The Bright Young Things

These last few weeks my inspiration has been a meld of The Bright Young Things, Christmas and Black & White. What a combo! I’ve always been quite obsessed with the visual imagery of the mega rich in the 1920’s and beyond. These Cecil Beaton photos are the obvious go to but I once wrote an essay about the original Thomas Crown Affair movie (1968) 😂. That world of being rich and bored is fascinating to me.

The Bright Young Things was a term given by the press to a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. They threw flamboyant fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts through nighttime London. One ‘It Girl’ was quoted as ‘living on brandy cocktails and salted nuts for years’.

A notable member of the group and photographer was Cecil Beaton who took these now infamous post war images.

The men were androgenous, the women were outrageous. They were the original paparazzi celebrities. The original party animals. The start of the modern cult of celebrity. Fast cars and country side. They even invented ‘bring a bottle’ parties.

Ignoring the incredibly questionable moral compass of some of the Bright Young Things (cough cough, The Mitford Sisters). These are the parties I always imagine around my printed table linens (between 7pm -9pm, after that I’m not so sure). People who are serious about dinner parties and decoration! Candles, music, food, laughter. Memory making dinners.

They even created their own slang…well known words of today like ‘Darling’ and ‘Divine’. Both fabulous words in my opinion!

The wild and decadent behaviour of the party set became distasteful after a period of mass unemployment within the UK. They were eventually denounced by the media which quickly brought the Bright Young Things to an end.

From all of this, my first inspired black and white design is a classic stripe. Or maybe closer to a ticking? These designs will be for life, not just for halloween. Though I realise the timings says otherwise.

There maybe a little sparkle in some of the following pieces and all will be unique and divine! Keep your eye out for the launch.

So, I’m definitely moving into my black & white era, just for a while. Yet Christmas has taken over my printing table and I’m not complaining about that either.

My Christmas shop is open! For all serious dinner goers.