La Palma | A tropical evolution

The Mokum design studio researched tropical motifs from which Catherine’s design team created a CAD (computer-aided design) for our studio to then translate the design into a ‘half drop repeat.’ A half drop describes a pattern that matches half a vertical drop down the roll instead of exactly on each side; this style is more appealing to the eye as it gives the illusion of a wider and more natural design.

Our tropical repeat system was then passed on to a European textile artist who paints many of Mokum’s designs. By hand painting the design before scanning the artwork at high resolution, all the glorious details are captured in the textile. The unique hand painted highlights within La Palma suffuse a sense of movement, dimension, and softness which make this bold design liveable, and we believe it is this which has given La Palma such enduring popularity.

Once painted and scanned, our studio undertook the arduous process of cleaning minute imperfections from the digital artwork and transferring it into a print-ready file to be shared with the mill. The development of each custom colourway begins in our Sydney studio in collaboration with Catherine and her team; gradually reducing the possibilities until the palette is finalized.

Whilst carrying out colour development our studio simultaneously tested the wallpaper substrate, opting for a paper-backed lightweight vinyl to allow for usage in high-moisture areas such as kitchens and bathrooms. To achieve La Palma’s signature linen-look aesthetic, we pushed the mill to combine an embossed finish with a digital print for the very first time. Once printed in our refined palette on our personalized substrate, the colour strikes are reviewed in relation to the other patterns and plains from the collection, and any edits to the colour work made.

Three new colours – Ming Green, Palm Leaf, and Whisky – have been included in the 2023 Moonlight Memphis collection. Renewing our best-selling print to complement the palettes of The Royal Menagerie and Moonlight Memphis and ensure full tropical immersion.

Whilst developing La Palma Wallpaper, Mokum sourced and tested drapery base cloths, searching for the ideal soft tumbled finish for our technical and aesthetic drapery requirements.

The wallpaper files and physical wallpaper samples were sent to the Turkish drapery mill who digitally printed La Palma onto a 100% linen base cloth in six coordinating colourways: Aqua, Coral, Gilver, Hollywood, Midnight, and Sepia.

Following the success of our wallpaper and drapery, we worked with an Italian mill to translate La Palma into a printed outdoor upholstery. The development process was very similar to the indoor textile, although several colour adjustments were necessary to adapt the files to suit the high-performance base cloth – a solution dyed polyester substrate suitable for commercial outdoor environments.

We took the opportunity to introduce a vibrant blue colourway and released Tropicalia in Coral, Gilver, Hollywood, Midnight, Porcelain Blue, and Sepia.

Learn more about solution dyed yarns in our previous article Outdoor fabrics that perform.

Despite our Australasian climate, we have an affinity for both plain and patterned velvets. Revisiting the original La Palma artwork we removed the iconic bananas from our CAD repeat to create Palm Springs.

Rather than simply digitally printing the fabric, the Mokum studio chose to weave our tropical foliage into a jacquard velvet. Employing a combination of loop and cut pile velvet techniques to capture the design in viscose yarns which catch the light and present a distinct lustre, reminiscent of the highlights within the original La Palma painting.

Palm Springs was recently launched in four colourways which coordinate with the Moonlight Memphis collection: Champagne, Palm Leaf, Topaz, and Whisky.

Learn more about Palm Springs in our previous article Weaving a jacquard velvet.