Hi guys, thanks for joining us. So, can you explain your design process – for example: where/who do you find inspiration from? How do you source your materials? How do you reach your final design?
We find inspiration in many different places. Living in a city like London inspires us all the time; it’s such a vibrant place with so much going on. We love soaking up culture at museums, events or exhibitions and Tom often carries a little notebook to scribble down anything that catches his eye!
The natural world is also a huge source of inspiration for our designs – we’ve been lucky enough to visit some amazing places and landscapes over the years so this all permeates through into our design work. Collaborating with London’s Natural History museum on a collection was a dream come true for us!
We’re also massive vintage fans – so you’ll often find us wandering around junk shops, antiques fairs and markets finding new treasures that inspire us. We love vintage illustrations, old magazines and books and often we’ll rework some of these traditional elements into our designs, adding our Divine Savages twist.
We’ll often play around with different patterns and layouts until we’re happy with the overall balance of the design and then the fun begins with different colour schemes, which can take quite a long time for us to agree on!
Can you offer some background about yourselves – for example: How did you get into design?
We’d always loved interiors but weren’t able to fully indulge our own style until we finally
bought our first home. Tom has a background in design, illustration and fashion and his
expertise on pattern naturally translates to interiors, so he designed a few elements for our home once we got started on the decorating – cushions, a shower curtain, some art prints – and the seed of an idea was planted.
Later down the line Tom started suffering from migraines and vertigo and so had to take some time off work and ultimately decided to go freelance so he could better manage his health and recovery, and it was during this period he had the time to really focus on the idea we’d had before – of creating our own interiors brand. Later that year Divine Savages was born, and we haven’t stopped since!
What does Divine Savages represent? What is the ethos behind your work? How are your designs different from what is already in the market?
With Tom’s background in illustration and fashion our collections are, naturally, very design led. Divine Savages embraces quintessential Maximalism; we want to encourage people to douse their home in colour, print and pattern, to embrace the ‘more is more’ ethos and to unashamedly allow their personal style to shine throughout their homes. There are no rules in interiors as far as we’re concerned – why can’t we fuse modern design with the classic, combine different periods and styles and clash pattern? Our style is very recognisable, and our prints always have a playful edge, we don’t take things too seriously – your home should be a place you can have fun with design. We always go back to the origins of before we launched – our key rule when designing anything is that we’d love to have it in our own home too.
What is the one piece of advice you would give someone who wants to be braver with their interiors?
Don’t follow trends because they are fashionable – these will always come and go – instead draw inspiration for colours and pattern from yourself and your lifestyle. What makes you happy, what brings you joy? Starting here will ensure your interiors have a unique and playful individualism, weaving your personal story throughout.
What does this collaboration with Heal’s mean to you?
Heals is one of our favourite stores. When we first moved to London we’d often spend afternoons wandering around the flagship store imagining pieces in our future home. Heals was also one of Tom’s aunt’s places to go when she visited us, so to then collaborate with you on this collection for AW21 is a real highlight in our short career. Seeing our designs on display as you walk into the store was so surreal, we couldn’t quite believe it! We love the history of Heals and how you support younger designers and brands, giving them a platform – so we are very grateful to be a part of that special story.
You recently won the Heal’s Innovation award for your Botanize collection. What are your top tips for pushing the boundaries with design and how important is it to you to continue to innovate with every collection you create?
We are so proud to win the Innovation award for Botanize, thank you again! There’s a lot of design talent out there so make sure you carve out your niche. Follow your passions, take inspiration from them, and think outside the box – how can you put your own stamp on something? Look at industry trends but always be forward thinking – what will be coming next? We are always looking to push the boundaries when we design new collections at Divine Savages, for example in our Beloved Beasts collection we reworked the traditional technique of flocking for our cheeky Poochi wallpaper which was something people weren’t expecting. We like to keep you all guessing, and we can’t wait to show you what comes next.
Finally, we had to ask – who is Divine and who is Savage?!
Haha! We definitely both straddle the line depending on who you ask (and how many drinks we might have had!).