Interior Designs: Fiona Howard Unveils New Collection of Dark and Moody Wallpapers

British designer Fiona Howard, celebrated for her hand-drawn patterns and environmentally conscious approach, has launched a new collection of wallpapers inspired by the British coast and countryside. Known for her intricate, nature-inspired designs, Howard continues to champion traditional craftsmanship and sustainability in her latest work.

A rich warm espresso brown colourway of SEALIFE wallpaper in ochre and taupe on a sophisticated coffee brown background. Based on a lino block print design by Fiona Howard this depicts corals, shells, scallops and limpets
swaying softly under the waves.

The collection, produced using the traditional lino block printing technique, features wallpapers created by hand and printed in the UK with eco-friendly inks on sustainably sourced papers. Each design reflects Howard’s dedication to artistry and her belief in the beauty of imperfection.

BIRDSONG wallpaper in Espresso from Fiona Howard - featuring  fresh white blossom and warm ochre tones against a warm coffee coloured background.

WATERLILY wallpaper border in Taupe from Fiona Howard.

As colder months draw in and homes become sanctuaries from the outside world, the designer’s dark and moody palette aims to bring a richer sense of comfort indoors. Deep shades of espresso, inky navy, moss green, plum, and charcoal are combined to create immersive, atmospheric interiors.  From shadowy botanicals to abstract organic motifs, the new range is designed to complement both modern and traditional spaces. Whether used throughout a room or as a striking feature wall, Fiona Howard’s latest designs bring an element of drama, intimacy, and timeless elegance to contemporary interiors.

RADISH wallpaper in Peat, featuring rows of block print radishes in a scallop formation from Fiona Howard. This dark peaty brown wallpaper with contrasting ochre radishes.
Shown here with Radish border (available separately).

“Dark interiors are having a moment because they make us feel safe, grounded, and expressive,” Howard explained. “My aim was to create wallpapers that let you sink into that feeling—where richness and moodiness meet softness and soul.”

WISTERIA wallpaper in Linden from Fiona Howard - a luxury wallpaper featuring pretty white flower trails which enhance a deep rich green background. 

Crafted in Sussex and printed across the UK, the collection maintains Howard’s long-standing commitment to sustainability and artisan quality. Each wallpaper evokes a sense of depth, warmth, and understated luxury, reflecting current trends for tactile, layered textures and natural materials.

A wide selection of the new wallpaper collection available at Fiona Howard Wallpapers.

Images from Fiona Howard Wallpapers

Art Exhibition: Eden Project Marks 25 Years with Landmark Art Exhibition ‘Spirit of the Harvest’ by John Dyer

The Eden Project - the iconic Eco visitor attraction in Cornwall, UK - is currently showcasing Spirit of the Harvest, a major new exhibition by its long-standing Artist in Residence, acclaimed Cornish painter John Dyer. The exhibition celebrates three of the world’s staple food crops — rice, bananas and potatoes — and the global communities who cultivate them.

'Tropical Banana Wildlife Beach, Costa Rica', 35.5 x 35.5 inches acrylic on canvas.
John Dyer Painting of the Caribbean Rainforest.

Running until 9 February 2026, the exhibition marks 25 years of both the Eden Project and Dyer’s residency. It brings together art, ecology and international storytelling in a vibrant exploration of the connections between people, plants and planet.

The entire Link Building between the Rainforest and Mediterranean Biomes has been transformed with deep terracotta walls, creating a striking backdrop for Dyer’s vivid paintings. Alongside each canvas, interpretive panels delve into the botany, cultural heritage and sustainability of these essential crops, aligning the Eden Project’s scientific mission with the expressive power of art.

