At University we had a guest speaker day where Professionals in the Interior Design industry took the time to come in and speak to us about their journeys in their chosen ID paths, how they got there today and what they do. There was one particular couple of speakers that stood out to me, Robbie Spina and Joe Zito of Spina Design.
Spina create beautiful, unique, handmade bespoke lifestyle accessories, ranging from lighting and furniture to passementerie. Passementerie is the technical term for decorative trimmings, for example tassels, tiebacks, fringes and braids, often used on clothing or on furniture or homeware such as curtains and footstools.
Now when you think of tassels, you often think of luxurious curtains, far eastern interiors or… Old people. The latter part is not the image Spina want to convey, however they do not discourage potential mature clients from buying with them. They wanted to create something new and exciting with their products, and they do this by designing and creating all of their tassels, fringes, tiebacks, lights and furniture by hand and by using different textured fabrics and sourcing materials that you may not even think about using as part of passementerie, for example their Coral tassels:
How gorgeous does this look? Now, I know what you may be thinking. “Coral!? Why? How? Is that not and for the environment?” Do not worry my friends, the coral used in their designs are responsibly sourced and farmed, another reason why I was so drawn to their company because they are being economically conscience. It’s hard to find bespoke design companies that are thinking about they impact the environment. These tassels are, however, possibly their most expensive.
They like to add contrast to their designs by mixing the silk, suede and other fabric textures on their passementerie and they are inspired by all sorts of things: Nature, Fashion, Colour, Culture, Traditions, you name it and they’ve probably created a tassel or fringe influenced by that! They also can change the colours or create custom made passementerie for clients if they don’t have what they want available, which is always great to hear and means they can create a personal bond with their customers. They’ve even used pearls, semi-precious stones like tigers-eye, crystals and metals in their designs.
My favourite out of all of their products is probably the Kokeshi collection, simply because I am obsessed with almost everything and anything to do with Japan and Geishas. These tassels, homeware crockery and fabrics are inspired by the traditional wooden Japanese dolls called Kokeshi dolls. My favourite is the Geisha one, she’s so cute! I like that they have created a family with these tassels, they’re so full of character.
The other collection I loved was the Circus inspired collection. They changed the shape of the tassels to be more eccentric, covering them with bright colours, and also created lamp bases in the same shape.
I like this company’s work and from listening to them and seeing their collections it’s made me think about tassels and fringes in a whole new light! I found them so inspiring! Passementerie shouldn’t just be seen as something old fashioned, especially when you can modernise it like Spina have.
This lead me on to thinking about how you can decorate with tassels and fringes, not just for window treatments, lamps and furniture, but in other places in the home. They could be used as a decorative feature in a different way, perhaps as wall art?
Or just to create interest in other areas for different occasions, for example a tea party, where you can hand a tassel from a teapot or cake stand like the quirky design company MacKenzie-Childs have with their display in Harrods in London.
What are your thoughts on Passementerie? Is it something you may consider buying? Do you already have some? I’d love to hear from you all and see your own passementerie decorations!
And if you don’t have any, I hope this post has inspired you to try it out. You never know, you may be able to decorate your home with them in your own unique way.
Have a nice day everyone!
Danica x
Note: Images of tassels laid out on a table or held in my hand or displayed on cake stands and teapots are my own. Stylised images of tassels, lamps, ties, etc. are from Spina Designs, wall hanging tassel images were found on Pinterest.
