Designing the Moonlight Memphis collection

Moonlight Memphis is our tropical fantasia. It’s a vibrant, playful world where palm fronds sway, peacocks roam, and the sun sets each evening in a glorious golden hue. Escapism is a megatrend we have been following in recent years and our take on this idea continues to become more optimistic, verdant, and nostalgic – overall, we hope this collection will transport you.

Small- and large-scale patterns and evolving colour stories conjure memories of our previous collaborations and allow you to create a variety of schemes. The colour palette is consistent throughout the collection and wider range, weaving patterns and plains together into a comprehensive, diverse offering of usable yet thematic textiles.

It’s vital to us when developing a range that it nods to the previous ranges and colour palettes. Increasing our customers’ ability to see evolution in their spaces – adding a new piece every now and again, rather than requiring a complete renovation. For example, while pink has long been a core shade within the Mokum brand, our decadent, dirty whisky first appeared in The Royal Menagerie and has evolved to hero Moonlight Memphis.

As much as we love mixing maximalist patterns, it isn’t really how we live. The odd client will be willing to go very bold and layer patterns, but most of the time the bulk of your investment is in the sofa, and you accent the surrounding area with decorative cushions, occasional chairs, and ottomans. So, our approach to maximalism celebrates a more livable, subtle design style which doesn’t only encourage pattern on pattern, but an aesthetic built around one bold pattern and a series of lush plains. 

Catherine Martin taught us to take more risks with colour and what’s interesting in a velvet as opposed to a drier cloth is that vibrant colours are the best-sellers. To bring Bespoke in step with recent collections and to herald our direction for the next couple of years, we’ve added 11 new colours – giving you more to choose from while bringing the palette into the future. 

We’ve seen and heard the dialogue around Chocolate returning to interior spaces. Through sales analysis we’ve noticed that dark greys are declining and we’re seeing more colours come through; Sienna is based on one of our best-selling Alpaca Velvet colours, and we’ve incorporated our fresher greens from The Royal Menagerie. We also included cooler neutrals like Oyster, because we’re always analyzing the neutrals and thinking ‘what did we miss last time?’ 

I had the collection laid out in the studio when Catherine visited and she said “it looks beautiful Steph, it’s really sophisticated, but where’s the crazy? Where’s the crazy colour in Bespoke?” Satnin was laid out at the same time, and we thought “well, let’s try a chartreuse.” Refreshed as Citrine, Chartreuse is full circle for us. It is a colour which Mokum used to offer maybe 20 years ago and now it’s back in fashion and it’s a great colour to put a pop into a scheme.

Visiting Italy earlier in the year reconfirmed the dominance of boucle. We especially noticed a shift towards greater dimension or multicoloured yarns, but most importantly, it’s become clear that boucle is a core product. 

Moonlight Memphis presented a great opportunity to add colour to our Grande Boucle. First launched alongside Ikigai in three creamy shades, we’ve added greys, chocolate brown, and lovely complex shades of soft pink, bronze, green, and blue. The other wonderful thing about our Grande Boucle is the light acrylic backing which wasn’t required for performance or durability but so you could use it without fear of movement, whether it’s a highly tailored piece or loose cover. 

When we speak about luxury in our market it must be a livable and approachable, and I think Satnin is a wonderful touch of relaxed glamour. The natural luminosity of the linen yarn is accentuated by the satin weave, while the textured slub yarn retains that sense of approachability, and because it’s piece-dyed we were able develop a custom colour palette. 

We were thrilled with the response to Jungle Room. We hadn’t designed an embroidery for a long time, and it was a risk as it is such a decorative product, but it’s been exceptional. We wanted to add a whisky shade and eventually settled on the Muscat colourway which we offer in a matching Satnin colourway called Molasses. Therefore, it works beautifully alongside the drapery and against this wonderful, complex stitching you’ll find a little pop of chartreuse giving it a lift. 

Satnin champions our commitment to injecting more optimistic, playful colours into the range. We’ll always have neutrals and nuanced dusky tones but we’re giving you more pop – it’s a basic that’s not basic, it’s got that extra je ne sais quoi.