UK based surface designer, Sarah Arnett, has a thing for plants. Luscious, leafy, lace-like fronds or bursting blooms appear throughout her work. As one half of clothing label, Modern Love, her elaborate prints create a garden of visual delights that dance across an assortment of elegant garments. Sarah was kind enough to answer a few questions for us which include her love of Biba, as well as her favorite gardens in the British Isles.

1. Tell us a little about yourself. How did you start designing prints?

I trained in woven textiles and then when I finished university I got an agent and started to design embroidery and surface design…really print was another way of creating a design and I started to research different print methods…I didn’t have a clue about screens and repeats, I started to research digital print and taught myself to use illustrator…as soon as I understood the possibilities I was hooked! Color is my obsession and digital printing  allows the use of endless color combinations and huge engineered panels.

2. Plants seem to have a big influence on your work. Do you have a favorite and why?

Hydrangea – its flowers are like lace, its colors range from white to almost fluorescent pink and blues. Its very old fashioned and beautiful. Fatsia Japonica – I love the leaves and the berries that change from white to black, I use the leaf all the time in my designs.

3. There are so many magical gardens in Britain. Is there one in particular that inspires you?

Nymans , Great Dixter, Lost Gardens of Heligan and Trebah Gardens….Sorry I couldn’t do one favorite!

4. What’s your tool of choice when designing?

First off my sketch book, I carry one around with me always and sketch and write notes that I can use when I come to start a new design. I then move on to my faithful Mac…I use a combo of illustrator and Photoshop. I draw in illustrator and then use layers in Photoshop to finish the composition of the design/illustration.

5. How did the collaboration between you and Kim Hunt for Modern Love come about?

Kim and I have collaborated on work for years together. Her background is fashion. She was a stylist and fashion editor so it makes a perfect combination.

6. Describe your design process for the Modern Love collection. Were the silhouettes created first and prints second or simultaneously?

I work on shapes and patterns simultaneously, moving backwards and forwards between the pattern and the shape. Each dress has its print designed for the garment. I scan in pattern pieces and map them out in illustrator so I can get an idea of the placement. I have always been able to sew and I think understanding how the garment goes together and how the pattern is laid out  is invaluable for the print design process. For the prints I collect things/ideas/photographs  that inspire me and pull together mood boards and color groups then I start to divide the ideas into prints and then I just start experimenting…i always create a narrative for each print…it helps and inspires me to create the composition.

7. We love the original Biba too. Do you have any pieces you’d like to share with us? 

I always love the fact that the Biba store had a roof top garden…I love looking through the vintage photos on Barbara Hulanicki website. My faves are the Cosmetic counter, The Roof top garden and Leopard Mirror Girls. I only wish I had gone there myself!. I grew up in Zimbabwe till 1975…the year Biba shut. Barbara Hulanicki did go to the same art college as me in Brighton and I was lucky enough to meet her when the previewed the Film ‘Beyond Biba” at Brighton university a couple of years ago.

8. If you had to select four objects to represent yourself what would they be?

A mac vintage red lipstick, a pair of ridiculously large sunglasses, my red shiny shoes and my Holga camera.

9. Do you have a favorite print design? 

I wouldn’t know where to start Sonia Delaunay, Josef Frank….one favorite prints of mine is jungle from Spring Summer 2012

10. What’s your perfect play list to design to?

I just can’t listen to music when I work …..it distracts me so I listen to audio books and films…these are my current favs…

The Red Shoes
High Society
Synecdoche New York
Blade Runner
To Kill a Mocking bird
The Life and Times of the Thunder Bolt Kid

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To see more of Sarah’s beautiful designs, visit her site here.

– Jessie Whipple Vickery