role. For example, place a decorative pillow in the living room. This way, you’ll add a splash of colour to any sofa, no matter how grey. Or put a rebel next to a plain Jane: the thinly striped navy pattern softens any block stripes.
Absolute eye-catching is combining design objects with diagonal and vertical stripes with other prints. For example, a floral print. The mix and match turns any room, no matter how neutral, into an adventure, and that’s a good thing.
Because unlike in fashion, being a bird of paradise is no issue in interior design. It applies to the colours, too. Blue and white was yesterday. Stripe patterns can come in more than just one colour. Just as the stripes don’t always have to be the same thickness. After all, this rebellious thinking is what makes a pattern exciting in the end.
«Pia’s Picks» will be back next week! Tune in for more items from my watch list that you can use to spruce up your home.
Pia Seidel
Senior Editor
Pia.Seidel@digitecgalaxus.chLike a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.
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