Inspired wanderings to Coigach
For over a decade Virginia and her family have spent the summers up in Coigach on the North West coast of Scotland looking out towards the Outer Hebrides.
In a house anchored into the rocks, tied back into the cliff edge, barely above the sea and with far reaching views. No day or even hour is the same here, where the light on sea, coastline and mountains runs a constant and mesmerising show.
As with most good things, the discovery of this area was a tip-off from a friend and a spur of the moment trip ending with a triple rainbow when arriving here. That sealed this as a place to wish to return to.
Virginia’s eldest daughter Iona recently got married and she and her husband Peter love this area so much, they came here for their honeymoon – to recharge and reset after all the work and excitement.
The prehistoric settlements here, dating back to Early Bronze and Iron Age (1st Millenium BC), ruins of old hut circles and brochs, the later crofting parcels and their walls running down to the sea, are some of what attracted Virginia and her family to come here. Fascinatingly the area, which used to be vibrant and crowded with one of the most important C18th & C19th herring stations, and all the business that this brought from far and wide, is now a tranquil and gentle community of mainly artists and some fishermen.
This year a talented dancer and friend from Maine came to visit and whilst talking to his mother with her forensic research into their Scottish ancestry, it turns out his family came from as close as 45 miles away and would have left in the Highland Clearances and sailed to America possibly on the Hector in 1773. Seeing him here with his red hair and green eyes, swimming in little waterfalls, reading on a cliff over the sea, he looked totally connected to the land and we hope he will become a regular visitor.
Nature here never fails to inspire Virginia. Her Fabric Collection joins her on every trip North. Laying the fabrics onto the heather or bracken, draping it over rocks or pebble beaches, hanging it from old tin roofs, clipping it to wire fencing and allowing it to Blow in the Wind. You realise how much of this place shows through the Collection; the colours, the sound of birds screeching and diving into the sea, dolphins passing daily, otters playing early evening, pale lichen attached to stone and branch, water pools and seaweed creating rust colours, pockets of white sand beaches found in hidden coves.
Our fabrics and wallpapers are a response to the world around us, they are not reproductions, they are originals in every way but steeped in a sense of the ancient and permanent. Nature.
This Autumn we focus on our new reversible woven fabric collection called Xander and Juno. Both are lightweight and have a floaty feeling and celebrate the gentle breeze and the natural fibres and hues we see in this Summer place around us.
The idea for the reversible came from Virginia’s many trips to New York and the need for lightweight curtains – heavier than a sheer – that envelop the room but do not need to add warmth or black out or even be lined. Close living quarters, being overlocked, New York’s sharp contours, called for something soft, organic and floaty and yet utterly classic and chic.
Xander, named after Virginia’s much loved youngest nephew and golden boy, comes in shades of the Scottish sea and landscape around Coigach. Colours are Ocean, Moss, Spinach and Icicle. Woven at one of England’s oldest weavers and using only the best natural fibres, we celebrate British craft and manufacturing.
Seen here as the window treatment in Virginia’s own London apartment, Juno, is a minimalist woven reversible with very subtle vertical lines in delicate shades that complement Xander. It resonates with Virginia’s aesthetic of keeping the window treatment calm and gentle.
The featured Juno colours below are Natural, Sky and Sage.
