We are family
DESIGN
designer, on the team since 2014,
“is fiery and colourful, often much
more than me”, she laughs.
Both daughters contribute in myriad ways:
Min loves to seek out exciting young artists, while
Willow works on many of the finer details of Kemp’s
designs, including Sailor’s Farewell, the pattern
now gracing the designer’s second fine bone china
collection for Wedgwood launched recently
(available in Australia in early 2019). Based on the
pattern for a hand-embroidered fabric originally
designed for London-based Chelsea Textiles,
Kemp says the idea first came to her after
admiring a John Craxton painting of a lady on
a rock waving goodbye to her sailor husband.
Kemp has applied seafaring motifs, from
lighthouses and whale tails to sailing ships
and seagulls, to the edges and centres of
teacups and saucers, milk jugs and egg cups, plates,
platters and bowls —all set against a blue
linen-effect backdrop. Like Mythical
Creatures, Kemp’s first Wedgwood
collection in 2014, each piece will be
handfinished with gold.
A folkloric playfulness has long been
a theme in Kemp’s work, from the fabrics
and wallpapers she designs with British
textile brand Christopher Farr to the
hand-embroidered headboards and
cushions she has created in collaboration
with the prison charity Fine Cell Work.
For the five wallpapers and six fabrics
Kemp launched recently with London
design emporium Andrew Martin, she
worked with British artist Melissa
White. Previously the pair
had created Mythical Land,
a three-metre-repeat mural
wallpaper, for the private
events spaces at Manhattan’s
The Whitby Hotel. With this
new collection, they’ve brought
patterns like Friendly Folk,
Hedgerow and Wychwood to life
by teaming tapestry-inspired mythical
creatures (dragons, foxes, lions and birds)
with pared-back pastoral scenes.
In early 2019, Kemp will publish
her third book, Design Thread (Hardie
Grant), filled with stories about the things
the designer loves most — a richness of
colour and exuberant pattern, tactile
textures and the soul of pieces
handcrafted and finished. “[It
exemplifies] all those whimsical details
that make guests look twice,” Kemp
says. “When someone wants to know
more about what we’ve done, when their
curiosity is piqued, that’s when I know
we’ve achieved something.” VL
firmdale.com; wedgwood.com.auH
otel life has always been a
family affair for Kit Kemp,
the award-winning design
director of Firmdale Hotels.
For three decades, with her cofounder
husband, Tim, she has blazed a revolutionary trail
across the London and New York boutique hotel
scene since opening Dorset Square Hotel in 1985.
Now, their youngest daughters, Willow, 31, and
Min, 28, have joined the family foray (eldest
daughter Tiffany, 32, is based near the family home
in Hampshire). With backgrounds in art and
design, architectural graduate Willow, working
with her mother since 2012, has an innate feel “for
scale and dimension”, says Kemp; Min, a graphicKit Kemp with her
daughters Min (left) and
Willow in the designer’s
London home. Various
pieces from Sailor’s
Farewell, Kemp’s second
collection for Wedgwood.58 vogueliving.com.au
VLife