In conversation with Jennifer Shorto - Textile & Wallpaper designer

Jennifer is a global citizen who has experienced living in many different countries and cultures. Jennifer takes this sense of adventure and mixes it with fantasy to create her amazing textiles and wallpapers.

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Hi, I'm Jennifer shorter, and I make textiles and wallpapers. Hello, and welcome to the London property podcast. Today we're in conversation with Jennifer shorter, who has turned her passion into a business, producing beautiful fabrics and wallpaper, using her background from living in various places all over the world, and her passion for textile history. Welcome, Jennifer, thank you for joining us, I find us it's a, it's a great pleasure to do this with you. You business started from from a passion you've always had in textile history. And you you've been interested in textiles from all over the world dating back to the 17th century French, West African. Tell us a little bit about that, how did it all start to inspire you to begin with, I think I think it was actually arriving in a you know, arriving in England because I grew up in, in Belgium, and in Belgium, that just wasn't the same. I didn't have the same I didn't have the same exposure to to textile, I suppose it's because when you arrive, and when you arrive in England, your, your, your you know, all these, you know, all the, the influences coming from all the parts of the Empire just thrown at you. And there's this kind of extraordinary moment of discovery when you arrive in London, and you go to sort of some formidable houses, where all this is clumped together, you know, it's still sort of like smelling of Victoriana. Some or, you know, and, and suddenly, and when I was 18, I, I, you know, had just come out of boarding school. And I, I started and I, and I started going to this house because I thought, you know, I sort of fell in love and, and it was a house that had been decorated by benison. And, and Joffrey Benson has been, you know, forever this kind of mythical decorator, who used to who did, you know, the houses of the Rothschilds and in the 70s, and, and he countless things but real beauties, and he had thrown together in one of these studio artists Studios in London on on the plates in replace, he'd thrown all these sort of like wonderful antique textiles together. And I think I was just sort of like, smitten, you know, and, and so And furthermore, the man who lived there completely intrigued me. And I fell in love with him. So there was this kind of like, big bonfire of excitements here going on. So I started very early, you had to redo my Latin exam. I had, like, I was not, I wasn't a good student at all, you know? And anyway, so he said, Oh, yeah, don't worry, I'll help you out with this. So I started living with him practically. And then sort of so curious about this wonderful house, I, this this artist studio, I, I start, you know, I would, you know, sort of looking around at all the cupboards and, and then inside one of the cupboards there was this old suzani and, you know, I just, I know that we've seen suzani so many societies, and we're all sort of like, I mean, I have to sound kind of like there's a moment where it's a bit saturation, but, but this particular one, I first of all, I wasn't familiar with him when I was 18. And, and the other thing is that this one was like a sort of like late 18th century, early 19th century one so the colours were just exquisite, and the workmanship on them even though it was quite sort of like an old piece of you know, was not in a great state at all. And so I suppose that's my kind of like rosebuds you know, thing and that's why I just sort of Yeah, when when always go back to this cupboard, you know, but in actual fact, it was the whole sort of like the talent of venison, you know, putting everything all together and just this Yeah, this wonderful moment. And so going back to the history of fabrics, because obviously, at the time where fabrics were were used by people you didn't have printers, you didn't have graphic designers, so it was all done, you know, by hand using natural colours. And I guess your your, your work is inspired by by the old mixing it with the new. So one of one of the things that I was reading about is how you bring fantasy and the spirit of adventure together. Wanting to create some of your pieces? So can you can you tell me more about how you get inspired? Well, you know, is there is there any particular you know, do you like to be in nature? Do you know? Is it a combination of everything? Where are they? Where's the inspiration come from? Is it just Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I mean, like to start with, there's nothing in my mind, there's nothing mamby pamby about the whole fabric thing. It's really kind of like, you know, swords and daggers pirates, and, you know, this is what the world of textile is, to me, and it's not at all, even though I have been, you know, for, you know, I went for many, you know, I used to hound little fairs with old ladies, you know, who were selling their little, you know, stitches and things like that, and old Japanese textile, maybe that was part of the story. But to me, textile really is an adventure. I mean, there was, it was an incredibly, there were all sorts of very exciting moments about textile, you know, this, the the trading that happened in the sort of 16th 17th century, in, in Southeast Asia was the most sophisticated trading ever, I mean, you know, you had boats coming from Arabia, into the, into the, into the SE, C's, they were trading with all the Indonesian islands, you know, against cloves, and then they would go on to China trade those clothes against the porcelain, then they would go to Japan and trade that porcelain against the silver, then return, and all this kind of barter system was really, you know, sophisticated, like Wall Street is today, you know, so, the whole the Indians, the Indians were, of course, masters of the game, because they, they would just, they would just adapt, you know, and