Cover Story: The V&A going from Strength to Strength

2022 was another stellar year for the award-winning brand

2022 was another year of growth with some fantastic success for V&A’s award-winning brand licensing programme. Now with over 95 partners globally, and distribution networks to 72 countries across the UK, Europe, USA, and APAC, spanning across home interiors, wall art, homeware, apparel, jewellery, gifting, stationery and crafting, the brand continues to grow its brand presence within the retail industry. Allowing both new and existing audiences to connect with the V&A’s Collection of over two million objects. Apparel has been a key category for the V&A, with the rich floral Love & Roses debut collection, People Tree’s tenth V&A range and various launches across East Asia including M.Latin, Hopeshow, and Ledin.

The V&A and Love & Roses’ shared love of pattern and print was encapsulated in a beautifully rich collection that launched in Autumn 2022. The range celebrated the museums vast archive of botanical works. The collection of occasion wear dresses and separates was inspired by century-spanning floral textiles and natural history prints, which were meticulously re-drawn by Love & Roses’ in-house design team and arranged onto chiffons, light catching jacquards and embroideries. The collaboration was Love & Roses’ most successful collaborative collection to date, plus, the Wonderful Woodland patterned Midi Dress was featured on Lisa Snowden’s Pick of the Perfect Print segment on ITV’s ‘This Morning’. Following the successful debut launch, a spring/summer launch will be introduced in April this year. Sustainability is still at the forefront of social and political conversation, and the V&A’s longstanding collaboration with ethical clothing brand People Tree continues to grow from strength to strength. People Tree’s Autumn 2022 collection was all about returning to nature, rewilding and reconnecting with the world around us, featuring two intricate patterns inspired by the natural world found in the V&A textile archives in London. Every product is made to the highest ethical and environmental standards from start to finish. Using certified organic cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell, beautiful archive patterns are adapted in scale and colour to create contemporary, versatile designs and playful patterns, whilst respecting people and the planet. By using traditional skills such as hand weaving, hand knitting or hand embroidery they create employment in rural areas. The V&A and People Tree are set to launch their 11th collaborative range later this Spring.

V&A Interiors has also gone from strength to strength, drawing inspiration from a variety of artefacts from the museum’s vast and diverse collections and has been a key category for the V&A across the UK, Europe and USA.

In 2022 Blinds 2Go introduced cushions to its current product range. In collaboration with the V&A, Blinds 2Go carefully designed their collection to sit effortlessly alongside their extensive range of blinds and curtains. Taking inspiration from delightful William Morris designs held in the museums archive in a spectrum of colourways. From ‘Strawberry Thief’ to ‘Willow Bough’, that are equally as beautiful as a standalone accessory, the cushions were designed to complement the existing William Morris window coverings. After such an amazing reaction to the products in the UK, the collaboration quickly expanded internationally, with the launch of Tuiss Décor Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and Australia – markets which are going from strength to strength. The performance across the entire collection has been exceptional with all designs selling extremely well. The collaboration is Blinds 2Go’s best-selling brand in 2022 and sales continue to show exciting growth as the appetite for shopping for bespoke made-to-measure designer branded products continues to grow.

In addition, the V&A has also further expanded their interiors offering into the US with the leading online retailer of independently branded window fashions, SelectBlinds. Collaborating with the museum to release timeless window coverings. With their debut launch of the V&A William Morris Collection, bringing the natural world indoors. Morris’ patterns interweave flowers, trees, birds, animals and insects influenced by the greenery in his own garden and from walks along the riverbanks.

New for 2023, Sofas & Stuff have launched its second collaboration with the V&A with its Drawn from Nature collection. Taking inspiration from a heartwarming mix of flora and fauna, based on wallcoverings, textiles and illustrations from the museum’s archives. A feast of botanical and wonderful woodblock prints from the Arts and Crafts era have been reimagined in ten contemporary colourways to bring nature indoors. The Drawn from Nature collection is a joyful celebration of the natural world and how its beauty can be captured through quality interior design. The exclusive and captivating designs are meticulously printed in Lancashire on natural linen and cotton fabrics that are beautifully tactile, yet robust enough to deal with the demands of 21st century living.

As 2023 gets underway the V&A was thrilled to announce the debut collaboration with contemporary wallpaper craftspeople ‘1838 Wallcoverings’ who launched their inaugural collaboration, the ‘V&A Decorative Papers Collection’ at Deco off in Paris in January. A rich and varied collection of nine wallpaper patterns in over 30 colourways, encapsulating design excellence and crafts- manship, inspired by the V&A’s vast archive.

1838 Wallcoverings worked closely with the museum’s licensing team to select items from the archive that would inform and inspire the collection. From watercolour illustrations, decorative furnishings fabrics and wallpapers, to an embroidered kimono, the collection draws on a multitude of artistic influences collected by the V&A since its foundation in 1852 to show designers and craftsmen from across the world inspirational colour, pattern and texture.

1838 Wallcoverings’ Managing Director James Watson says of the journey of the collaboration: ‘With innovation, craft and quality as the key values at the very core of our family business for over four generations, it has been an incredible privilege working with the V&A on this collection, an establishment globally recognised as an embodiment of these principles, ensuring that good design is recognised, celebrated and accessible to all. With such an extensive archive, of course the most difficult part of the process was to edit a final selection. We not only wanted to discover designs that immediately spoke to us on an aesthetic level, but that we also felt had a synergy that resonates with our own heritage, and as such many of the items we chose were originally manufactured in the UK, which made this collection feel very personal.’ 2023 is set to be an exhilarating start to the year for the V&A, with over 20 launches coming throughout Winter and Spring, including some exciting product ranges adding to the ever-growing brand licensing programme, encompassing interiors, apparel, gifting, stationery and many more.