'Andean Potato Pickers, Amaru, Peru' by John Dyer

“Rice, potatoes and bananas connect every culture on Earth. Painting them for the UN’s Years of Rice and Potato showed me how these crops hold our shared story — where art, people and plants meet.” John Dyer, Artist in Residence, Eden Project

A Global Story in Paint

At the centre of Spirit of the Harvest are four new large-scale paintings, each measuring 35.5 by 35.5 inches, depicting the world’s three principal staple crops. These recent works are displayed alongside earlier plein-air pieces created during Dyer’s expeditions to Peru (2003), Costa Rica (2003 & 2005) and the Philippines (2004) — projects undertaken in collaboration with the Eden Project, the United Nations, and the International Year of Rice and Potato initiatives.

Spanning more than two decades (2003–2025), the exhibition represents a vivid and historically significant body of work that chronicles Dyer’s enduring commitment to portraying humanity’s bond with food, farming and the natural world. The result is a rich, colour-filled visual narrative — a celebration of connection, culture and care at the heart of the global harvest.

For one, the Tropical Banana Wildlife Beach celebrates the lush biodiversity of the Caribbean-coast of Costa Rica, featuring vibrant banana groves, wild sloths, howler monkeys swinging through canopy, toucans perched above neon blossoms, and turquoise sea beyond white sands. Reflecting on small-scale farming and rainforest ecosystems, Dyer applies a radiant palette of emerald greens, sun-lit yellows, deep aquamarines and bursts of scarlet to evoke life, movement and colour. 

Images: John Dyer Gallery

To view the exhibition, click HERE. 

For Collectors - All paintings from Spirit of the Harvest are available exclusively through the John Dyer Gallery, each signed, archived with full provenance and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. Free worldwide delivery is included. Purchasing directly supports Dyer’s ongoing environmental and educational projects.

New Launch: Iluna Group Unveils Sustainable Lace Collection at MarediModa 2025 in Cannes

At this year’s MarediModa fair – the international trade show for beachwear, lingerie, and athleisure fabrics and accessories, held in Cannes from 22 to 24 October – the Iluna Group enticed visitors with the launch of its new lace collection, described as a fluid material that caresses the skin while exuding effortless elegance.

The innovative collection spans stretch laces crafted with ROICA™ EF premium stretch fibre, which contains up to 80% recycled content, and extends to customisable, GRS-certified Lurex nets featuring exclusive prints and flocking. Also showcased were materials composed of up to 99% recycled yarns, including Qnova™ and Renycle™ recycled polyamides — marking a bold step towards a new generation of sustainable and responsible beachwear.

Iluna Group laces, Lurex GRS

Among the highlights, Iluna presented:

Customisable, luminous GRS-certified Lurex mesh fabrics

Exclusive certified printing and flocking finishes

Sustainable fibres such as organic cotton, FSC-certified spun-dyed viscose, recycled polyamides (Qnova™ and Renycle™), and the premium stretch fibre ROICA™ EF, part of the ROICA Eco-Smart™ family.

The collection embodies the new face of beachwear: refined yet environmentally conscious, combining aesthetics, innovation, and respect for the planet. The result, described by Iluna as “a sea to wear”, features light, sensual, and high-performance textures that express allure in every movement and freedom in every wave.

Founded in 1970, the Iluna Group has long been recognised for its excellence, creativity, and responsible innovation in lace manufacturing. A pioneer in redefining lace as a medium of contemporary beauty, Iluna has accompanied women through every stage of life — from intimate lingerie to sophisticated fashion, from activewear to beachwear — offering designs that unite research, elegance, and comfort with a strong commitment to sustainability.

Fashion Recognition: Nicklas Skovgaard wins Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize 2025

Danish designer Nicklas Skovgaard has been named the winner of the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize 2025, the Nordic region’s most prestigious award celebrating emerging fashion entrepreneurs.

Nicklas Skovgaard at the award ceremony receiving his prize from Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg,
Founder of the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize.

