From Victoriana to Victoriana
Fashion designer Mary Katrantzou has designed the Victorian tile collection for Villeroy & Boch (image: V&B Fliesen).
Villeroy & Boch is not a brand associated with elaborate decoration. The contemporary output of the German ceramics manufacturer largely hews to an elegant minimalism. Their projects are most often found in the kitchen and the bathroom: private, domestic spaces with everyday functions. So when Villeroy & Boch invited Mary Katrantzou to their headquarters to discuss collaborating, she was surprised by what she saw. “They had the most incredible historic mosaic floors,” she recounts.
Katrantzou immediately sensed an affinity. The London-based fashion designer has long interpolated elements from the history of art and design into her garments. Her 2008 Central Saint Martins MA graduation show featured dresses adorned with trompe l’oeil prints of gigantic oversized jewellery. The next year, she established her eponymous label. Katrantzou deploys prints to a degree seldom seen in fashion before; past collections have inserted imagery from vintage decor magazines, landscapes and classical Greek art. Her Autumn/Winter 2018 collection was named From Victoriana to Bauhaus, and brought elements of these two very different aesthetics together. “Immediately,” explains Katrantzou, “I saw the connection between their own mosaic tiles that are no longer in production and what we had shown.”
The fruits of Katranzou and Villeroy & Boch’s collaboration, the Victorian tile collection, draws on the history of both partners. It comprises black and white square tiles, which can be orientated straight or at a 45 degree angle. Some of the tiles have a marbled effect. Others present gleaming gold borders, or arrangements of black, gold and white geometric forms. Most prominently, several of the white tiles centre on precise, vividly photo-realistic butterflies in vibrant colours, like those collected by a 19th century lepidopterist, entrapped in perforated borders reminiscent of postage stamps (both butterflies and stamps have prominently featured in Katrantzou’s garments collections).
Production was technically demanding, requiring both craft skills and modern technology. The butterflies were created using digital print techniques and traditional screen-printing. Villeroy & Boch’s artisans had to find a way to replicate Katrantzou’s bold, precise colouring in ceramic – a medium notorious for its lack of precision. This stretched the limit of the brand’s capabilities; it had to change three suppliers to achieve the desired colouration.
Victorian is Katrantzou’s second foray into interior design, following her Nostalgia collection with The Rug Company. For a designer used to creating objects that are activated by bodies in movement, the collaboration with Villeroy & Boch has proven rewarding. “I found it exciting to free a design from the human body and play with scale and form and repetition in a different way,” she says. And Katrantzou’s decorative, referential approach brings a shock to the arm of a design discipline often characterised by clarity and restraint. Disegno spoke to Katrantzou over Zoom about the project.
Disegno How did the collaboration come about?
Mary Katrantzou I've known Villeroy & Boch as a company for decades — actually, it's a favourite at my parents' home and our home. I grew up appreciating Villeroy & Boch, all their different divisions. But even though we had made baby steps in terms of our own foray into interior design, we never really thought about tiles. We were thinking of tableware, or linen, or upholstery. It never occurred to me that I would be designing tiles. They approached us in a two-fold approach. They called us up from the design division to set up a meeting to see if there was interest in a collaboration. So I met their design team and their marketing team, and they told me that they had never done a collaboration in that space. Immediately for me, that in itself was a privilege: to be the first designer to do something very different to their main line. Visiting their headquarters, it was clear what they offer in their main line was very different to what they were hoping that I would bring. And that was what excited me the most — that they gave us a blank canvas to do something that’s a lot more decorative, a lot more stylised, a lot more graphic than what they offer, while also being able to work hand-in-hand with all the advancements in technology and also their history of craftsmanship. They were very open about creating something that they don’t already have.
“We would never enter this collaboration and bring something that is alien to them without really being able to draw something from their own design history.”
Disegno It must have been a huge honour. Does a pressure come with it as well — to make something that is different from what they already have, and true to your design, but which also feels like it belongs alongside their collection?
