Carlow-born accessory designer and illustrator Rory Hutton’s Victorian home in Cambridge is also his studio
Photography by Anne Schwarz
“I live in Cambridge with my husband in a tiny Victorian terraced cottage. We have moved six times in twelve years, living in an art deco mansion block, a Scottish tenement with sky high ceilings and an apartment carved out of an Victorian villa; we have tried everything!
Our current house is very modest, built in the 1870s for workers on the nearby railway. Sadly, it has lost some of its original features and has some very ugly tiled fireplaces. However, it is in the city centre and it’s a great pleasure to be able to walk everywhere – this city is so picturesque, it’s like living in a postcard. We haven’t done much to the space, just filled it with our collections and our furniture, which is either antique or secondhand. Fresh flowers are a luxury I can’t live without, as is being surrounded by lots of books and beautiful things. I am a librarian’s son so books have always been the backdrop to my life. My husband is half-Chinese and collects Chinese ceramics and works of art – decorative portraits of his ancestors dominate one wall. My taste is quite traditional – I collect and use Victorian majolica among a lot of other things. My collecting has always inspired my work.
Home is also my studio and I work from our living room. My business has developed slowly and steadily over the past ten years. Collaboration is at the heart of my work; I especially love working with museums and heritage institutions. Reinterpreting historical themes for modern audiences is a great privilege. My favourite commissions are the ones that commemorate anniversaries and celebrate the lives of great people. I have worked on anniversaries of Dame Margot Fonteyn, Noel Coward and Madame de Pompadour. Last year, Westminster Abbey commissioned me to design its Platinum Jubilee scarf which was another very special commission. Currently I am I working with the team at Highgrove House, designing a range of commemorative products to mark King Charles’ coronation, on May 6.
My Garden Collection, my most popular range, began as three silk scarves celebrating 20th-century gardeners Bunny Mellon, Vita Sackville-West and Lady Rhoda Birley. Through learning about these women and their stories I gardened vicariously. I love the interiors created and lived in by women such as Jackie Kennedy, Nancy Lancaster, Lady Diana Cooper and Sybil Connolly. Their homes referenced the grand French and English styles, yet were very personal and comfortable. They were evocative of an elegant style of living from a bygone era, which really appeals to me.” www.roryhutton.co.uk.
Rory Hutton studied fashion design at Limerick School of Art and Design and design history at The National College of Art and Design, Dublin.
In the kitchen, a selection of jugs used for flower arranging.
The dressing room is used to store accessories and surplus pictures, books and antique miniatures.
The Regency gentleman (above) is mounted as a brooch, which Rory wears on his lapel.
Artworks by Rosie West and Emily Maude hang above a Staffordshire zebra, found at Portobello Market.
The bathroom, with Georgian-style fretwork mirror, bamboo chair and embroidered linen.
The Laura Ashley sofa is from eBay, the round table, another charity shop find. The antique French chair is upholstered with one of Rory’s favourite scarves, Orangery Garden.
She is the queen of no makeup makeup and even manages to make a smokey eye look subtle. When everyone else was going for heavy contour and laminated eyebrows, she continued to promote enhancing your natural features with simple tricks and smart product placement. If you have seen any of her videos, you will notice how little product she actually uses. Even Victoria Beckham commented how surprised she was when she went to remove her makeup after a shoot with Lisa on how little product was applied.