Clothing and interior are my delights of life: fashioning something.
Clothing: I opt for the dark/ muted scheme suited to my style. Interior: I have a far different approach, colours come in to context, along with texture. I was 13, and moving house.
I had the ability to decorate my bedroom from the childish, bright, Barbie pink -(my bedroom was themed Barbie) to a mature, luxury space. When looking for inspiration, I forced my family into visiting show homes, I adored indulging in the luxury, however, imaginative way I could live within a such perfectionist, glamourous environment.
I found, within one of the bedrooms a crushed velvet, pale, almost grey, throw. I died there and then, the way light glimmered off it, the perfect hue of lilac, combined with the mirrored furnishings. I demanded I needed it, and at one moment, wanted to steal it and run away with it hidden in my bag or under my coat.
From then on I wanted this throw, that throw. I forced my parents to revisit this show home as "inspiration" for our new home. In reality, I was conjuring a plot of how to steal this throw, or, pluck up the courage to ask the lady in the sales area where I could purchase this treasure.
I did the latter, not being much of a criminal in my early teens. She responded with "I don't know, we get interior designers in". My fluttering heart, sank, feeling that I should give up on my task of owning the perfect throw, which would sit perfectly at the end of my bed, a feature point of "my" interior design.
I then moved onto a BHS, purple, silk effect throw as an alternative, not exactly the crushed velvet luxury I was looking for, I moved onto a grey crushed velvet- still a beauty, but not quite my lilac desire. After a few years, the velvet throw obsession faded, and I came across white faux fur, which still happily remains.
My initial inspiration of the luxurious high shine, metallic, refined glamour dispersed: evolving with my age, and current trend of extreme minimal. I have also found that what was luxury, is now regarded as cheap and tacky, due to the mass of imitations of the original being produced amongst budget stores.
My interior design aesthetic has moved to a matte texture, with the colours ranging from white, to pale grey the major feature of my bedroom being a skinny standing ikea lamp(chrome stand, white circular shade).
Nevertheless, my obsession for lilac still prevailed. In Liberty London, whilst taking a browse amongst the floors I ventured to the interior department, and found designer HAY. The 'minimal-ness' automatically intrigued me.
I then found, on a perfectly minimal wooden dressing table, a lilac circular desirable. I hadn't a clue what it was, but it was lilac. And not any lilac/ mauve/ violet/ purple, it was mine. My lilac which does not particularly have a defined colour name, rather its own hue or tone. I bought it. It was a small, storage container for "bits and bobs' as it is named. This HAY brand stayed in mind, with its golden pens, scissors and other random items sitting, and stored along matte-minimal objects. The combo of my glamour-to-minimal love being shown very before me. (I very nearly invested in a pair of golden paper scissors, however my logic of my never using these scissors+ spending unnecessary money stopped me) I departed, rather quickly after my purchase, to avoid risk of accidentally over indulging.
Then, during the same trip I visited Selfridges. I entered the lower floors, being the interior departments. I pondered along, and came across another lilac desirable. This time, in a lighter hue, more of a pink-purple, such as the likes of JW Turner's painted skies, which have always satisfied my lilac-pastel needs.
It was a pot.
The purpose being miscellaneous, did not occur to me when deciding, within an instant, that I would not be leaving without it. When I reached for the pot, I then realised, through my tired, tourist of london phase, I was amongst the designs of HAY. Lying next to the pot was a golden pen. The two hues blended so well! I required the pot. Of what purpose, was irrelevant. The pen, did however, give this pot purpose, and would sit, proudly within. Purchase number three was complete, and my desires satisfied, fulfilling the gap of lilac in my life.
