The Poetry of the Earth is Never Dead
“A love of linen and attention to detail first fired my desire to create beautiful fabrics,” says Bernie de Le Cuona. The Founder, Chief Executive and Creative Director of the luxury textile house de Le Cuona grew up in rural South Africa, developing an early love of nature. All of de Le Cuona fabrics are woven in European mills using the world’s finest natural fibres: alpaca, cashmere, flax, silk and wool. Established in 1992, there are now two showrooms in London (Design Centre Chelsea Harbour and Pimlico Road) and one in New York (Design Centre 200 Lex).
“This collection is called Raw Echo,” introduces Lisa Dunlop, Field Sales Executive at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour showroom, “and it’s all about the juxtaposition in nature between something brutal and something soft. So if you think of the Sahara Desert it has beautiful soft sand but it’s a hard environment too – that’s the inspiration for the collection. All our colours are derived from nature. We don’t use unnatural dyes.”
Lisa explains, “Four of these eight new designs are sheers. We’re findings sheers are really popular for clients at the moment because they want that lighter look. They are all 97 or 100 percent linen. All our linen is from Belgium. Sustainability is a big thing for us. Linen itself is highly sustainable. It’s very biodegradable yet lasts a lifetime. That’s the cool thing about linen! You can use lots of our fabrics on the reverse. Sahara is a reversible stonewashed linen with subtle twills. It’s rub tested on the back at 20,000 rubs and 25,000 on the front.”
As well as Sahara, there’s Desert Etching which is a linen sheer with an eroded carvings style motif; Mirage, a jacquard sheer with a texture ombré stripe; Petra, a linen jacquard with space dyed warps; Saba, a linen alpaca blend sheer with rippling threads; Sandstorm, a sheer in multi shaded mélange yarns; Strata, a linen wool blend with twisted yarns; and Tumbleweed, a linen upholstery fabric with interlaced yarns.
The company also has a bespoke interior tailoring service which covers made to measure bedspreads, curtains, cushions, throws and upholstery. Everything is crafted in Britain by inhouse specialists. The sustainability ethos doesn’t stop with the original textile making. The company also has a revitalising service which transforms vintage de Le Cuona fabric furnishings and accessories into upcycled pieces.
Bernie de Le Cuona concludes, “Raw Echo is a collection about emotion as much as it is about materiality. It captures that moment in nature where everything is both powerful and peaceful, where the landscape feels alive but still.” The Design Centre Chelsea Harbour showroom of de Le Cuona, minutes from the busy Kings Road, is an oasis filled with exquisite fabrics inspired by ancient terrains, golden sands, wilderness landscapes and weathered stone.
