John Robshaw Archives - Sara Gilbane Interiors

One of my favorite fabric designers, John Robshaw, has come out with his new collection of blockprinted linens and cotton voiles. His fabrics are totally inspiring and the color combinations are fresh. I have used his fabrics, duvets, bed linens, bathrobes, napkins, and throw pillows in many projects and in many different ways.

John’s forays in Asia have taken him to the villages of Gujarat and Rajasthan to work alongside artisans and study their traditional printing methods; he has made court batiks in Yogakarta, Indonesia; block printed sarongs alongside a family who has been printing for four generations; he has vegetable-dyed ikats in Thailand. In India, John found that he could apply a painterly aesthetic to the traditional method of block-printing by mixing up patterns and overlapping them in a more formally artistic way. There, his signature dynamic look was crafted: an updated spin on the exotic, handmade object; a vibrant mix of sophistication and romantic allure. “I want all the colors, processes and designs from each culture to blend. I redesign them and mix up the processes in ways no one has ever done before. I try to edit them, learn from them, make them my own but retain their essence. In piggybacking these designs and techniques with each other or with my own ideas, what emerges is new and fresh, and yet retains that sense of tradition, of the handmade. When I need to hire someone to help, I pick the old printers. Their hands are shaky and their eyesight is poor, so the pattern comes out slightly off. I want to feel that human touch,” says John.

“By producing my textiles abroad, I get to become a minor character in the lives of the people I work with, and I can take inspiration from what I see and do there. I go to their weddings, celebrate their festivals, I get sick with them, I develop relationships with the people who are teaching me. When you look at my textiles, its like you’ve been on the world tour along with me.”