Skovgaard receives a cash prize of 500,000 DKK (USD 77,000) and will gain significant exposure through a partnership between the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize and Copenhagen Fashion Week (CFW). The collaboration will provide the designer with communication support and participation in official CFW activities, including the Autumn/Winter 2026 edition, scheduled for 27–30 January 2026.

Celebrating Innovation and Vision

This year’s competition saw Mfpen, Nicklas Skovgaard, and Stel selected as the three finalists, each presenting their collections and business strategies to an international jury of leading fashion professionals. The 2025 edition reinstated the prize’s signature dual-jury format, bringing together both creative and business-focused experts to ensure a comprehensive assessment of each brand’s artistic and commercial strengths.

The creative jury evaluated vision, aesthetics, craftsmanship, and cultural relevance, while the business jury focused on scalability, market potential, and sustainable strategy. The result was a holistic decision that balanced artistry and entrepreneurship.

A Designer Defining Danish Fashion

In his acceptance statement, Skovgaard reflected on his journey and creative philosophy:

“Being a finalist in 2022 was already a huge honour, and winning the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize this year feels like a powerful recognition of how much I’ve grown since then,” he said. “My work has always been about reshaping the familiar and rethinking the nostalgic. This prize motivates me to push further, build a stronger team, and bring my work to a broader audience—while staying true to the emotional and artisanal values that define my brand.”

Jury Praise for a Distinct Creative Voice

Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg, founder of the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize and board member of the Wessel & Vett Foundation, praised Skovgaard’s artistic vision:

“Our winner stood out for a unique and emotionally rich aesthetic that blends theatrical and historical influences with a modern sensibility,” she said. “Through precise construction and a strong sense of form, Skovgaard transforms clothing into storytelling—honest, artistic, and innovative. He represents a bold new voice in Danish design.”

Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, also highlighted the prize’s growing influence:

“The Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize continues to go from strength to strength, celebrating designers who define Danish fashion today. We’re proud to partner with the Wessel & Vett Foundation in supporting emerging talent through CPHFW NEWTALENT.”

A Partnership Supporting Emerging Designers

Since 2022, Copenhagen Fashion Week and the Wessel & Vett Foundation have collaborated through CPHFW NEWTALENT, a talent support scheme providing bursaries and visibility for up-and-coming designers. As Bursary Partner, the Foundation contributes financial support for the brands’ showcases during both the August and February fashion weeks—furthering their shared commitment to fostering creativity and sustainability in Nordic fashion.

About the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize

Founded in 2012 by the Wessel & Vett Foundation, the Fashion Prize is widely regarded as Scandinavia’s leading independent award for fashion design. It champions innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity, honouring Denmark’s design heritage while nurturing the next generation of fashion leaders.

The Foundation itself carries forward the visionary legacy of Theodor Wessel and Emil Vett, founders of the iconic department store Magasin du Nord. Independent from the store today, the Foundation continues to support cultural and creative initiatives that celebrate Danish craftsmanship and entrepreneurial spirit.

AI and the Future of Creativity: Heimtextil Trends 26/27 Highlights Harmony Between Technology and Craft

There is growing concern across the professional and business sectors about the ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming daily life and reshaping the world of work. Many within the creative industries remain sceptical, warning that AI threatens human satisfaction, confidence, and originality in creative roles.

Photo: Alcova for Heimtextil

A recent survey conducted by DIGIT Lab, part of the University of Exeter, explored attitudes towards AI among UK creative professionals. The findings revealed that four in five designers believe the technology undermines originality. According to the survey, reported in Dezeen magazine, 81 per cent of designers said AI dulls creativity, compared with 63 per cent of writers and journalists.

Professor Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen, Director of DIGIT Lab, commented:  “True creativity needs nourishment, not substitution.”  She urged industries to view AI as “a tool for creation, not as a replacement for creativity itself.”

At a recent press briefing in London, Ivonne Seifert, Marketing Communications Director at Messe Frankfurt’s Heimtextil event, reflected on the evolving role of AI in design. She noted that while artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into creative processes, there is also a growing appetite for the handmade, the intuitive, and the imperfect.

