Blooming lovely
Created by Bruce Slorach and Sophie Tatlow, Utopia Goods has been adding colour and flair to the Australian design scene for the past decade. Famed for their handcrafted textiles and furnishings, Slorach and Tatlow are driven by their love of native botanicals.
Their flowery fabrics (which are painted by hand and custom woven in India) tip their banksia-bedecked hats to William Morris, and the craftspeople and communities dedicated to the decorative arts. More than that, Utopia Goods reminds us, in the most beautiful way, of just how important it is that we protect the Australian landscape.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Utopia Goods. When I visited from London — where I lived in my 20s — I would be lured into their Paddington store by fabulous hues and prints that, when unpacked in London, would always conjure memories of ‘home’. How can you see a flannel flower and not think of Sydney summers, or a firewheel and not be transported to the Margaret River?
I also loved that even as a young journalist — with treasures like Utopia Goods’ waratah-adorned silk scarves well beyond my budget — I never felt out of place in their store. Instead, I’d find myself relaxed enough to wax lyrical about flowers, and simply peruse. This warmth is something Tatlow hopes people feel every time they enter the Utopia Goods showroom-meets-studio-meets-store on Oxford St.
“I want people to feel like they’re in a fabric florist or a flower cocktail bar,” she says.
“I want them to feel comfortable and inspired by colour and plants. And I want them to leave with something they didn’t walk in with, whether that’s knowledge, colour, happiness, good conversation. I want them to know about the effort it takes to make something special.”
Utopia Goods releases only six prints a year (they strive to keep their entire collection under 50 prints), and it takes at least nine months for each to evolve from Slorach’s initial drawings to the textiles filling the store.
The prints are complicated repeat patterns that are almost mathematical. To craft them, Slorach enters his own creative world; one he was clearly in during my visit. Consuming as it may be, he obviously adores his work.
“Bruce grew up in the country at the foothills of the Grampians, so he’s country born and bred,” says Tatlow. “We’ve done lots of walking together all around Australia and I think our natives are just so unusual. For us it’s a life-long love, a wonder of the world. I think people forget that trees and plants are living things with their own personality.”
Splendid as they may be, Slorach and Tatlow’s creations also help to raise awareness about the fragility of our landscape. Utopia Goods' tablecloths, fabrics, cushions, linen and scarves help us reconnect with the land, and act as a gateway for learning.
Not only are we introduced to natives and their nuances — before chatting to Tatlow I had no idea that there are thousands of species of eucalypts — but we’re reminded to take the time to look, embrace and safeguard the beauty around us.
“If people focus on our landscape, they may look after it with a greater appreciation. A lot of clients have said that they look at banksias completely differently after buying our fabric,” Tatlow says.
“So we’re operating on two levels: one about decorative art, textiles and a fabric business, and then an underlying personal one. These plants, flowers, trees and leaves bring the outside in. The biggest change we’ve seen since starting out in 2012 is appreciation of the subject matter.
“Ten years ago there was a lot of scepticism about building a business around Australian natives. I had a few people who said ‘you’ll never sell an Australian tablecloth’, and I was like, ‘Just watch me'.
“And then because of COVID people were eating at home more and appreciating what was happening in their lives more, so rituals around eating changed. We sell a lot of tablecloths and I think they add to the event of eating and entertaining and celebrating.”
To me, homewares feel intimate. We buy them to live with, so we want them to come with meaning. With Utopia Goods’ wares, I’m first drawn to the colours, imagining how pastel pinks and spearmint greens will work in my apartment.
And then there’s the subject, the blooms that come with a story. I see flowering gums and I think of childhood bush walks, while the banksias bring May Gibbs to mind. For Slorach and Tatlow, the prints remind them of jaunts to Pretty Beach, stringy bark hunting in the Grampians, the delicacy of spider orchids.
“We want Utopia Goods to be an experience,” explains Tatlow. “I think people like coming in here because it’s like a fabric florist.”
Long may Utopia Goods bloom.
Utopia Goods
30 Oxford St
