Colours of Arley - Fiona de Lys

PROJECT

When my way of using colour for storytelling and personal narrative aligns with other colour professionals, I’m always keen to see how collaborations unfold: what will our ideas look like in colour? How will they be used? And where might they lead? Working with Louisa Tratalos at Colours of Arley, on bespoke stripe combinations that echo the colours of Liguria and Sardinia, led to an unexpected opportunity to demonstrate our work together on a styling shoot for Malfy Gin and Marie Claire.

Elizabeth Rose bespoke striped wallpaper and furnishings

Bespoke wallpaper and furnishing by Colours of Arley

Brand history

Colours of Arley was founded in 2022 by Louisa Tratalos, a photographer with a passion for telling stories of the home, and a desire to help friends that were renovating their home or workplace to create unique and distinctive surroundings.

Following the success of the manufacture her own stripe combinations, by a family business, Colours of Arley was born, offering a way ‘to create a simple, timeless fabric designed and made to reflect you and your space, something that goes beyond trends, and that can be enjoyed and admired for years to come.’

Manufactured in the family workshop in a small Cheshire village, everything is produced to order — even samples — which means there’s no waste. Their London showroom in Hackney is on a prominent street corner, and adds colour to the neighbourhoood. Louisa collaborates with clients that include COAT paints, House of Hackney, RIXO, The Body Shop and Anthropologie.

Brand style

Colours of Arley is a unique, trending ‘non-trend’ business helping to create colourful and contemporary interiors. Young and relatively recent to the striped fabric industry, the company has firmly positioned itself as a market leader, offering cushions and outdoor seating, curtains and blinds, tablecloths, lampshades, dog beds, shower curtains, headboards, and even wallpaper. The emphasis is on fun, creative and bold statement interiors that utilise stripes in different sizes.

Palette observations

There is a range of brilliant colour options that greet you as soon as you enter the Arley studio, which can also be ordered online. Although new colours arrive, and some are discontinued, there is something for everyone — from dark shades to pale tints, vivid to soft tones, and hues that merge across colours for more interesting combinations.

Working process

Navigating the colours in the Arley sample chart, my aim was to find four palettes that embodied verdant, botanical landscapes, architectural stone façades and ocean water.

I chose a range that typified the warm, peachy colours of Liguria, and the fresh, invigorating seascapes of Sardinia — resulting in a number of combinations that needed further distillation. Consideration was given to the colour combinations for their sense of balance, and their saturation, and this was further enhanced by the use of natural cotton and linen fabrics. Reference to my own photography, architectural research, and memories, guided my final selection.

Some time later, whilst on a styling shoot for a collaboration with Maire Claire, the stripe I created called Shutters & Blue Skies was used alongside Italian fashionista Georgina Clavarino, and celebrity chef Ravinda Bhogal, for it’s uncanny resemblance to the brand colours of the featured product, Malfy Gin, and became a mainstay of the subsequent media campaign for the gin.