In the summer of 1997, a twenty-something graduate of Central Saint Martins did something almost nobody does: he rang British Vogue, cold, and asked to speak to someone in fashion. That single, nervy call reached Plum Sykes, then a fashion assistant at the magazine, and led to a small women's wear collection of just eleven outfits, shown that September at London Fashion Week. Electric Angels, as the collection was called, was modelled by Kate Moss, Helena Christensen and Jade Jagger in bias-cut dresses cut from tangerine, fuchsia and magenta, and it made its designer's name overnight.
That designer was Matthew Williamson, and the eye for hot colour and intricate pattern that announced itself in eleven dresses has spent the decades since finding its way onto rather a lot of walls. Since 2013 it has belonged to Osborne & Little, the venerable British wallpaper and fabric house, which has produced a run of collections exclusively under Williamson's name. It is a genuinely unusual pairing, a fashion designer's fearless use of colour, translated wall by wall.
A Debut Built on Tigers and Leopards
Williamson's first wallpaper collection for Osborne & Little, Eden, arrived in 2013 and set the template for everything that followed: a menagerie of real and mythical creatures rendered in his signature jewel tones. Tyger Tyger sends a foil-printed tiger stalking across the wall, glinting in deep violet in the colourway pictured here. Leopardo does something similarly bold with big cats and peacock feathers tangled together on an inky ground, electric blue and burnished gold picked out against near-black, striking enough to need very little else in the room.
Tyger Tyger, Dark Violet
Leopardo, Black / Electric
Havana, By Way of Manchester
A little later came Cubana, a collection that traded animals for the glamour of pre-revolutionary Havana, the Cuba of Hemingway and his contemporaries, in a palette of jade, coral, turquoise and fuchsia pulled straight from Williamson's own catwalk. Ananas takes the humble pineapple and turns it into a blowsy, floral motif worth a whole wall. Flamingo Club goes further still, with flamingos and orchids massed together on a tropical teal ground.
Ananas, Cerise / Lemon / Mint
Flamingo Club (Cubana)
Even the collection's quieter members carry the theme somewhere in their name. Turquino, a soft fretwork print in grey and gold, borrows its name from Pico Turquino, Cuba's highest peak. Danzon, an ombre chevron in acid green, takes its name from the island's own stately ballroom dance.
Turquino (Cubana)
Danzon (Cubana)
The Wallpaper Collection Keeps Growing
The partnership hasn't stood still. Osborne & Little continues to add to what it now calls, simply, The Wallpaper Collection, and the newer designs are just as confident as the old. Chateau Noir sets urns of peonies against a near-black ground for something properly opulent, while Lyrebird's interlocking Art Nouveau tiles bring the same intensity in cooler jades and blues.
Chateau Noir
Lyrebird, Stone
Where the earlier collections stayed on a single wall, the newest designs think in whole rooms. Tiger Grove is a full mural of prowling tigers and citrus trees, dense enough to make a small room feel like a jungle.
Tiger Grove, Multi (mural)
Deya Meadow does something gentler with the same idea, a floating field of wildflowers and butterflies that works equally well in a deep, dusky palette or, as pictured here, a paler sky blue.
Deya Meadow, Sky Blue / Multi (mural)
Deya Meadow (mural)
Nearly thirty years on from that first nervy phone call to Vogue, Williamson's wallpaper still reads like his catwalk did: fearless with colour, unbothered by restraint, and entirely his own. Because these are richly detailed, print-heavy designs, it is well worth ordering a sample and living with the colour in your own light before committing a whole wall to it.
Ready to Bring Some Catwalk Colour Home?
Browse the full Matthew Williamson collection at Wallpaper Sales, from the original tigers and leopards to the newest murals. Not sure which design suits your room? Order a swatch first through our Sample Service before committing to a roll.
