The Old Boy Rose is a drawing fashioned on the white rose we grew in our studio garden. The origin was very Fulham. However, the inspiration for our water bottle and stationery lines that feature the rose went years back, in Central Asia in fact.
Several years ago, our Creative Director travelled to Uzbekistan for a British Council-backed project. She returned with several lovely Uzbek woollen scarves – and stories about a particular deep blue colour she observed in robes sold at the clothes market.
It’s a type of cobalt blue. It’s the kind of blue commonly seen on fine porcelain from China. This pigment is evidence of the meeting point between Tang and Abbasid empires, between East and West. During an unusually snowy April in 2018, we saw the same blue on some very fine Ottoman dining set at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey – another meeting point of the East and West.
The historical and cultural significance of this blue is immense. It is a record of international trade that’s been going on for centuries between Europe and Asia. By late 18th Century, the cerulean blue was introduced in Europe. Around the same period, Josiah Wedgewood introduced his own signature blue on his pottery products. Deep blue, like the porcelain objects that carried it, came to signify refinement, even on commonly accessible household objects.
Our wish is that you enjoy the Old Boy Rose collection, be it the water bottle, the phone case, the card or the art print. Like the white-and-blue ceramicware you have in your kitchen, we’d like you to use the water bottle again and again. The roses took ages to grow and ages to paint. We hope the Old Boy Rose stays by your side for longer.
Studio GLUE 