This year has been a blast! We've taken part in some wonderful collaborations and watched our linen homewares delight customers around the world. We've travelled, styled, shot pictures, grafted, designed, produced, packed and sung the praises of beautiful linen. It's been our family's mission to create stunning, sustainable, comfortable linen textiles for three generations. We're proud of what we've achieved this year, and grateful to you, our readers and loyal customers, for making it all possible.
Here's our 2018 news highlights!
January
- Our table linens featured in a gorgeous shoot for Hudson and Vine, one of our US stockists
- Milan-based stylish Sebastiano Vecchio used our linen bedlinen in one of his super-cool apartment shoots
- We headed to Paris for Maison et Objet to show our SS2018 range, including luscious new shades Sapphire and Sea Blue
- Over the year we released pictures from our wonderful shoot at a villa in the South of France. We loved everything about this place: the crumbling walls, the green wooden shutters, the al fresco dining table, the nearby towns with narrow, atmospheric streets and, of course, the sunshine
February
- Next to Germany, where we displayed our LinenMe home textiles at Ambiente 2018, a goods fair in Frankfurt
- At another trade show, NY NOW, we showcased our new range of striped beach towels, perfect for vacations as they are lightweight, highly absorbent and look great
March
- We were proud to supply table linens for a charity event organised by London cafe 26 Grains. The dinner raised vital money for the charity Women for Women who work with women from eight countries that have been affected by war and conflict
April
- Our linens were stocked in Sagra, a concept store in Lorrach, Germany
May
- We collaborated with Emko, a Lithuanian furniture design and home accessory brand who used our linen curtains in a shoot
June
- Our bedlinens featured on the cover of My Warehouse Home magazine in a shoot using a fabulous combination of pinks, greys and oranges
August
- Luna magazine used our linen sheets and tablecloths in a children's wear fashion shoot, draping the linens over washing lines for a vintage-themed spread
- We headed back to NY NOW to showcase our AW 2018 range, including fab new russets and greys, as well as new throw designs
September
- Our booth was nominated for Best Stand at the autumn Maison et Objet in Paris
- We attended the opening of the Kinfolk magazine printshop, also in Paris
November
- Architectural Digest Germany featured our linen towels
- We were very proud of our very own Inga, who achieved a certificate in Art Direction at the University of the Arts London. Inga is our designer, organiser and brand vision-maker, and we can't wait to see how she styles and shoots our products in the months ahead. Well done Inga!
- Our linen bedlinen featured in Vogue Germany
December
- A gathering of creatives and stylists, the Sisterhood Camp, used our table linens to style their sumptuous table, providing inspiration and the perfect backdrop for their feast (image by litphotographyni, styling by Mel Wiggins)
As well as these specific events, this year has been packed with exciting collaborations on our blogs, both here at LinenMe News and over on our sister site, linenbeauty.com. We launched a new series on this blog, called 5 Good Things, where guests briefly described five of their most precious household objects in 5 categories. The aim was to give you a peek inside their homes, and their lives, a bit like when you're dying to ask someone where they got their bag, or how they styled their kitchen.
We also ran some book giveaways across the year, starting with Lulah Ellender's Elisabeth's Lists. This moving family memoir tells the story of Lulah's long-lost grandmother's extraordinary life, through a book of handwritten lists she left behind. Perfect for anyone who loves a list, or has ever wanted to piece together the life of someone they never knew. The book also explores grief, loss and the ties that bind us, even beyond death. Next, we were delighted to offer readers the chance to win a copy of food stylist Frankie Unsworth's gorgeous new book The New Art of Cooking. Packed with ideas for styling meals and tips on making even the most ordinary food look and taste fabulous, this book is a must for any Instagram snappers or foodies. Our third book giveaway was Beth Kempton's Wabi Sabi, a beautiful celebration of Japanese wisdom on the perfectly imperfect.
What a fitting note to end this year on: celebrating achievements but also acknowledging that things don't always have to be perfect. Good enough is sometimes, well, good enough.
Wishing you a very happy New Year, and sending gratitude for reading and being here with us on our journey.