MEET THE DESIGNER
Textile designer Jo McEwan began her career in a small design house in Paris. Three decades later, she has established her own interiors business that features beautiful soft furnishings and home accessories, writes Jan Woolley
When considering a name for her newly-founded interiors company, designer Jo McEwan opted for Textured Lives, which very much reflects her ethos: “Each of us has lived a life that is full of texture, we are all individuals and it’s about building our own story,” enthuses Jo, who was born and educated in the Ribble Valley.
Her new lifestyle website features her own design collections along with beautifully curated home accessories that have been chosen to complement each other. The palette has been created for homes that are lived-in and calm: “Now more than ever, our homes are our sanctuary. All my designs are inspired by nature and my love of gardening, walking, running with my dog, it’s such a nice feeling. It’s about bringing the outside in, having greenery in our homes it’s what I have been doing all my working life. It makes me feel better, it makes me feel good.”
Educated at Westholme School, Jo went on to study for a BTech in Art and Design before gaining a BA degree at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art, one of the best art institutions in the country. “It was a real eye opener,” recalls Jo. “I got to work on projects with Paul Smith and rug designer Helen Yardley. Glasgow was very creative and students who graduated were really put on a pedestal. So many students left thinking it was going to be easy getting a job working in textiles – but it wasn’t.
“I was lucky. I was offered a job working in a design house just outside Paris. It was 30 years ago and I was paid £60 a week with accommodation provided. I was prepared to work for so little because I knew I would learn so much. I grew up pretty quickly.”
While in Paris Jo would hand sketch designs that would be transferred to textiles, she learned about the design and manufacturing process and it wasn’t long before she found work at one of the world’s leading fabric design and manufacturers – Crowson.
“It was then in its heyday,” Jo recalls. “It was a fantastic opportunity, working at Crowson was the ultimate on a CV.”
During her time at Crowson Jo’s designs became very successful: “It was a great place to work and I met some lovely people there. But I knew it was an experience, a stepping stone to get where I wanted to be.”
Jo’s next step was working for Rosenthal in Manchester – a more diverse manufacturer that gave Jo commercial experience learning about how the design retail sector worked. She worked there for three years before her dream job landed when she was appointed design manager at Montgomery in Chester.
She worked there for 18 years during which time she became design director, responsible for 180 retail outlets in the likes of House of Frazer and Fenwicks, with more than 1000 staff.
“It was a company with a great work culture, but unfortunately we were one of the first casualties of the high street.”
Luckily Jo had become a well-known name within the industry and she was very much in demand as a design consultant, however she also nurtured a dream of designing her own products: “I knew I had a great cross section of skills that I had built up over the years. I knew that my designs had sold throughout the UK so I thought, ‘Let’s give it a go’.”
Eighteen months ago, Jo started designing her own website for her latest enterprise Textured Lives, she began creating her own digital designs and set about finding manufacturers and makers in the UK and abroad.
“The launch of Textured Lives is the culmination of 30 years’ experience not just in design but in operations and finance too, it’s been hard work but ultimately worth it. I did everything myself, I designed the product, created the website, produced the photography, wrote all the text and implemented all the business software. I had to get everything right before I launched.
“My dream was to create the complete home offering. For it to have integrity, I felt I needed to have a complete collection featuring items that really complemented each other and that reflected my ethos too.”
Once Jo develops a design idea, she will send a digital drawing specifying design details and colourings to one of her chosen mills and while many of her fabrics are made here in the UK, items from her lifestyle collection are made overseas.
Beautiful made-to-measure curtains, soft furnishings and accessories all take time as many items are exclusively bespoke: “The embroidery cushions I designed took six months to make. But I’m not in any rush – I am very ambitious for this to work,” adds Jo, who has also developed her own body and bath collection which is made in the UK.
She has also sourced crockery and glassware along with other home accessories that sit beautifully alongside her personally designed soft furnishings.
“I am very much in favour of people choosing what they like for their home – not choosing to go along with trends. It’s okay to still have a 20-year-old rug that you love as that’s what makes your home personal to you. It reflects you and your textured life – it tells your story.”