Mary That was the creative challenge. Because even though they were extremely open to new ideas, and we had a very democratic brainstorm on collections that I've done in the past, they had the most incredible historic mosaics floors. And we had just finished a collection that was called From Victoriana to Bauhaus. Immediately, I saw the connection between their own mosaic tiles, which were no longer in production, and what we had just shown. So there was a synergy there. And we started talking about finding a connection between my most recent collection that was based on Victorian tiles and Villeroy & Boch’s mosaic floors. Even though we had that inspiration at the very beginning, and they were willing to embrace any design and semantic narrative that we brought, it was very challenging. On the technical side, they had never done tiles that had so many colours, or where the intricacy of the design had to be reflected on the tiles. They changed where they produced tiles entirely. And it was a challenge for me to have the strength of conviction in terms of what we wanted and really guide them as to how we can achieve that. They showed us a colour palette that only graded between blues and browns. And so I was like: ‘guys, that’s really not what you want to bring me in for, because we really want to bring colour; our audience expect something colourful, bold and graphic, and I think you came to me for this.’ We needed to find a way for that to be reflected on the tiles, while using the substrate that you actually know will work. So it was a challenge from both ends; for us to work within the framework of what’s possible in ceramic tiles, and for them to really push their own partners and their own production units to achieve the designs that we were starting to share with them. We gave this collaboration the time it needed to achieve the result. And I think they themselves were surprised that they were able to achieve the intricacy of colour and clarity. An image-led tile is something very new for them.
Disegno It is interesting to have your input coming into that realm. If you brought an industrial designer to do this, there’s still a shyness around Victoriana. Making things look like the Bauhaus, they would love. But there are very few people in that other area of design who feel at ease with that more sumptuous, more decorative visual culture.
Mary Remove the comfort zone from their equation — it was from Victoriana to Victoriana! We were very conscious about that. It’s very specific, especially when we’re talking about a completely new demographic for us. Villeroy & Boch have their base in central Europe, where what people are comfortable with in their bathrooms is a lot more minimal, a lot more utilitarian in its aesthetic. So for me that was the challenge: trying to bring into their world something that is very different to that, but is integrally connected to their archive. We would never enter this collaboration and bring something that is alien to them without really being able to draw something from their own design history. I think that's why it felt serendipitous that it happened when we had just finished [the From Victoriana to Bauhaus] collection, so that it becomes distinctive of my own archive. But also it reminds their audience that Villeroy & Boch has that in their own history. I also hope for a new audience that can appreciate that aesthetic.
“I’m now redecorating to use the Victorian. I’ve converted to my own conviction.”
Disegno In the email conversation you did with Erik Madigan Heck that appeared in Disegno #5, I was interested in how often you and he cited artists and movements you are interested in. A really prominent part of that conversation was the clear delight you both had on looking back on things, almost a magpie sensibility.
Mary Absolutely. In many of my collections, the narrative or idea has been about highlighting nostalgia, bringing it into the present. It’s a big part of my work to take something that has a very strong nature in itself but filter it, and hopefully make it relevant and in sync with your times. For Victorian, Villeroy & Boch acted as that filter by default because of the nature of what they present within their collection. It was important to bring in character, personality and movement, referencing for example the collection that I did on postage stamps — that had a very symbolic character. And it was a conscious decision to bring something that has such strong symbolism and infuse it graphically in the collection. Somebody bringing that into their space doesn't necessarily take in all the symbolic meaning of a postage stamp. But there are hints of it there. There’s a certain escapism that comes with a postage stamp, there's a certain connective dot between different parts of the world. They are really a window into different cultures. So even though that's not as obvious in the tiles, because it has to be a collection that will work in somebody's home, it does have hints that I think make the space more personal. For me, going into interiors, that's really the challenge and the reward – being able to create something that has strong character, but not such a heavy character that it will burden the person living in it. I think that's the fine balance here that we tried. And I hope we succeeded in striking it.
Disegno How comfortable did it feel to move into the realm of interiors?
