FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Invite Jim and Gert into your home

Invite Jim and Gert into your home

Jim Thompson taps the talent of edgy Belgian designer Voorjans for its new line of fabrics

IN ITS latest collection of home-furnishing fabrics, Jim Thompson has had Belgian architect-interior designer Gert Voorjans create an exuberant line in keeping with its penchant for vibrant colours.
Voorjans’ designs are notoriously unconventional and always innovative and surprising, and this collaborative collection is no exception, aiming to lure homemakers into embracing exciting and daring combinations. 

Invite Jim and Gert into your home

In a collection ranging from upholstery to wall coverings, the key features include colourful silk weaves and stripes of wool epingle, a rustic check design, bold prints with playful patterns inspired by 20th-century art, and daring trimmings in bright shades. 
There’s a sense of juxtaposition as apparent opposites are brought together, like roughness and softness, rusticity and refinement. 
Voorjans has designed homes for some of the world’s most important residential and corporate developers, most notably Dries Van Noten stores around the world. 
Voorjans studied interior design in Hasselt, holds a post-graduate degree in art history from Siena and a post-graduate degree in styles & arts from Sotheby’s in London. 
In 1997 he opened his own architectural and design practice in Antwerp and, in 2013, Gert Voorjans Asia was established in Hong Kong.

Invite Jim and Gert into your home

Here, Voorjans shares the complex influences behind his work with a Jim Thompson interviewer.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS COLLECTION?
I’ve created fabrics that can be used to furnish complete interiors, ranging from upholstery to wall coverings. It’s an exuberant collection based on our own historic documents, samples and fabrics, but with references to French and Italian colourists and avant-garde artists.
 
DOES THE COLLECTION HAVE A RUNNING THEME?
We have not only included silks, but I also opted for cotton and linen fabrics, and even passementeries. The collection is very diverse, ranging from rustic and checked fabrics to ivy motifs, sophisticated damasks and colourful trimmings. By using this approach, I hope to reach out to a broad audience, so that more people can enjoy part of my creative universe.

  Invite Jim and Gert into your home

WHAT KEY WORDS WOULD YOU USE TO DESCRIBE THE COLLECTION?
Eccentric, richly layered, customised, refreshing, inspiring, colourful, distinctive – to name just a few. But above all, naive, unexpected and artistic.
 
WHY ARE JIM THOMPSON AND GERT VOORJANS A GOOD MATCH?
I’ve been integrating Jim Thompson fabrics into my projects for as long as I can remember, so designing a collection for the house was a very exciting challenge. And most of all, I am a great admirer of the Jim Thompson story. 
I love to create environments that are richly layered with influences from the East and the West, suffused with colours. I believe these characteristics relate well to the Jim Thompson style, and that’s why I think our collaboration is the perfect match. 

 

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