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Designer Interview Series: Nick Ozanne of Leto & Ariadne

Of the items in our flagship store, one that is sure to elicit ohh-ing and ahh-ing from our customers is the Seedpod scarf from Leto & Ariadne.

Nick Ozanne is the man behind the brand, who weaves by hand in his London studio. Trained at the Winchester School of Art, Nick creates woven fabrics with detailed attention to drape, weight and above all, how they feel against the skin…which is absolutely amazing, by the way!

Portrait of Nick Ozanne

The inspiration behind your Patisserie scarves began with your memories of cakes. Do you draw inspiration from any other forms of art?

I find that inspiration is a very personal response to any kind of experience. This can be stimulated by anything that I come into contact with on a daily basis and recent work has been inspired by re-reading a favorite book or stumbling across a photograph of me on my first day of school. Aside from this I am inspired by the treasures of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London where I spend a lot of time walking through the galleries filling notebooks with ideas. The theatres in London and music on the radio, staring at the clouds and watching them make patterns in the sky, old photographs, decaying buildings… the list really does go on and on, but the motto to be gleaned from this is that both art and inspiration can be found all around us, all the time.  

Patisserie scarves

Does the inspiration behind your scarves differ from that behind your upholstery pieces?

My upholstery collections are to be woven on traditional jacquard looms which enables me to use more figurative detailing in the design as this is meant to be seen flat when on the furniture. My other work for fashion tends to use more colour and structure as they are pieces meant to be worn on the body in folds and pleats and never sit flat against the skin.  The inspiration can come from anywhere, but the approach if very different as I will spend much more time drawing for upholstery designs, working out scaling and repeats, whereas for scarves I prefer to design directly on the loom, altering the design as I go until I am satisfied.

Do you plan on branching out to other fabrics and woven products?

I have recently found a studio space in Stroud, Gloucestershire, which is the historic centre of the textile industry in the South of England. This finally means that I will be able to bring the larger looms out from storage and begin constant production of my designs with a small team of highly skilled handweavers. Splitting my time between designing in London and weaving in Stroud will enable me to develop new products, such as large handwoven blankets and soft cushions, and the range of Upholstery fabrics that I aim to launch in 2010. I also want to be able to work with furniture restorers to rescue older pieces of furniture that have been neglected, upholster them in ‘Leto & Ariadne’ fabric and send them back out into the world. I do not like the ‘throwaway’ culture that has been adopted where both fashion and furniture are manufactured badly, bought cheaply and then happily thrown away when they fall to pieces. This is a ridiculous waste of time and resources. It is almost as though the word craft has become a dirty word and the idea of paying money for a quality item is money wasted. It seems like a false economy to me and I would always prefer to invest in a piece that I will love and will last for years.

Evelyn Waugh Stripe Scarf

What is the idea behind trading with other designers?

The ‘Trade’ section on the website is due to take shape as a gateway into my company for interior designers and small stockists that would like to represent my work anywhere in the world. I have already received enquiries about the Upholstery fabrics from some designers in the US and realise that this is the best way to make the products under the ‘Leto & Ariadne’ label available to people across the globe as easily as possible.  At the same time I do not want to be available in every shop as where I sell should be a company that understands the ideals of my label, the motivation that quality and good design are paramount.

You plan to release a limited number of books containing your sketches.  What led you to develop The Book of Elsewhere (or places that aren’t)?

I have always loved books and at present have about 1600 in my tiny flat in Kensington (in fact between books and cones of yarn there is room for very little else.) I have always been a bit of a doodler and drawn in notebooks and sketchbooks that I keep in my pocket and a few summers ago I had gone to stay with a friend in the countryside and was at a craft fair where she was selling her work. While I sat on the grass in the sun I doodled page after page of little sketches. The more I drew, the more I imagined the stories that went with the images, a kind of fairy tale for adults. I plan to have ‘Elsewhere’ printed in a limited edition of 1000 copies on good quality paper with a beautiful binding as something that can be revisited again and again.  

The feedback from those who saw your work in January was overwhelmingly positive. How would you describe the experience of having your pieces showcased for the first time?

January was the first time since my graduation in 1999 that anyone outside my close circle saw any of my work and I was unprepared for what the experience would be like. I had a solo showcase in the windows of the design company where I was working at the time (they knew of my double life as their employee and also a weaver and had offered me the show). I had an office on the lower floor and would sometimes come up to the showroom to discuss something with a colleague. I was completely taken aback when I saw people stopping in their tracks outside the windows to look at my work. It was a combination of complete horror at making myself so vulnerable to people’s responses, but also tremendous excitement at the fact that I had finally taken the step to launch my label.

This is due to be repeated in October of this year when I exhibit at Origins at Somerset House, an event run by the Crafts Council in the UK. To be invited to show here is tremendously exciting as it will be alongside about 300 of my peers in the world of contemporary crafts, many of whom I have admired from afar for a long time.

Seedpod Scarf in Chestnut

The Cinderella File drew upon stories from European fairy tales. Where else do you look to for inspiration when starting a side project?

The Cinderella File is really the combination of many themes that came together over a number of years. Alongside the gothic image of Cinderella herself, whose fate was changed by Prince Charming and her shoe, I had always been fascinated by the character of Miss Haversham from ‘Great Expectations’ and her shoe that sits forever on her dressing table, slowly moldering. This seemed to me to be the most poignant image in the whole book and following a relationship of mine that ended several years ago, it took on a new significance that only arrived at the outline for the project when I was granted access to the archives of the V&A Museum in London to study the use of woven fabrics in historic shoes.

I never really have to look for inspiration for a side project. It is more a case of trying to find the time to explore all my other ideas. Sometimes I may start a piece of work simply for the joy of the process of creation. This may result in a book, or a length of upholstery fabric, or simply a failed experiment, but the simple freedom of being able to work in this way is a wonderful freedom.

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Designer Interview Series is a new Blog feature in which Art in the Age buyer Melanie reveals the person or team behind an Art in the Age curated brand…through exclusive interviews! Tune in again next week for more…

In the meantime, check out the deliriously delicious Seedpod Scarf online or in the store!