start making textiles, according to what markets they wanted to hit, you know, so if they wanted particular things from a, from an island, or from a particular Island and particular kingdom, in Indonesia, and they would, they would cater and do specific designs for that place, even if it wasn't the tiniest kingdom, you know, but it might have been that that kingdom was very, very wealthy. So you have this like, rich array of, of designs that were being whipped out that this you know, speed of lightning, and also a tremendous artistry, you know, because this was worth a lot of money. So, there have been all sorts of moments in time When, when, when textile was either, you know, sort of like a trading, trading, you know, it was trading meat, would you call it system or like, like money, knowing your customer, so you knew what, to what design, it would be, it would be that if you want your currency, it would be like a currency, then there are other times where it was where it was used to, to, you know, set the class system, you know, the order of the class system as symbol, you know, for instance, in the Ottoman Empire, if you were a merchant, if you were a Jewish motion, if you were, you know, sort of like Christian, everyone had their place in this extremely organised society and, and quite rigid, you know, the passur, had, everyone had their place. And there was, there was a costume, you know, that cost was allowed to work certain textiles, the Sultan was allowed where others textiles, it was extremely codified. So textile was also you know, was used for that, that has this multi uses, there's that side of textile, that that's always always interesting. And then there's the men as the sort of like, the actual sort of analysis of a textile when it arrives in your hands, and you can read the crossroads, and the different places that it's that all the influences you can read in it. So you'll see, for instance, I have some Ottoman textiles, and I know that there's heavy influence of China because of the colour of the silk, because of the, you know, the silk and blacks reds on it, the designs, but at the same time, this, the shape of the flowers is completely slat slab, you know, so I know that it's the upper part of the of the Ottoman Empire. So and, and so you kind of like read them, like maps and influences and you know that at certain times, certain places had a relationship with other places, and you can read this and the tech stuff is really amusing. And so it makes it all quite sort of, yeah, it was exciting. Yeah. So actually, you get the majority of your inspiration for your wallpapers, just from analysing the history of some of these pieces, while with the wallpapers, it's like that there's this other game going on there. Just like Games, you know, for me that just really sort of fun with the, with the, there's also with the wallpapers. There's also my whole relationship with painting, you know, because I, I spend a lot a lot of time in my life in, you know, closely with paintings either, you know, either with collecting or, you know, my, my first husband was, you know, was had a gallery and was involved in dealing and built very important textile, very important painting collections. And so, I spent a lot a lot of times in museums and looking at pictures, and the old masters and contemporary and modern. And so there's a lot of that in it, because the construction of an image and it just like it, that there are certain artists that really sort of like, you know, just set me on fire. So so there will be moments where, you know, and, and other things, like, for instance, I'll give, you know, I went recently to, to Pompei in September, and I hadn't been in a few years, you know, I hadn't been probably in, you know, seven years or something like that. And I went back. And so of course, it was sort of like, middle of all this COVID thing. So there was no one, no one there. And the same goes for the archaeological museum in Naples, where normally we see all these like, incredible frescoes. Anyway, I hadn't seen them in a while, and there was no one there. And so we were just sort of like in the middle of this. We were in the middle of these houses. And suddenly there, these houses were ours. And I was just looking at all these frescoes and suddenly, because there was no one to, you know, pass in front of me or disturb me when in fact that I really had the time to kind of immerse myself in that atmosphere. And I suddenly thought, Oh, my God, this is so vibrant, and they're so modern, and all these lines, and I didn't see a little cherubs anymore, and I didn't see the little visit and the little that, I just saw these sort of, like, very modernist lines, and I looked, it looked so sort of stylish, and they were always extremely stylish. But they're these, these lines appear to me, and I suddenly, and it reminded me as I was looking at them, that they were like, do not so far from the Art Deco, the feeling I had with art deco, certain moments of early, early Art Deco, you really sort of Yeah. And so, um, anyway, so I just did, I meant that I came back home, and I started drawing. And everything was so simple. I just had it, I had it, I could do another Pompei completely different than then when it came out, and it was done. And then then Julie, who works, you know, we work together? Who said oh my god, it looks very James Bondy, doesn't it? And then suddenly, I was Oh, yeah, it's super 70s actually, so it just kind of like happens, you know that? Yeah, you could go back to the same things at different times and be influenced in a different way. And something completely different comes out, you know, but this is the time like, for the moment, you know, I mean, I think, yeah, we you know, that certain periods demand certain things. And yeah, so it's kind of fun. It's like a, it's like a chemistry you know, you do the mixes zero and then things pop out. And you don't, you don't have control exact control of what's going to come out. You know, you don't know. It's like a creative adventure. It's an everything is an adventure. Yeah, yeah. Cuz