Homes & Gardens Design Awards for 'Trim of the Year 2025'
A Moment of Pure Joy: Winning Trim of the Year!
I am thrilled to share that my Kaleidoscope collection designed in collaboration with Samuel & Sons, has won 'Trim of the Year’ at the Homes & Gardens Design Awards.This honour celebrates not only joyful expression through colour and a fresh take on tradition, but also the enduring value of exceptional craftsmanship.
“This joyful collection proves Passementerie can be both timeless and modern - a tactile, colourful celebration that adds exuberant sophistication to interiors”
The Power of Individual Design
In a world increasingly dominated by mass-produced uniformity, my collaboration with Samuel & Sons stands as a testament to the transformative power of individual design. Each piece was conceived not as a trend to follow, but as a tool for personal expression - a way for people to inject their own story, their own personality, their own love of colour into their living spaces.
I've always believed that the most beautiful homes are those that couldn't belong to anyone else. They're spaces where every element has been chosen with intention, where colour is embraced rather than feared, where craft and creativity dance together. This award feels like validation of that philosophy.
Celebrating the Endangered Art of Passementerie
What makes this recognition even more poignant is what it represents for the future of traditional craftsmanship. I am one of only four hand passementerie artists left working in the UK today and my craft is officially recognised as an ‘endangered’ craft by Heritage Crafts.
Every single piece in our Kaleidoscope collaboration was designed by hand in my London studio using traditional making techniques - the same methods that have been passed down through generations of makers. These aren't digital renderings or machine prototypes; they're physical pieces, created with my hands, using skills that are quietly disappearing from our creative landscape.
From my studio, these designs travelled to the Samuel & Sons mill, where they were beautifully interpreted and brought to life. The majority of pieces in the collection are hand woven at their mill - a perfect marriage of individual artisan design and expert production craftsmanship.
Think about that for a moment. Centuries of knowledge, generations of skill passed from master to apprentice, techniques refined over hundreds of years - all carried forward by just four practitioners in the entire country. When you choose pieces from this collection, you're not just selecting beautiful trim for your home; you're becoming a custodian of living history, supporting a craft that hangs by the most delicate of threads, literally and metaphorically.
The Contemporary Relevance of Ancient Craft
There's something profoundly hopeful about seeing traditional passementerie celebrated in the pages of Homes & Gardens, a publication that champions the very best in contemporary design. It proves that craft doesn't have to live in the past to have relevance today. In fact, I'd argue the opposite - in our increasingly digital, fast-paced world, the slow, meditative process of handcraft becomes more valuable, not less.
Each hand-twisted cord, each carefully knotted tassel, each perfectly balanced colour combination carries within it something you simply cannot replicate by machine: the human touch. The slight irregularities that speak of hands rather than mechanisms. The subtle variations that make each piece unique. The knowledge that someone, somewhere, spent time creating this object with skill, patience, and care.
Colour as a Love Language
One of the greatest joys of working on this collection was the freedom to explore colour in all its glorious complexity. I've never understood the fear of colour that seems to grip so many people when they're designing their homes. Colour is joy made visible. It's emotion you can touch. It's the quickest way to transform not just a space, but how you feel within that space.
The pieces in our award-winning collection span a spectrum that makes my colour-loving heart sing - from rich, jewel-like tones that add instant luxury to softer, more nuanced shades that whisper rather than shout. Each one carefully calibrated to work within contemporary palettes while adding that essential element of personality and warmth.
Looking Forward While Honouring the Past
Winning 'Trim of the Year' feels like more than personal achievement - it feels like a responsibility. A responsibility to continue championing individual design over homogenised trends. To keep advocating for colour in a world that too often defaults to safe neutrals. And most importantly, to do everything in my power to ensure that the ancient art of handmade passementerie doesn't become extinct on my watch.
This award belongs not just to me, or even to the wonderful team at Samuel & Sons, but to everyone who believes that craft matters, that individual expression matters, that the human touch in design isn't just nice to have but essential. It belongs to the four remaining passementerie makers whose skilled hands brought these designs to life, and to everyone who chooses handmade over mass-produced, story over status quo.
Here's to keeping ancient crafts alive in contemporary contexts, to the power of individual design, and to never, ever being afraid of a little colour.
The award-winning Kaleidoscope collaboration with Samuel & Sons is available now. For bespoke colour consultations or to discuss incorporating handmade passementerie into your project, please get in touch.
