Lisa Stickley: Prolific Designs

‘I love to have beautiful things around me,’ Lisa tells me as she welcomes me back to her Clapham shop and head office.

It been three years since I last interviewed Lisa Stickley and a lot has happened. It’s hard to enter a homewares shop in the UK without coming across Lisa’s work: her bestselling make-up bags are stocked up and down the country, in premium sites such as Selfridges, Liberty’s and Fenwick’s, and internationally. ‘I love the way Liberty’s display my products,’ she tells me, ‘and I get such a kick from seeing my washbags next to Prada bubble bath.’

The Clapham store is immaculately and perfectly styled and is also home to the Lisa Stickley team. Along with her assistant Martha, Lisa still does all the designing herself. ‘I have had to start letting go of some of the styling,’ she tells me. ‘But I find it very hard. And if I see my products in a store I do start to rearrange them.’ Which perhaps explains why Lisa is keen to develop her very own retail offer.

Lisa is often described as the new Cath Kidston and, although she is perhaps a hipper offering, it is not something she has a problem with. ‘I really admire Cath, but we’re very different. My work is nostalgic but has a very contemporary feel to it.’ This is perhaps what makes Lisa the design choice for the modern woman and celebrity fans. Yes, her prints have flowers but they are juxtaposed with naïve line drawings and have a very graphic art edge. Talking about her work she says: ‘It comes from within me and I’m prolific in my work. Ever since I was little I’ve been continually making things.’

Stickley studied Textiles at Central St Martin’s and the Royal College of Art, where she was snapped up by Burberry to design a set of tablecloths, giving her the early confidence to develop her own range. Her newest work includes a beautiful collection of elegant handbags and new china and she is also proud to have her first book, Made at Home, published by Quadrille. ‘It’s very much for someone with their first sewing machine and first home which they want to make their own.’ She shows me her labour of love: ‘Everything in here is me, although I did ask my friend Katie Sellers to do the styling.’ The books has her stamp engrained, right down to the fact it is entirely in lower case, there’s not a capital in sight. You can hear her voice in every project: ‘for an extra posh napkin it is nice to add a buttonhole to one corner. i first saw this done on a british airways napkin from the 1960s; it is a great idea, especially when wearing a white shirt and eating spaghetti.’

To Lisa sewing is akin to cooking: ‘Fabric is just like using good ingredients’. Her own fabric features throughout the book, but she adds: ‘You might use a lovely fabric that your mother gave you.’ The book covers four key areas of the home: kitchen, living room, bedroom and laundry, with step-by-step sewing projects for each, complemented by her trademark line drawings.

I asked Lisa about the return to homecrafts that is sweeping the nation and she tells me it’s not just in the UK. ‘Have you seen the new Sweat Shop café in Paris, it’s like an internet café with sewing machines.’ She puts much of our recent interest as a counter to the fast pace of city life. ‘People are looking to take a breath and slow down a bit. I think it’s also a backlash against the cheap consumer culture - people want things that have more individuality and that are lasting and special. They want to know where things come from and feel connected with them.’

Lisa is truly prolific in her work and, as well as her new book, she has just produced a news homewares range for Debenhams and, for the Tate, a range of stationery and bags called Lisa Stickley for Tate with pencil tins and kit bags that can be used as knitting bags.

‘I love Tate Modern and I loved doing the collection,’ she says. She is currently designing her own stationery range featuring journals. Other new projects include the addition of a Liberty print on a new washbag that will be out in time for Christmas. Lisa been in her Clapham shop, home and headquarters for four years now but tells me she is looking to move on, so south Londoners should really take the chance to meet this talented designer. ‘For the first four years I worked in my bedroom, I’ve been upstairs for another four. I need to be able to walk to work’ she smiles.

Book Launch

Time & Leisure readers are invited to join Lisa Stickely for the launch of her new book, 'Made At Home: A Guide to Simple Sewing' on Friday 1st July. There will be a book signing from 10am, and a book party, bubbles and cakes from 4pm to 8pm. See details below.

74 Landor Road, Clapham, SW9 9PH
Rsvp 0207 737 8067
www.lisastickleylondon.com