Mary They’re so different as disciplines, because a space has so much more permanence. It’s not like buying a dress. You’ll keep it forever, but you’re not in it every single day of the year. Your home, you wake up in it, it becomes part of your daily life. And that’s in direct opposition with the nature of fashion. So I think you can be a lot more fanciful when designing a piece of clothing, or even a wearable piece of art. You cannot do that with somebody’s space. As a designer who works with image a lot, it seemed that bringing patterns into ceramics would be kind of seamless, because you really get the freedom to apply it. You don’t have the limitation of movement, you don’t have the limitation of the human form, which is so different from woman to woman, or woman to man. But at the same time the limitation is that you have a canvas that is a 20 by 20 tile, and that’s it. I found it exciting to free a design from the human body and play with scale and form and repetition in a different way. But at the same time you are limited to the speciality of a tile. It was both elaboration and limitation, and trying to navigate between the two to create enough versatility within the collection to be able to mix and match. I think that's what I enjoyed the most: that you can create so many different spaces with this collection, depending on your personality and the needs of your space. And that versatility is difficult to find when you're designing a dress.
“You can be a lot more fanciful when designing a piece of clothing, or even a wearable piece of art. You cannot do that with somebody’s space.”
Disegno So much of your work with colour is very carefully done. But ceramics are notorious for being able to get the exact colour matches you want — I know designers who bang their head against the wall when, say, the red isn’t coming out as it’s meant to.
Mary We definitely experienced that. It's really testament to the team at Villeroy & Boch, how committed they were to this collaboration, because they had to change three different suppliers to prototype the tiles and create the intricacy within the butterflies and different designs that we tested before, concentrating on the edits that were that we're now launching. As I said, the initial colour palette really didn't have reds at all. So it wasn't about what tone of red to find it was just ‘there will be no red, there will be no green’. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around being that limited, but it's based on the demand and based on what they're producing at the moment. I was so grateful to them for really working with us to find a solution to be able to bring colour into their tiles. And we really didn't feel at the end that we were limited at all. The designs were executed exactly as they were meant to be. And the clarity of colour is really, to be honest, much more razor sharp than we ever thought we would achieve when we initially started prototyping the collection. I'm so glad that we were very adamant that colours are important, not only because it's a big part of my work, but also because I wanted to bring newness into their offering. I think, graphically speaking, a black and white bathroom is quite common. Black and white is very easily achieved. But to be able to have something more photo-real, to have the clarity in its design, the precision, the intricacy is really what you're buying into within this collection. And so I felt it was important not to just bring out a generic Victorian rendition, because they don't need me to bring that to them. So it was really about achieving the colour gradients. On every butterfly — which is the most colourful part of the collection — there's so much detail and gradation of colour. And they were very open to making it happen. I think it's kind of opened up the door for collections to come, that hopefully we will work on straight after this one. Because now we know what they're capable of. We've experienced this as a testing ground of what's possible and what's not possible.
Disegno They clearly approached you because they want that effect on their collection: something which shows different possibilities. At any point during the development do you have to try and persuade them to go along with you?
Mary No, I was very fortunate to have a very good relationship with their design director, and he was the one who really pushed me to really be even bolder than we initially set out to be. The collection was very different when it started. We had to adapt to what's possible. For example, I was very big on creating tile designs for the floor, almost like a Victorian rug or mosaic. But it's just not possible, you need to think about slip. It had to be about a decorative wall when the collection initially was all about a decorative floor. So even though we had a few roadblocks, their design team and, specifically their design director, was very supportive. And I think we really opened new doors for them to explore different elements. It’s something different, it’s something new for them, and it’s something that they can stand behind. So, yes, it was constant deliberation. But we were very supported. Because I feel that their intention was exactly that.
“I think people are afraid that if they bring in too much character, too much personality in the home, they’ll get tired of it.”
Disegno It's so nice to see something that kind of embraces the decorative a little bit more, because it's still taboo within architecture and within interior architecture. There’s almost still a hangover from Adolf Loos’ Ornament and Crime (1931). So it’s really nice when you come across collections which put ornament and decoration forward a little bit and say this is fine too, this is valid, because it remains a rarity.