Seifert announced that the forthcoming Heimtextil trade fair (13–16 January 2026 in Frankfurt, Germany) will present Trends 26/27 under the central theme “Craft is a Verb”. 

Heimtextile Trends 26/27 Booklet

In collaboration with the design platform Alcova Milano, Heimtextil Trends 26/27 will explore the enduring significance of craftsmanship and the ways in which artificial intelligence can meaningfully complement and enhance it. The concept emphasises that high technology and traditional craft are not opposing forces, but together can inspire fresh creative possibilities.

This dynamic interplay between high-tech and handcraft will generate new creative impulses — from natural influences and handmade materials to AI-generated colour palettes. These innovations will be showcased in the curated Trend Arena in Hall 6.1, which will find its new home at the January 2026 Heimtextil fair, surrounded by the Bed, Bath & Living and Textile Design segments.

Heimtextil Trends 26/27 reveal how artificial intelligence (AI) is set to reshape the textile industry, opening new creative and commercial perspectives through its combination with traditional craftsmanship.

The Heimtextil 26/27 colour palette contrasts earthy shades — sand, clay, soot and olive — with vivid digital accents such as acidic green, lilac and screen blue. The result is a dynamic blend of natural calm and synthetic disruption, reflecting the balance between handcraft and high-tech innovation.
Photo: Alcova for Heimtextil

“The trends provide fresh impulses for sustainable production methods, innovative collaboration models and future-proof business strategies,” said Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt.

Heimtextil highlights not only material and aesthetic developments but also a mindful approach to AI in design. Alcova’s curators, Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, emphasise AI as a complement to human creativity — a tool for relief and inspiration rather than replacement. “We focus on projects that provoke, raise questions and anticipate trends rather than chase them,” Grima noted.

Six key trends illustrate how technology and craftsmanship are converging:

Re: media – Digital renderings meet handcraft, blending pixelated motifs and embroidered textures.

Visible co-work – Designs begin with AI and are completed by hand, merging code and craft.

Sensing nature – Digital tools translate natural patterns such as ocean waves or lichen growth into textile motifs.

A playful touch – Decorative details return, reintroducing joy and spontaneity into functional design.

Crafted irregularity – Visible seams, knots and asymmetry celebrate imperfection as an aesthetic choice.

The uncanny valley – Exposed wires and mechanical forms turn technical components into visible design features.

Art and Textiles: Scabal Unveils Dalí-Inspired Fabric Collection

Scabal, one of the United Kingdom’s most renowned producers of luxury fabrics, is set to unveil a new collection of twelve exclusive fabrics, each inspired by a different painting by Salvador Dalí. 

The collection is presented in collaboration with LAPADA, the Art and Antiques Fair which returns to Berkeley Square, London from 28 October to 2 November 2025.

LAPADA fair in London's Berkeley Square brings together dealers showcasing expertise across the full spectrum of art and antiques — from fine furniture, paintings, and carpets to tapestries, antiquities, clocks, ceramics, silver, decorative objects, and jewellery.

The launch marks the introduction of Scabal’s Limited Edition by Dalí collection—a line of bespoke suits crafted from the brand’s signature Vision fabric.

Reflecting the vivid hues of both butterfly and figure in Dalí’s The Mimetic Character, this fabric translates the artwork’s surreal anatomy into woven form. A satin weave line evokes the elongated limbs of the insect-like silhouette, while a graceful curved stitch traces the rounded edge that frames its body. The interplay of these elements creates two distinct stripe depths, lending the fabric a quiet dynamism and a sense of movement that echoes Dalí’s original vision.

The collaboration revisits a remarkable moment in fashion history. In 1971, Salvador Dalí envisioned the future of menswear through a series of twelve visionary paintings, created exclusively for Scabal. More than five decades later, the British brand has drawn inspiration from those original works to produce a collection that blends art and tailoring in a uniquely modern way.

