Katie Larmour is an Irish designer-maker who trained as an Applied Artist at the University of Ulster’s School of Art and Design in Belfast, graduating in ceramic medium for her degree show in 2006. She worked as an art and antiques dealer for eight years after her graduation, before pursuing her lifelong dream of setting up Katie Larmour Design Studio in 2014.
Katie specialises in creating luxury items from Irish Linen. The natural, undyed oatmeal linen has become a signature hallmark of all her pieces. Made from the flax plant, Irish Linen is an eco-friendly, sustainable alternative to fabrics that use fertilisers and pesticides. It needs little water, and the whole plant is used, making it a waste-free crop. In a world of mass production and throw-away fashions, Katie’s handcrafted cushions are of a unique, one-of-a-kind beauty, examples of which have been acquired by discerning international fashionistas, A-list stars, and even royal families. She started the brand up at a time when there wasn’t much happening in the designing world of Irish Linen. Its revival and spot in the niche luxury market has only but grown. Her brand is listed on the official website of the Irish Linen Guild as a certified “trusted and recommended” purveyor of Irish Linen goods as an associate member.
Including Irish Linen in her designs was a simple decision for Katie. As she explains - “Irish Linen has always been around me - from my childhood in Northern Ireland, right through to the present day. Growing up, I could see a host of huge linen mills and factory chimneys still dotted across the city skyline’, adding - “At the start of the 18th century my forbears in the Larmour family came to Ireland with a great influx of French Huguenots who brought with them their new tools, techniques, and artisan skills to firmly establish the linen industry in Northern Ireland, and see it rise to a become a world leader in textiles. This is the tradition to which I am adding my particular vision.”
“I am very passionate about celebrating Irish Linen and its unique qualities. The aim of my studio is to contribute to, and promote, high craftsmanship, with designs that are timeless and classic, but with a contemporary freshness. Each piece has a precious and individual beauty, complemented by the rawness of the pure Irish Linen texture” adds Katie.
The studio has had some recent success and recognition. In 2015, Katie exhibited her luxecycled cushions in ‘A Year of Irish Design’ during Belfast’s first Design Week. She won a place with the British European Design Group (BEDG) to exhibit with them in New York as part of New York Design Week in 2016, where her entire sample collection of contemporary patchwork cushions and handcrafted quilts were purchased by an interior design boutique in the Hamptons, Long Island. In 2017 Katie collaborated with the prestigious Heals of London designing and producing a range of Irish Linen homewares for their Tottenham Court Road flagship store.
She has been selected and profiled as ‘maker of the week’ by the Crafts Council of England. She was featured as a celebrated maker at the first ever Linen Biennale taking place in Northern Ireland as well as taking part in their launch campaign in 2018 . She joined the local Irish Linen community selling their wares in the pop-up Linenopolis store in the newly developed Linen Quarter and was the campaign face of the Linen Quarter’s launch itself. She exhibited in Conway Mill’s ‘Fragments of Time’ group exhibition on Irish Linen and also the ‘Island Art Centre’s ‘Lost in Linen’ exhibition later that year.
Katie’s work has also been featured on the front cover of ‘House Beautiful’ magazine, Elle Decor, had a write up in ‘Haute Living’ magazine (USA), been in the Financial Times ‘How To Spend It’ supplement, and selected for inclusion in ‘Antiques & Home’ magazine’s ‘picks’ pages multiple times as well as a regular in the Irish Times supplements.
Katie’s original and unique idea of pairing rare vintage silk scarves backed with Irish Linen to make exquisite one-of-a-kind cushions, are currently available through such fashionable outlets as the New York-based antique dealership 1stdibs.com; the Agresti concession in Harrods via a showpiece and catalogue; Butchoff Fine Antiques on Kensington Church Street, just a stone’s throw away from Kensington Palace; and a 20 piece collection of vintage scarf cushions were available in Brown Thomas, Dublin’s premiere luxury department store, as part of their sustainability themed ‘Create’ project in 2018 and also appeared again in their Christmas ‘Marvel Room’ following on from that.
As her brand has grown Katie Larmour added new strands and has expanded into producing soft fabric festive decorations as Christmas decorations and souvenirs created from salvaged Irish linen and exquisite beadwork that sparkle like ‘jewellery for the tree’, which became widely available to Northern Ireland’s flourishing tourist market in 2019. Katie often incorporates vintage textiles within her work and for this line she resourcefully uses sustainable material by sourcing linen mill dead-stock, uses her own gathered off-cuts and a portion of the beading is cleverly reclaimed/recycled. Stocked in over 80 outlets in their first season and growing (now over 100 globally), they can be found across Northern Ireland, and further afield, in the gift shops of stately homes, magnificent castles, 5* hotels, national museums and galleries, prestigious libraries, City Halls, upmarket design-led boutiques, a host of official tourist offices and parliament buildings. They also won a spot on ‘The Big Bauble 2019’, Craft NI’s annual Christmas decoration project.
2020 saw her debut an exciting ‘short window’ collection of ladies apparel to coincide with her participation with her tv appearances. Her ‘Roisin’ ruffle top was a natural extension of her signature ‘Rose’ cushion, and as with all her creations over the years she has continued to give them traditional Irish names. In tune with her brand the garments use deadstock local linen fabric, are in small limited edition batches with a slow making ethos. ‘In a world of throw away fashion I wanted to make something I would wear myself’. These will be kept exclusive to katielarmour.com. Linking in with her latest endeavour sees Katie take part as a judge on the BBC series ‘A Stitch Through Time ‘ with her expertise on heritage textiles, filmed in 2020 and airing the following Autumn 2021. Based on the success of the first round, the team have now just finished filming a second series.
We make as much as we can in Ireland. All our cushions and garments are hand stitched in Ireland. Our Christmas decoration range is embroidered in India by small group of highly skilled artisan makers, that we work closely with, embellishing our scrap fabric in a ‘zari’ technique which is traditional to the region, transforming them into something beautiful. They are ethically made, by a small family run business, and our maker’s our SEDEX audited and certified. Each and every bead colour and placement is designed by designer Katie (and copyrighted). We slow ship the fabric which minimises emissions of the logistics. The labels and final packaging on the festive decoration are then done by hand in Ireland. Our swing tag labels are made from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper. The Irish Linen is a mixture of - vintage cloth, antique cloth, our own off-cuts from cushion making, local linen mill waste fabric and deadstock rolls. A portion of the beading may be reclaimed (a portion of which is purchased from Oxfam Ireland’s warehouse), and a portion of the padding inside is recycled sofas. No dye, harsh chemicals, or machinery are involved in the making process. We are constantly updating and striving to improve our materials, methods and quality.
Katie Larmour is a member of: Craft NI (since 2005), the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (2015), the Crafts Council of England (2017), the Ulster Society of Women Artists (2012), the British European Design Group (2015), the Irish Linen Guild (2014) .
