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VLife

THIS PAGE Catherine Martin
The Royal Menagerie collection
Monkey Business wallpaper
in Ming Green from Mokum.

’ve always had a passion for and playfulness of these
textiles and their application. creatures and was able to
I’m fascinated by how fabrics explore containing moving
technically work, how they creatures within a botanical
Idrape and can mould to a setting; something I have not
body or a piece of furniture. One done before.
of the great things about The den at Graceland was
working with Mokum has been dubbed ‘The Jungle Room’ after
understanding how the textiles are Elvis’s death. It is his ode to the
loomed. It has certainly stretched tiki craze of the 1960s. Legend
my knowledge and allowed me to has it Vernon Presley told
become much more sophisticated his son he had noticed the
in my own appreciation of textiles. ugliest furniture he’d ever seen
I’m a child of the ’70s and the in a Memphis furniture store.
idea of patterned paper is part Allegedly, as a joke, Elvis had
of my DNA. I think both fabric the entire suite installed in the
and paper bring an extraordinary den at Graceland. Jungle Room
richness and whimsy, and can is my first foray into an overall
also work in tandem to soften a embroidery and a perfect
space. There is something very example of my collaboration
comforting about being enveloped with Mokum allowing me to
in a patterned world. I have always loved the ’60s and ’70s look venture into much more sophisticated fabrication. I love the

of continuous pattern in a room that flows seamlessly from the contrast between the relatively utilitarian base cloth with the luxe
floor to the wall-covering and ceiling. and dense all-over embroidery.
The Royal Menagerie, my latest textile collection with Mokum, One of the things that Mokum’s design director Stephanie Moffitt
is directly inspired by my work on Elvis. Royal Peacock, for instance, and I focus on is building on perennial favourites. It is very
is somewhat serendipitous as it combines my love of a decorative important for us to take designs from previous collections
bird motif intersected with Elvis’s love of peacocks. I think of by recolouring and integrating them into a new collection as it
peacocks as very emblematic of the ’70s, the exuberant Art Nouveau allows for a continuity and evolution of style.
that Biba certainly championed. This, in combination with the As important as patterns are within the collection, you need
success of the 1968 Comeback Special where the peacock was plain fabrics as a counterpoint. They work symbiotically and so we
NBC’s logo, I think helped to cement this bird as a talisman for continued to try and develop velvet. We have a new velvet, Monarque,
Elvis. In Graceland there are the famous peacock stained-glass which has a completely different hand feel, much more liquid in
windows that feature prominently between the living room and the its drape and still leaning into jewel tones but with some more
music room. And he also extrapolated his fascination with peacocks contemporary colours coming through like camel and dusty pinks.
into the embroidery on one of his jumpsuits, too. Tennessee Tussah however, with its open raw silk-look weave,
The Midnight Symphony wall-covering, now set to launch in is an ode to the 1970s drapery fabric of my childhood. All of the fabrics
2023, is an extension of Royal Peacock. It was fabulous to have the in the range connect back to Elvis’s opulent and iconoclastic style
challenge of designing a panel repeat that allows a room to become and celebrate his playful and luxurious exuberance.
a complete environment, immersing you in a fanciful tropical I’m also making my first foray into broad-loom carpet with
garden inhabited by peacocks. Designer Rugs and we took inspiration from my previous collection

The Monkey Business pattern is a nod to Elvis’s pet chimp, Scatter, because the geometric patterns lent themselves to this. It has been
a boisterous and disruptive presence at Graceland. Poor Scatter met really exciting to work with Designer Rugs and Mokum as I was
with an untimely end and, not wanting to point fingers at Graceland able to explore a more cohesive, whole-space look. And later in the
staff or the Memphis Mafia, everyone seemed suspiciously overjoyed year, we will be launching hand-knotted rugs and an extension
when Scatter was no more. I really wanted to capture the vivacity of the Royal Menagerie collection, which is really exciting.

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