I saw I saw some some. I was just having a quick glance at your things today before our chat. And I saw, you know, some videos of a shoreline or there was a, you were in a courtyard, and these birds were flying in and out. And then when I was looking at them, I was thinking, wow, I wonder whether she saw that. And then she made that jungle. You know, where there's, there's the tiger. And then there's all these palm trees. So I guess you pull it in from all the different places and fantasy and the adventure kind of meet. Right. And there's always a story, you know, I mean, there's always a story. So it's this this is Yeah. So what's the most unusual story that comes to mind for you? Well, the pump was a pretty good one, to be honest. But yeah, they're all sort of, you know, because the jungle one, it's because I did this project in Mexico. And then and then, you know, my client, and my client had grown up in this city that close to this had gone up close to this last city in the jungle, and the last city in the jungle had, because essentially the story was this there was this very, very wealthy sort of poet and he he sort of was married with dancer this and he had he frequented all the the art And he was just this very sort of, like, interesting character. And he first went, he emigrated to America, in the I think it was in the 20s. And then and then not so interested moved on to Mexico, and he was essentially, you know, friends with all that intelligentsia of Mexico. And for some reason, he decided to start building he had been collecting all the surrealist art, you know, so he came, you know, with these sort of, like, this extraordinary collection, but at one point or another, he started building this kind of wild surrealist city in the middle of the jungle, next to where my, my client had grown up. And, and she was telling me about this. And, and so at one point, I had to go and see it, and it's true, this there is this last, okay, now it's become this kind of quite, quite, you know, sort of, I think it's, it has a little bit more of a touristy flair to it, but it's this wild, wild place in the middle of nowhere. And he built it throughout the rest of his life. I think it must have started when he was like, I don't know, in his 40s or whatever, but he delapidated his entire fortune, his collection, art collection, his fortune, everything building this wild city. And, and there used to, he used to keep you know, these this foreigners sort of like snakes and wild birds, and you know, and leopards and all sorts of things. So, you know, this wild city was in my mind all the time. And then, and then this, one of my this wonderful decorator Meredith Ellis is so I had asked me Oh, you know, why don't you Please, I'm doing this project. Can you produce a jungle wallpaper for me? And then while I was drawing it with Judy Lee, we're thinking jungle jungle man. Why? I mean, of course, it's that jungle. It's that one? No, it's that one you have to draw. So it was like, so then started drawing the last city? Yeah, yeah. So they're not just inspirations that you have. So some of the work you do is actually according to a specific requests from a client, like they want a feeling or an experience? Well, yeah, I mean, like, very often, you know, it's the it's a very good start. Because for instance, there's a there's another wallpaper, you talked about the coastline. It's called a journey through Japan. It was again, Meredith, who said, you know, Jennifer, I really love pink city, you know, this other wallpaper I made. I love pink city and everything. I love those pastel colours and everything that once you do another one with those colours, and then I thought, Oh, well, I mean, like, then there wasn't a particular theme. But Meredith and I had just been to Japan for the first time that had been sort of like, we've been each separately. And then I thought, Oh, well, I'll just and we were talking about that. And I said, Okay, well, I'll paint my vision of Japan, you know, because was a big deal for me to finally go to Japan, you may or may, Eve, my husband said and said, Come on, this is enough. You've been dreaming about it for years. But of course, I was. I was frightened of being disappointed, you know, I built all these castles in my mind, you know, I mean, there was like this enchanted place. And I thought, oh, what if I go and I don't like it? What if it doesn't sort of live up to it? Well, of course, it did. You know, Japan is unbelievable, you know, it was incredible. And he said to me, You don't have the right to travel more than you know, it's going to be very specific. You can go to Tokyo and Kyoto and that's it. Because you've never been there. And I think you're it's going to be it's going to blow your mind and you you can't just spread yourself, you'll be able to go with a really sort of strict master about it as Okay, okay, since and then he prepared everything, you know, he just sort of, because he'd been several times and he, he's, he's got a he has a wonderful eye and, and he knew, you know, pretty much what would what could be great to do and, and so anyway, so yeah, so then I drew my vision of Japan and my vision of Japan was an eye is an island, you know, so I thought, Oh, I remember going taking that those fast trains between Tokyo and Kyoto and the coastline. I love that, you know, yeah, that's fascinating. And then you take some of these designs and you do other things with it, don't you? You've got scarves cushions in how do they translate? Or are they completely different designs when they go into onto fabrics? I don't you know, I do you know, if people ask me for cushions, we can make them but we don't know. We don't really we didn't really, we decided not to concentrate too much on on accessories. Because really, our specialty is textile and wallpaper and it does demand quite a bit of time and energy. And and we sell a lot in America. So you know, you can't do everything. I mean, we you know, Judy and I we just really like to it's best to do be the best, you know really great at what you do. And I think that We're