Q+A MEET TEXTILE DESIGNER SARAH FORTESCUE AND HER INTERIOR BRAND
Meet Sarah Fortescue…Inspired by her childhood growing up in both Africa and Cornwall, offered Sarah two worlds, with incredibly different cultures…
Sarahs work captures the rich creative heritage, and the essence of both continents, and that shines through in her design work today…
Our latest ‘Next Thing’ launched in September which is a fabric and wallpaper collection…
All our fabrics are digitally printed which is fabulous as we can create bespoke schemes for our clients to give them a unique colourway for their own design scheme. Our wallpapers are just beautiful.
Meet Sarah Fortescue a designer with a passion for Interiors, printed Textiles, Wallpapers and an inspirational eye for colour!
Inspired by her childhood growing up in both Africa and Cornwall, offered Sarah two worlds, with incredibly different cultures…Sarahs work captures the rich creative heritage, and the essence of both continents, and that shines through in her design work today.
We caught up with Sarah and asked her to share her inspiring story….
Tell us how you decided on a career in Design?
My late father would ask my mother, sister and I to choose paint colours….for a beautiful House, called Boconnoc, in Cornwall that he had been lovingly restoring for 12 years (www.boconnoc.com). I was meant to be moving to Hong Kong at the time but thought the house needed finishing so I set about organising each bedroom and bathroom on mood boards and working with the team of Cornish craftsman to complete the interior.
South Africa and Cornwall, quite a contrast!..How does your heritage define your style?
Africa had a great influence on me. Its vast open spaces, the magic of being in the bush, the warmth, the wildlife and the colours, the array of exotic birds and the animals had a huge impact on my interior and fabric designing.
As the founder of Sarah Fortescue, when and how did you start your brand?
My career as a designer started when I completed Boconnoc House in Cornwall (www.boconnoc.com) - it is a beautiful house, that was restored by my father - a beautiful Grade II house which was done to commercial standards as it is let for private hire and weddings. After which I moved to Hong Kong where I started my business and started working with an architect out there.
We had fabulous projects and my first one was a Polynesian Cocktail Bar called Honi Honi which is still open in Central Hong Kong.
What’s next for your Brand?
Our latest ‘Next Thing’ launched in September which is a fabric and wallpaper collection and I have just returned from a fabulous trip to the States where the designs were wonderfully received.
The inspiration for them came from nature, Africa and the tropical palm with a strong use of colour, in order to enhance the powers of nature and how colour can enhance our state of mind if used harmoniously within an interior. This is a very exciting step - we have a lot of work to do!
Do you utilise Digital Print in your work?
All our fabrics are digitally printed which is fabulous as we can create bespoke schemes for our clients to give them a unique colourway for their own design scheme. Our wallpapers are just beautiful. We print on wide width wallpaper
Which products do you print digitally, in the UK or Europe?
All our Fabrics and wallpapers are printed in the UK
Where do you manufacture your products?
All our furniture is handmade in Cornwall, which is very important to me. We use craftsman dotted around the UK and I love that best about my work as you work closely with each other.
What’s your favourite interior project so far?
My family home has the most meaning for me and it is an ongoing project. I am about to start work on a magical house there, which will house some of my designs. Its history, landscape and meaning to me makes for a spectacular connection and exciting design project.
My next project there will be completely radical..so watch this space
How do you address sustainability?
With the huge impact that Blue Planet II had on the globe, I designed our Blue Ocean collection which comprises of Fortescue Bay in 4 colourways and Tropical Corals in Sapphire & Onyx. Donating £1 from each sale which goes towards clearing our oceans plastic.
It is a starting point and one we will continue to look at…
Where can our readers buy your products?
We are an online portal at present and can buy direct from my online shop www.sarahfortescue.com
Vinterior and Eporta
Clients can also visit me at my studio in Chelsea by appointment only.
We stock our fabrics in America at Studiofour Showroom
Finally…Five Words of wisdom for fellow Designers?
Be ADVENTUROUS, use COLOUR, be ORIGINAL...
Colour Is Too Important to Leave to Chance
Print will always be the part of the garment people see first.
But the sum of all parts — the fabric, the trims, the fasteners, the finish — is what determines whether a design actually delivers on its promise. Brands that continue to treat colour as a single creative decision, rather than a coordinated technical discipline spanning their entire supply chain, will keep paying for it in re-dips, delays, and disappointed design teams.
A Century of Textiles, and an Ever-changing World
Few companies can trace their roots back more than a century and still count themselves among their industry's innovators. Texia, headquartered in Monistrol de Montserrat, Spain, is one of them.
But the story of Texia is not simply one of longevity.
It is a story of continual reinvention. As the textile industry has grown more global and competitive, Texia has repeatedly reshaped its business, investing in technology, developing its own brands, and placing sustainability at the centre of its mission. In doing so, it offers a compelling example of how a heritage manufacturer can lead rather than follow through a period of profound industry change. Image Credit: Texia
What are we craving Ultimately?
The instinct to slow down while simultaneously optimising every measurable aspect of life isn't a passing curiosity. It's a structural response to a world that feels increasingly unstable, and it's reshaping what people expect from their homes, hotels, workplaces and healthcare environments alike.
For the design and manufacturing sectors, this means rethinking both product and process.
The Structual Shift is Real and its Already Here
Volumes are moving east, where digital production is accelerating rapidly. Consumer behaviour has shifted.
Demand is now driven by personalisation, shorter buying cycles, and an expectation of near-instant responsiveness. Regulatory pressure is intensifying, with supply chain transparency now a legal and commercial fact in many markets. And margins? They are under sustained, structural pressure.
