Co-created with fashion designer and queen of prints Mary Kantrantzou, Villeroy & Boch’s Victorian collection marks the brand’s first collaboration in 20 years.
Inspired by the art of lepidopterists and the geometry of Victorian tiles, the collection features black and white tiles with butterfly motifs inspired by Mary’s 2013 postage stamps collection, bringing the natural world into the living environment.
Why drew the inspiration from her past collection? During her visit to Villeroy & Boch tiles’ headquarters in Merzig, Germany during the early stage of the collaboration, Mary discovered that the building still features 19th-century tiles in one of its hallways.
She realised that 19th century Victorian tiles have truly stood the test of time, and still looks as fashionable today. A former architectural student, Mary explored Victorian interiors and ornamentation in her Autumn/Winter 2018 Collection. She and Villeroy & Boch tiles decided to collaborate on a collection that interplays between their respective archival designs.
Mary believes that postage stamps “exude the allure of faraway lands and make you dream about what each piece of paper represents, where it might have been, who has touched it on its journey round the world”.
In a world where stamps are becoming obsolete, she appreciates them even more “as tokens of the past and relics of a different era”.
With the tile collection, Mary wanted to create a window into the world that captures this sense of nostalgia that is both equally graphic and modern.
There are eight different designs in 20cm x 20cm format with borders and edges to complete the offering.
The four coloured butterflies on either white or black backgrounds are created using a combination of digital print and traditional screen-printing, with a 3D effect used to provide a handcrafted appearance.
Seen either straight-on or at a 45-degree angle, each butterfly tile is finished with either gold, black or perforated borders.
This collaboration marks Mary’s first foray into interior design, built on the global success of her eponymous fashion label of over a decade.
“These designs form part of an individual’s home, where they surround themselves with things they love, creating a feeling of permanence that’s very different to the very nature of fashion,” says Mary.
“This collaboration allowed me to look at patterns outside the female figure and be guided instead by the power of interiors to create an extension of one’s aesthetic.”