getting stronger and stronger, and the quality of our textile is really rather beautiful, you know, the world ends and they're really something, something. So we've done, you know, we take part in really interesting projects and for for very great houses. So I think there's no you know, you have to know sort of what your, what your market is, I don't think I'm going to be like, Miss cushion. No, no, no, no, I understand that you have, it's always best to specialise. Because the more you specialise, also, the more you will develop deeper and deeper into, into, into what you're doing. So are your textiles used on was like wallpaper, or do you do people use? No, no, the textiles are used on walls as well. I mean, like, there's, yeah, there's there have been several occasions where, where they they've been, you know, sort of, what was it? I mean, I remember this really great bedroom that Michael Smith had done for the the owner of net reporting. And anyway, so she, she, you know, that it's, you know, people just, you know, what happens, you know, of course, and then, and it's not that I don't do things on the side, I have this kind of like, this funny hobby of shows that I do. But that's because, and I work with Kashmiris in Kashmir. And I do that because it's like research about weaving. So that's like a particular thing that I do. But it's like just this quirky thing. You know, it's like research for Yeah, yeah. And actually, I saw once somebody had done something really creative in the property I went to visit where they taken the textiles and just framed it and put it on the wall like it. Yeah. Which was, you know, a way of getting I suppose, your hands on something really special it with a smaller budget, I guess. So for our listeners, for our listeners, who, you know, may not be creating beautiful redesigns and interior designs, but might want to add some colour and spice to their, to their homes. We're spending so much time at home these days that I'm sure a lot of people are looking inwards and trying to figure out how to make things better. What else sort of simple things that you think people can do in their houses with wallpaper to bring some vibrant colours and life into a room? What would you recommend? I think that wallpapers are amazingly forgiving for sort of like the the insufficiencies of architecture, you know, sometimes you end up with some rooms which are really difficult to deal with, because they're small, the pro key there, this that, and you put wallpaper in and it just expands it. And it's unbelievable what it can do. So I mean, like people who are really frightened, they might just not be so fun. If they're doing okay, well, let's just do our guest bathroom, you know, for instance, suddenly, you know, you make it into a really fun place. And that might be a good sort of, like test testing ground for for things. And also, there's this other thing that I, I always like to say, for I, you know, I don't consider that I'm, you know, like, I don't really want to go into the decorating advice or whatever. And I do think that people should take in consideration the light of an area, even if the room is dark, you can paint it as wide as you want. It's not going to make it lighter. You know, if a room is dark, a room is dark. So then you work with dark colours, you know, darker colours, or colours that shine in the dark. You know, there's certain sort of like reds and greens and you blues and they shine and they sparkle in the dark. It seems crazy, but it's like that chemistry of light. Yeah. So I think so they have to before they take any, you know, go forward, just test things out, you know, put a little piece of wallpaper and see Oh, does it you know, what does it do? You know, for instance that I have that it's called this wallpaper and it seems I suppose when you first hear Do you think what the hell it's called golden bees and, and golden bees is was was made because I loved 17th century screens made out of gilded leather. It's a good this particular thing that was made in a Holland, in the Netherlands and in Spain. And it's a really really beautiful anyway, I all I had screens like that and I lost them. I had to sell them because they were so big when I moved from Paris and I always missed them so I made this wallpaper called golden beads. And this one and golden beads is in my bedroom and you don't know it's like so my my bedroom is this gold box. You know I live I sleep in a gold box. And to start with I love the idea now. I feel like I'm you know I'm the little pearl in the gold box. And then and and because there's so many trees here in front of me. window, that there isn't that much light in my bedroom. There's a little bit of light and I can see the sky through the trees. But I don't see. It's not very, very bright. But with this goal with this golden bees wallpaper, every little Ray that comes through sort of twinkles and such a nice way. And so it's always warm. And I don't know there's this warm light around and it's very, very nice. So even my husband who's like, really conservative loves it. He was even thinking, you know, in his house in Belgium is about that golden visitors in Ghana, you can't put twice the same thing. It's not you're going to have to be brave here and put something else in your house in Belgium. Yeah. Yeah. And did you notice in lockdown, people were turning more to towards ordering. I mean, did you did you? Did you find people on fire? People on fire for homes? I mean, yeah. And listen, I'm going through the same thing. You know, I mean, I cause you rethink your whole lifestyle. is worth it to you. Am I doing? You know, am I what this might last for ages? Am I actually sort of living the way I want to live? Yeah, so true. Everything is really rethinking you know, what's important, where it's been really fascinating talking to you, and we're really looking forward to seeing your work spending works. And thank you so much for your time. You're very welcome. Thank you for listening to the London property podcast, home of super prime. 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