Legendary British interior and product and fashion designer Jasper Conran knows good style. With hotels in Morocco, his own lines of bedding and clothing and an impressive heritage (yes, he's part of the Conran family - his dad is Sir Terence, the godfather of modern decor), he knows exactly how to decorate.
And he has recently embraced this year's most joyful interior design trend as part of his new collaboration with homeware giant Next. And that's stripes. Big, blocky, bold stripes. The type you see on deckchairs, on parasols, on boardwalks. That evoke joy and glee and vacation vibes.
But they're not the easiest to decorate with. Or...are they? Jasper himself explains.
Jasper Conran's rules for decorating with stripes
'I’ve always loved stripes,' Jasper says. 'On a shirt, on a dressing gown, a rug, a sofa. And particularly on a beach parasol. For me, I find them uplifting. They embody joyfulness, they're a subliminal message of joy.'
But that doesn't mean you need to go wild while using them. 'If you’re going to have stripes in a room, don't do them everywhere,' Jasper counsels. 'Just have a sofa. Have an ottoman or a pair of armchairs, but mix them in with other things. The things about stripes is that they go really well with both patterned and plained fabrics. Against a neutral backdrop they become the focus. But this is much more true when stripes are an accent, rather than the whole scheme.'
They are like a powerful gust of sea air, Jasper thinks. 'They give you freshness, they redefine the other things that surround them,' he says. 'Stripes are a very powerful tool, and they allow you to see everything in a new way. They can deconstruct the formality of a smarter space, and they can still look marvellous next to a floral.'
Important to getting stripes right is the color palette. In Jasper's Next collection there are greens with blues, pinks with browns, strong statements aplenty. 'I go to corresponding colors,' Jasper says. 'With dark green, surround it by green and white - and then add in an accent color like a hot pink vase.'
He also suggests softening other corners of the room if you have gone for a bold stripe as a main piece. 'Don’t forget that just a bunch of flowers in the room changes everything,' Jasper says. 'A bunch of hot pink dahlias. Nature's perfect complement.'
