Prints inspired by our places

Look across the lake at Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire during autumn and you’ll see the inspiration for our Stowe Autumn Landscape print. Reds, oranges and golden shades spread through the trees, changing the view as the season moves on.

Stowe’s winding paths, lakeside walks and temples have drawn visitors for more than 300 years. Its carefully composed views offer plenty to discover, but it was the colour of the autumn landscape that provided the starting point for this design.

The print was created by painting layers of autumn colours with inks and brushes of different sizes. The overlapping marks capture the richness of the view, bringing a sense of the garden to our Stowe silk scarf and Stowe organic cotton socks.

Mount Stewart Marbled Bark: beauty in the woodland details

The inspiration for our Mount Stewart Marbled Bark print sits closer to the ground. It comes from the textured surfaces of trees in the ancient woodlands at Mount Stewart, County Down.

A walk around the seven-acre lake and through the woodland reveals changing colours, patterns and textures. Among them, the marbled appearance of tree bark offered a starting point for a more abstract design.

Natural inks were allowed to bleed across paper, creating irregular marks and soft edges. These pieces were then scanned and adjusted digitally, with changes to their scale, colour and arrangement until the pattern echoed the surface of bark.

Used on our Mount Stewart Bark silk scarf, the finished print carries a small detail of Mount Stewart’s woodland into something you can wear.

At Cotehele in Cornwall, the inspiration came from inside the house. Our Soft Blooms print draws on the decorative detail of ‘Queen Anne’s Tatting’ found on mahogany chairs and two pole screens in the Punch Room.

Tatting creates patterns through knots and loops. Its delicate appearance provided the starting point for a print that translates historic handiwork into soft, painted shapes.

The design was first painted by hand using gouache and a dry brush, giving the marks a distinctive, slightly smudged texture. The painted elements were then turned and rearranged digitally to form the finished pattern.

Cotehele was the ancestral home of the Edgcumbe family for centuries. Set high above the River Tamar, its Tudor rooms hold furniture, tapestries, paintings and household objects, each with its own story. This print takes one of those decorative details beyond the house, appearing on our National Trust Cotehele Recycled Polyester Scarf and Cotehele organic cotton socks.

Erddig Opulent Floral: a pattern from the Blue Bedroom

Our Erddig Opulent Floral print began with the cream and turquoise brocade curtains hanging in the Blue Bedroom at Erddig, Wrexham.

The house tells the story of a family and the people who worked for them. Downstairs, servants’ portraits and preserved rooms reveal life below stairs, while upstairs, furniture, textiles and wallpapers offer a wealth of decorative detail.

For this design, elements from the curtains were painted in ink. Their scale, colour and arrangement were then adjusted digitally to create a repeating floral pattern.

The result brings a detail from an 18th-century interior to our Erddig silk scarf, Erddig organic cotton cross-body bag and Erddig organic cotton socks.

Our Hedgerow Berries print celebrates a familiar autumn sight at many of the places we care for: bright red hawthorn berries among the branches.

Hawthorn hedges provide food and shelter for wildlife, with berries that can remain into winter. Their colour and the tangle of surrounding foliage inspired a design full of overlapping detail.

Ink was used to recreate the bushes and berries before the images were layered and adjusted digitally to add depth. Following its appearance on a silk scarf, the print returns on our Hedgerow Berries wool scarf and Hedgerow Berries organic cotton shopper bag.

Take a little inspiration with you

These prints begin with the pleasure of looking closely. Some capture a whole landscape; others draw attention to a piece of bark or a textile preserved inside a historic house.

Explore our fashion accessories to find a design that reminds you of a favourite place, or introduces you to somewhere you’ve yet to discover.