Jennifer Shorto

Jennifer Shorto founded her eponymous fabric and wallpaper company in 2013. Her designs are informed by a long-standing passion for textile history, as well as a peripatetic life: French-American by birth, she has lived at various points in Brazil, Mexico, Paris, Brussels and London, where her studio is now based.

For her fabrics, Jennifer draws inspiration from her own extensive collection of antique textiles, ranging from 17^th century brocade to strip-woven cloths from West Africa. Bringing references from handmade textile traditions into contemporary prints and weaves, she hopes to play a part in keeping such traditions and their spirits alive, but influences are myriad, so while the designs borrow from the rhythms and patterns of tribal textiles, they might equally bring to mind the patchworks of colur in a Paul Klee painting. The fabrics – silks, cottons and linens – are woven in the UK and printed in France and Italy.

Jennifer Shorto’s wallpapers are born of fantasy and the spirit of adventure. They speak of 18^th century voyages of discovery, jungle scenes a la Henri Rousseau, or meteorite shows. Many of the designs stand as artworks in their own right, delights lurking in the details – but when viewed from a distance they become abstract patterns, seamlessly complementing a whole room scheme. Printed in the UK on high-quality, wide-width paper, Jennifer and her studio harness sophisticated digital technology to achieve a result that recalls the painterly quality of old techniques.