Alice Acreman Silks

Painted on paper first, and only then on silk

Alice Acreman started this in 2014, having just sent a twelve-piece collection down the runway at Graduate Fashion Week in her final year at Arts University Bournemouth. She went off to work for the large fashion houses, saw how much perfectly good fabric they threw away, and decided she would rather not. What she built instead is a slow, low-waste operation that ignores seasons and refuses to do flash sales, which is either commercially reckless or exactly right, and we suspect the latter.

Every design begins as watercolour on paper. Alice paints it by hand, and only afterwards is the artwork digitally printed onto the cloth, a colourfast method that holds the detail and the colour intensity in a way older printing simply cannot. The motifs read at first like plates from an old natural history volume, all beetles and botanicals and carefully observed anatomy, and then you notice the geometry creeping in at the edges and realise you are looking at something considerably stranger.

The cushions are printed on both sides, so you get two designs and are spared the decision, and they come in a vegan suede that feels a good deal more expensive than it has any right to. Pad included, machine washable, which matters more than people admit. Beyond the cushions there are silk scarves, kimono jackets, pillowcases, hand fans and, for the properly committed, mural wallpaper.

Her scarves sit alongside the rest of our hats, scarves and belts, and there is more soft furnishing among our cushions from independent makers. If you would rather stay on this side of the water, our British makers are gathered in one place. Do have a browse.