6th September 2016

Charlotte Frances London look forward to London Design Fair

Charlotte Sumner and Camilla Blunt have been unstoppable in 2016. The creative duo launched textile label Charlotte Frances London at January’s Maison & Objet and haven’t looked back. Gaining praise from design journalists and connoisseurs far and wide, the pair’s signature travel-inspired prints can be purchased as fabrics, scarves, cushions and now wallpapers!

As Camilla and Charlotte prepare to showcase two new prints, Stockholm and Palma, at London Design Fair we got their thoughts on six months of success and development.

You launched Charlotte Frances London in January this year – how did that go? Did anything take you by surprise?

 We have been a bit overwhelmed by how well the launch went – we met tons of interesting people at Maison & Objet in Paris and have built some good business relationships from the contacts we made there. Ever since it has been pretty full-on working to get the website up and running and looking ace – we can’t thank our brand manager Sion and web developer Rowland enough for their indispensable help with that – and meeting suppliers and manufacturers who have helped us get the finished products out there and selling. We really can’t believe it has only been six months since Paris; we couldn’t have dreamed we would have achieved as much as we have by now.

You’ve had a busy year so far – what have been the highlights?

Definitely meeting and working with all sorts of people in the industry - from the wonderful team at Zetteler and our printers in Sussex to interior designers and retailers. A particular highlight was collaborating with Clerkenwell London on their newly launched day spa, the Well – we were so thrilled when they asked us to produce an exclusive print for the project and it looks fabulous! The team at Clerkenwell have been a joy to work with and we are so proud of the result.

What do you think is the driving force behind CFL’s success so far? Are your patterns tapping into an existing trend, or creating a new one?

 We think our USP is our prints – there is nothing similar in the market and everyone has responded so positively to them all. It has also helped to be open-minded about the direction we take CFL. We are such a young business we are still finding our way and have so many different ideas. Of course, we have made mistakes but we think one of our strengths is adaptability, coupled with a really strong product.

Which prints have proved the most popular?

We’ve had a great response to the vibrant, tropical prints, Pampas and Tulum. The dark, modern floral print London Fields has also been a hit. We’ve loved seeing how people style all the prints in different ways.

You’re expanding into wallpaper for the London Design fair this year – what inspired that?

We’ve always thought of our prints as pieces of art and of course art is often displayed on walls, so it naturally followed that we develop a wallpaper line! The prints are bold and full of personality and can bring so much character to a room when used as wallpapers. We’ve played with the scaling so that the prints work well as wallpaper and we think they look ace! It’s certainly a bold choice to use print as a wall covering but super effective at creating interest and life in a room.

How many wallpapers are you launching? Are they based on existing prints or something new?

We are launching wallpaper using five prints from the existing collection – Pampas, Tulum, Brittany, London Fields and Epping – and we are adding our two new prints also – Stockholm and Palma.

Where are your wallpapers made?

We use the same printers for both our fabric and wallpaper. Forest Digital in Sussex are fantastic and deliver really high-quality product. CFL prints are intricate and contain a lot of colour and it’s therefore vital that the quality of the digital printing is top-notch to do justice to the beautiful prints.

Where do you want to take the brand? Should we expect to see other products joining the portfolio?

We have tons of ideas for new products and prints; currently it’s a question of finding the time to develop these and identifying the right manufacturers to work with. The focus for now is promoting the brand, developing relationships and continuing to build on the amazing start we’ve had. We've had such great momentum after the launch in January, we need to maintain this and seek out new opportunities. We’re learning that you never know how and when these opportunities will present themselves! We’re hoping for more commercial projects as well as finding some more stockists both in the UK and abroad.

Follow Charlotte Frances London on Twitter and Instagram.