"I Knew Sebastian by Sight . . . . "

Greetings,

When I was first working on my textile collection for SMW Home . . . one of the more daunting tasks was coming up with names for all of the fabrics.  I vividly recall sitting quietly in my hotel restaurant in Edinburgh after finalizing the collection with a legal pad scribbling down family names, literary characters, and important locales in a long stream of possible options.

But, one name was clearly going to be a final choice.

"Sebastian."

“I knew Sebastian by sight long before I met him. That was unavoidable for, from 

his first week, he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason 

of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, 

which seemed to know no bounds... I was struck less by his 

looks than by the fact that he was carrying a large teddy-bear"

                                 - from Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

 "It is thus I like to remember Sebastian, as he was that summer, 

when we wandered alone together through that enchanted palace; Sebastian 

in his wheel chair spinning down the box-edged walks of the kitchen 

gardens in search of alpine strawberries and warm figs, propelling 

himself through the succession of hothouses, from scent to scent and 

climate to climate, to cut the muscat grapes and 

choose orchids for our buttonholes."

                                         - Charles Ryder, Brideshead Revisited 

SMW Home's "Sebastian Tattersall" in Sky

I wanted a name that implied all the glories of an English summer . . . the dusty blue of an early morning - the lush greens of fresh grass and ancient trees and the soft, heathered hues of a riotous English garden in the full blossom of high summer . . .

We've just used Sebastian Tallersall in our project in Vail, Co.

And, of course, I've used it in my own home - on this deep arm chair in our bedroom. 

. . . and don't think I've forgotten about Charles Ryder.  Stay tuned for more behind the scenes stories from SMW Home.

Cheers,
Scot