This is not a temporary disruption. It is a fundamental reordering of how textile manufacturing must operate.
The Challenge: Standing Firm as the Industry Shifts
The wallpaper landscape has changed dramatically. Digital printing has lowered the barrier to entry, spawning countless direct-to-consumer brands and pushing much of the market towards faster, cheaper production.
At the same time, manufacturing in the UK has grown steadily harder - rising minimum wage, national insurance, energy and substrate costs all bear down on margins. Surface Print have embraced all of these challenges - and stand resolutely prepared for the future.
From Helsinki's printing mill to Paris's Le Marais, discover how Marimekko is scaling a design-led brand with purpose, craft, and bold innovation.
But what makes Marimekko's story compelling is not just its aesthetic legacy?
The word "toxic" carries weight. It conjures danger, harm, and things best avoided.
“Yet in the textile industry - Where between 3,000 and 10,000 chemicals move through the supply chain, a reflexive fear of the term is one of our biggest obstacles to progress.”
This article distils the key takeaways and what buyers, designers, and brands should be asking right now.
What Is the Digital Product Passport?
At its core, a Digital Product Passport is a digital record attached to a physical product - For a printed textile product, this means the DPP would capture data on the substrate, inks and dyes used, the printing process and technology, chemical compliance, environmental impact (including water and energy use), supply chain traceability, and end-of-life instructions.
The Market Gap that Changed Everything
Future Fashion was founded in 2019, timed deliberately to coincide with a pivotal moment in global textile technology: the commercial launch of the EFI Reggiani BOLT Single-Pass digital printing system.
The founders recognised that single-pass architecture had fundamentally changed what was industrially possible - and that Pakistan's domestic market had yet to catch up.
Print is no longer defined by the inefficiencies that once characterised it…as advances in production processes and technology have significantly improved its environmental performance.
Taran Rai, Corporate Sustainability Manager at Epson explains why?
The story of what happens when young designers access digital technology is still being written.
What once was a theoretical sustainability goal seems to have shifted into an active regulatory reality.
Is the Textile Market Finally Recovering?
After a difficult few years, there are genuine reasons for optimism. Duncan was candid about the challenges: "The market for textiles has been very difficult over the last three years. I'm not going to hide the truth there. But the tide is turning.“
A profound shift is currently reshaping the sector
Changing consumer expectations demand greater design diversity, faster turnaround times, and sustainable manufacturing practices.
To thrive, interior brands must adapt their supply chains, bringing production closer to the end consumer and moving away from bulk manufacturing.
Digital textile printing offers a definitive solution to these operational bottlenecks.
Digital transformation doesn't announce itself.
It accumulates - one innovation at a time - until an entire industry looks back and realises the ground has shifted beneath its feet. That's precisely where textiles stands today.
The conversations happening now about AI, automation, sustainability, and digital product passports are not theoretical. They are shaping decisions being made on factory floors and in boardrooms right now.
“By leveraging advanced digital textile printing, Marylene Madou has successfully merged traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology. Her approach offers a blueprint for how independent designers can scale their brands globally while maintaining a minimal environmental footprint.”
The textile industry is undergoing a vital transformation. As the insights from Techtextil and Texprocess reveal, the path forward relies on a combination of sustainable hardware, intelligent chemistry, and seamless digital workflows.
From Zimmer's industrial-scale energy reductions and Stratasys's on-demand 3D embellishments, to Kornit's single-step technical printing and the unified digital ecosystems of NedGraphics and Optitex, the tools for change are here. To stay competitive, brands and manufacturers must adopt these innovations, moving away from fragmented, wasteful processes towards a truly connected, circular economy.
Friedmans stands as a testament to the power of combining traditional textile knowledge with forward-thinking innovation.
“Operating from their UK headquarters, Friedmans now serves a diverse array of sectors, including swimwear, dance, entertainment, sportswear, interior decor, prosthetics, and even pet apparel. With a strategic supply chain that reliably serves clients worldwide”
The apparel decoration industry is decisively moving away from isolated, analogue production tools toward connected digital manufacturing environments.
"Kornit’s unwavering commitment to transformative technology continues to disrupt the status quo. For business leaders and innovators ready to capture the future of apparel manufacturing, the path forward is clear”
The Urgent Need for Sustainability at Scale
The transformation at Coats provides a vital blueprint for the wider textile and apparel sector. True sustainability cannot be achieved in silos. As Dearing emphasised:
“Cross-industry collaboration is the engine of meaningful change. Brands, machinery suppliers, chemical providers, and fibre producers must act as an interconnected ecosystem”
Today’s customers demand superior product quality, real-time data visibility, and lightning-fast turnaround times.
For large-scale garment decorators, managing these expectations while balancing seasonal demand fluctuations - such as the massive surges seen during Black Friday - presents a monumental challenge.
"Relying on transactional vendor relationships and outdated legacy equipment is no longer sufficient to secure long-term stability and growth.”
Printing method is never a secondary detail. It shapes the entire life cycle of a product, from concept to customer. In today’s fashion industry, where margins are tighter and speed matters more than ever, technical knowledge has become a competitive advantage.
“The future of textile design belongs to professionals who can combine creativity with execution, aesthetics with practicality, and vision with production reality”.
Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.
Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.
Commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
Sed purus sem, scelerisque ac rhoncus eget, porttitor nec odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Vivamus pellentesque vitae neque at vestibulum. Donec efficitur mollis dui vel pharetra.
Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.
Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.
Vivamus pellentesque vitae neque at vestibulum. Donec efficitur mollis dui vel pharetra.