Mary It is a rarity. I always judge that through my own experience, because even though my work is bold and in many cases decorative, I live in a uniform of black and my home has nothing decorative anywhere. So I tried to think through this collaboration what would be the perfect harmony between something that is timeless and won't make you tired of it. I think people are afraid that if they bring in too much character, too much personality in the home, they'll get tired of it. It’s a more difficult decision. But if you make that decision, if you bring it into your home and it really strikes a chord within your own aesthetic, then you're really creating a space that's in perfect harmony with your own personality because you want that in your home. As much as you want a clean canvas that strips away everything else that you go through in your day, I think it feels very spiritual to go into your home and feel that it’s yours alone. And that connection is evident. I’m now redecorating to use the Victorian. I’ve converted to my own conviction – and not because it’s my own collection, but also because I felt it’s special to have something that brings in a sense of artistry in your home. These tiles are a lot more creative than a concrete slab. And I wanted to bring in that personality. So I think, and I hope that more and more people will become more confident. It’s almost the same as when I was starting out, and was creating these wearable prints. It was taboo to wear print on the red carpet that wasn’t a floral, polka dot or geometric design. And it really took a lot of designers creating an interesting body of work that could entice somebody who doesn’t wear prints to wear prints. So I feel the same about interiors. It’s not just minimalism versus maximalism. It’s really about good design. If there is integrity in the design, and it really is harmonious and balanced in its execution, then it allows the person living in it to be a lot more open to embracing it. That’s what we tried to do: to find that balance.
Disegno Where did the decision to include the butterflies within the collection come from? I know it is an element you have featured in your design before.
Mary We had just shown our 10-year anniversary collection. And that followed a retrospective of my work at Dallas Contemporary. It’s very different for a designer – especially when the retrospective is just 10 years — to read their work by seeing it all laid out in a room. And first of all it became very clear that there was this focus on this idea of collection. I started with a collection of perfume bottles, and then it became objects of art and mundane objects, then there was the collection on postage stamps and obsolete banknotes. My 10th anniversary show was against a backdrop of black and white, so everything was about the form and the geometry that's used to collect — whether it's a postage stamp album or [the cases] used to collect butterflies, and how that becomes an art in itself. So we drew a parallel between the Victorian tiles and this black and white framework. And then we looked at which part of that collection would make sense in a bathroom or in a kitchen or when we're talking about ceramic tiles. What would you frame that can become so precious that you would want to frame it? And in our anniversary collection there was a section that was about the art of collecting butterflies, dried flowers and a few other things. The Villeroy & Boch team immediately loved the idea of butterflies. So it wasn't even us! I was really just looking at that collection with them and seeing what resonates with them. There's such strong symbolism in a butterfly that sometimes we give it the wrong connotation. To me, it symbolises change and rebirth. I don't consider the butterfly necessarily a feminine symbol — I think we all go through these different stages in life exactly as a butterfly goes through them. So I wanted to kind of remove any connotations that are strictly feminine. And I think, you know, the collection itself allows you to do that, because it has such a masculine graphic quality. And so it allows you to bring in a symbol like the butterfly but not allow the butterfly to overpower the rest of it either.
“Even though my work is bold and in many cases decorative, I live in a uniform of black and my home has nothing decorative anywhere.”
Disegno Looking at the collection, I didn’t think of butterflies in that gendered way at all – I suppose I would associate butterflies with freedom and liberation, that ability to float around.
Mary I'm very happy to hear that. That’s something that became apparent to us as well. We wanted to showcase the butterfly and try to strip it from those obvious assumptions and allow it to symbolise a staged lifecycle, without wanting to get too theoretical. We all go through so many changes. And for the past two years, even more so. So there's a connection to that change that the butterfly goes through, even though you don't realise that.
Disegno If it's good design it almost doesn't matter. It’s great if people want to look at all the symbolism. But if it works just as an object in its own right, that's enough.
Mary Exactly. It’s there, but it's not there for everyone to analyse. It's part of the design process. And it probably means very little to most people. But I think people do like to understand more about the narrative if it’s coming into their home. And I think the depth that you can bring in that kind of space that's more ornamental and more maximalist is part of its charm. Someone might be drawn to the black and white, or someone might like the decorative nature of the geometric Victorian tiles. For someone who wants to bring something into their home that has its own narrative, it's nice to know there’s depth in it, and what you’re bringing to the home symbolises more than just a pretty tile. But in the end, it has to be just a pretty tile.
Images V&B Fliesen
Words Joe Lloyd