Many people ask Designers the age old question - What Inspires you? To be honest, I find it a very hard question to answer. Pin-pointing exactly what inspires me is never really something I can put into words.
However, in saying that the more I think about it and the more I learn and the more experiences I have there is one word which seems to ring around and around in my head. It is something I strive for every single day and it is something I truly admire in successful, innnovative people.
The word is originality which is defined as - The capacity to act or think independently.
I once read a quote by John Mason which said - 'You were born an original, don't die a copy.' To be an original, to be an innovator, to create something you can call your own. Isn't that what we all strive for in this life? To have full confidence in your own ability to create something wonderful is when everything falls into place. I hope that when I look back on my life I will be able to say I was an innovator and I was always true to my original self.
I was recently extremely inspired by a book on Celia Birtwell which was given to me as a gift. Her beautiful prints are unmistakable and it has been said that her work does not date. So true in fact that her Mystic Daisy pattern, as worn by Kate Moss in 2006, was a sellout for Topshop and yet this very same pattern was worn by Jane Birkin in the 70's.
In her own words about the process of collecting her thoughts for her book, Celia Birtwell says - 'that my life has been a patchwork of happy accidents without path or planning: and how hugely privileged I am that my prints have a language of their own that people really enjoy and understand.'
Her work stands out on it's own full of confidence and originality. There is nothing like it. Celia Birtwell is an inspiration.
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