Cape Town, South Africa-based designer and illustrator Heather Moore is drawn to simple, clean pattern designs colored with vibrant colors. After designing her patterns, she screenprints them onto fabric which is then cut and sewn into homewares such as cushions, tea towels, and table runners.
What began as a hobby turned into a business called Skinny laMinx (a nickname for Moore’s skinny little Siamese cat, Monkey) which soldproducts to stores and homes around the globe. And five years ago, that business blossomed into a chic little store on Cape Town’s Bree Street.
“After 10 years of illustration, I needed a change, so in 2006 I took a half-day job as a comic’s scriptwriter, and spent the rest of my day messing around in my studio on Long Street,” recalled Moore in an interview with You Are Brave. “I started blogging about my work, and opened an online shop on Etsy. People around the world started reading my blog and buying my things, and I got some wholesale orders to the USA, and suddenly I found that I was a designer with a design business.”
“My inspiration comes from ordinary, everyday things like cactuses, teacups, staircases and vibracrete walls,” she added. “I usually have a notebook with me, where I make sketches, and I take a lot of photographs of textures, details, juxtapositions, and compositions that seem to give me ideas.”
“The Skinny laMinx recipe is simple,” reads her website, “Mix together a love of pattern, a cute shop, a top notch team, and top it all off with equal parts playful and chic.”
