Name: Orla Kiely.
Age: 52.
Appearance: Neat, tidy, repetitive.
Who is she? She is an Irish designer, famous for simplified flower patterns that are now a middle-class cliche.
Is she that woman who thinks it’s the 1960s? I don’t know whether she thinks that in her personal life. Actually, I’m fairly sure she doesn’t. But yes, there is a soupcon of the midcentury about her homewares.
A soupcon? All right, a vat. Anyway, she is very, very successful. Her Stem design is the new Burberry or something.
Great. Although didn’t you tell me last week that we had reached “peak curtains”? That’s right. Steve Howard from Ikea said so, and Kiely agrees with him. “I don’t like our throwaway culture,” she told the Radio Times. “The world is full of stuff and it is too much.”
So another stuff manufacturer says we’re manufacturing too much stuff? That’s right.
Hypocrisy, maybe? They did put that to Kiely, and to be fair to her, she agrees. “I am adding to it,” she said, “but I am hoping that people who buy my stuff will keep it for ever. But you are right. At the end it is still cluttering.”
Well, as long as she is hoping her customers act responsibly. What more could anyone do? She also provides a repair service for Orla Kiely products, paid for, once they are out of warranty.
Are they made only out of sustainable or recycled materials? Her website doesn’t say. Which suggests probably not.
So should I despise her for peddling stuff or admire her for admitting it? Just accept that customers and suppliers are part of a complex web of behaviour, in which we are all responsible for trying to do our best.
Maybe I’ll just blame you. Whatever works.
Do say: “Ooh, that’s a nice towel! It will match our duvet, pillowcases, cushion, mug, storage jar, phone case, utensils pot, bread bin, coasters, tealight lantern, tea towel, plant pot, place mats, salad bowl, bath set, watch, pen, butter dish, sugar bowl, scented candle gift set, address book, sling bag, washbag, umbrella, notebook, throw, diffuser set, secateurs, hand cream, gardening fork, gardening journal, tool box, shower gel, string in a tin, flask, hand wash, saucepan, cake dome, casserole dish, trowel, oven gloves, holdall, tableware, bin, magazine rack and wallpaper.”
Don’t say: “Yes, but where will we go?”
