WEAVING MAGIC

Buckhead fabric artist Isobel Mills brings her flair to fabric, wallpaper and more

STORY: Lauren Finney Harden

Buckhead resident Isobel Mills Prescott always knew she wanted to do something creative as a profession, and she particularly loved decorative arts and interiors. She moved out west to study ceramics at the University of Denver but quickly decided the category and lifestyle weren’t for

Joann Vitelli

her. While the experience solidified the fact that she wanted to be an artist, she realized the University of Georgia had more of what she was looking for in a program.

She entered the school’s fabric design program where it all clicked.

“I discovered I could manipulate fabric like I could manipulate clay,” she says. This exciting and rigorous study path was formative to creating her textile and fiber art techniques.“I found my voice in design,” she says. She now uses that voice for Isobel, her line of spirited textiles. Here, she explains her point of view.

You founded your eponymous fabric collection in 2018. How would you describe it? My designs are playfully sophisticated, and the patterns and colors are fun. I love to see them in nurseries and other elevated settings as well, such as living rooms or primary bedrooms where the homeowner is down for a little cheerfulness through movement, color and scale. Currently, I have 90 fabrics, most of which are either 100% Belgian linen or a cotton and linen blend. You can shop them on my website or in person at Travis & Company at ADAC.

What’s in your latest collection?

I sketch, paint and create almost every single day and then edit it down to see what makes the most sense in a new collection. My latest collection—about 16 new fabrics— has a lot of saturated colors and patterns that I think are easy to get lost in. I love Leo, a tightly repeating line sketch compressed together to mimic fur. It’s a whimsical interpretation of a naturally occurring pattern and comes in fun colors like matcha, lagoon and wisteria.

What’s new this year?

This spring, I debuted a complementary wallpaper line, something I worked on throughout my entire pregnancy (my daughter is now an infant). It’s based on a trip my husband and I took to Morocco. The colors, shapes, shadows, sounds and overall majestic feeling it left me with were the inspiration behind this wallpaper collection. I wanted to capture the magic of Morocco. I am also able to offer a performance ground option, too, which I am so excited about. It’s probably my most asked question, so I am happy to finally be able to deliver!

You also do fiber art?

Yes! I capture natural elements like fish, crabs, shells and more. It takes hours of fiber techniques like applique, pleats, embroidery, knots and ruffles to create depth in a twodimensional space. My latest piece is a chameleon and took about 60 hours to complete, but it’s worth it for me. I make art I want to touch. I’m a textural person, and everything I make is about visual and physical texture and the blending of fiber materials. n

Above: Look out for Friends and Family sales at the Lenox Square anchor stores.

Left: At the annual Abbey Glass sale, you can save money on dresses for all your summer special occasions.

Below: You can always count on finding something fabulous at Tootsies and you can count on their summer markdown sale.