Each fabric in the collection captures the spirit of a specific Dalí painting, reinterpreting his surreal colours, forms, and motifs through a contemporary lens. Every suit will be custom-made and finished with one of five exclusive linings, reflecting both the artist’s boundless imagination and Scabal’s exceptional craftsmanship.

Taking its cue from Dalí’s 4 Cravates, this design centres on the striking black-and-white stitching that defines the multiple collars worn by the painting’s refined School Kid. Against a softly mottled grey ground, an irregular white stitch is woven into one of two stripes, introducing a tactile, graphic rhythm. The second stripe features a structured green weave that mirrors the distinctive form of the four cravats themselves, uniting texture, tone, and artistry in a single, elegant composition.

“Dalí’s work was ahead of its time, and this collection allows us to explore how his creativity can continue to inspire modern tailoring,” said a spokesperson for Scabal’s design team. “We’ve revisited the colours, shapes, and intricate details of his paintings to create fabrics that bridge art and fashion.”

Drawing on Dalí’s The Stylish Footman, Scabal’s designers have transformed the ink illustration of a lion’s head—poised on the figure’s shoulder—into a contemporary textile masterpiece. A micro-weave fabric, featuring a repeating motif shaped from the elegant curls of the lion’s mane, lends intricate texture and a refined lustre to a deep, dark blue ground. Subtle red tones, woven through a delicate check pattern, recall the painting’s original palette, creating a sophisticated dialogue between art and cloth.

Founded in 1938, Scabal has long been associated with sartorial excellence, supplying fabrics to leading tailors and fashion houses worldwide. Alongside its textiles, the company produces its own range of made-to-measure and prêt-à-porter suits, jackets, and shirts, available through Scabal boutiques across Europe and Asia.

Still a family-owned business, Scabal continues to operate its heritage mill in England, which has been weaving since 1899. With full European production and direct sourcing of premium raw materials, the brand prides itself on maintaining complete quality control—from “sheep to shop, field to fold, and camel to coat.”

The Limited Edition by Dalí collection reaffirms Scabal’s place at the intersection of fine art and fine tailoring, celebrating a shared legacy of creativity, craftsmanship, and timeless style.

To view the Vision collection, click HERE.  

New Launch: Tom Dixon showcases AW25 Collection in King's Cross Flagship Shop

The British designer Tom Dixon has unveiled his latest collection for AW 2025, spanning across lighting, furniture and accessories. Highlights include sofas, mesmerising WHIRL lights, the striking MELT Fluoro and a stylish new range of rugs and textiles - RIDGE cushions, THREAD cushions and throws, BAND throws - and SPIN Candelabras in new finishes. 

GROOVE Table and Chairs outside the Tom Dixon London Flagship shop

Here are excellent images showcasing the extensive collection on display in his London King's Cross Flagship Shop.

SOFT Pendants, PLUMP Sofa, BELL Portables and FLASH Tables

WHIRL Gold Floor Lights, FAT Sofa, LOOPY Rug and MELT Surface Light

WHIRL Gold Chandelier and Table Light, SLAB Armchair and Stool and LOOPY Rug 

GROOVE Outdoor Table and Chairs, SPRING Pendants, CORD Rug and MELT Surface Lights

MELT Pendants, Floor Lights and Portable Fluoro Light with Dichroic filter, SLAB Armchair and Stool, TWEED Rug

PRESS FROSTED Pendants, GROOVE Table, Armchair and Stool and BELL Portable

MELT Pendants, Floor Lights and Portable gold, PLUMP Sofa, WINGBACK Armchair, FLASH Tables,
BELL Portable and LINE Rug

WHIRL Silver Pendants and Surface Lights, PLUMP Sofa, SLAB Armchair and Stool,
 FLASH Tables and KNOTTY Rug

All images from Tom Dixon