Collagerie's Lucinda Chambers on our exclusive home collaboration

Back in 2019, Vogue fashion editors Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood created Collagerie, a curated shopping platform with a mission statement to ‘delight and inspire, finding you the one thing over everything’.

To celebrate the launch of our exclusive capsule collection with the brand, we sat down with Lucinda to find out more.

It’s such a pleasure to meet you. You and co-founder Serena set Collagerie up just before the pandemic. Can you tell us what that was like?

In terms of business, people turned to online – and so out of something pretty catastrophic, it was a good time to launch. It was really important to us is that the website wasn't visually anxiety-inducing. We wanted to make it as beautiful, fabulous and uplifting a product as we could build, and we wanted people to think, “Oh yes, I can have a browse around and find something that really inspires me.” Collagerie didn’t add to people’s stress or anxiety levels.

Finding the ‘one thing over everything’ must make it hard to decide which brands to stock?

Our key words are surprise and delight, so we look for pieces that have longevity, but are also surprising for that brand. We want to find the one thing that is not the obvious thing, while also finding new brands. We look carefully at each and every product, so even though there's not a common link in the sense that you can have a Gucci handbag next to a John Lewis bath mat, every product is curated with everybody’s budget in mind. That was really important to us from the beginning. 

Tell us how the collaboration with John Lewis began?

We'd worked with John Lewis on smaller edits and then we created a presentation featuring pyjamas and sleepwear. I used prints I thought would resonate with the John Lewis customer from my archive of vintage prints, they were very floral and beautiful. When we presented it the feedback was, “This is exactly what we had in our minds, but actually we’d love you to make it bigger.” It was almost like a dream!

The prints were so resonant of what John Lewis has in its archive that we went and spent a day in the archives, which was so inspirational and fabulous. Did you know the John Lewis archives have over 22,000 prints? It’s staggering! We looked after over a thousand prints and we picked quite a lot, then we worked for over a year to make this collection come to life.

Do you have a customer in mind when you design a collection?

I think if you have a customer in mind it can bring on limitations. But what I think is really important is respect for the brand I am working with and what their DNA is, while also bringing something fresh to the table. 

We’re coveting the entire collection. Do you have a favourite piece?

Obviously, I really love everything, but my standout piece is a really beautiful giant eiderdown, which has a maximalist green leaf print on a cotton base. It’s so versatile and can go on a sofa, chair or your bed. It’s extreme because of the size but I love it. I also love the maximalist white bubble lamp with the matching shade, that also matches a quilt. Oh, and I love the fern leaf duvet covers.

The tablescape collection is strong. Do you have any tips for hosting dinner parties you can share with us? 

As somebody who has style not substance, I am not the most brilliant cook. I always cook something I am really familiar with – although my friends have become really familiar with my dishes too, and they’ll say, “Can we turn the page of the Delia cookbook over yet for a new recipe!”

I think if a table looks like a feast for the eyes it looks so uplifting. I never match, I always mismatch my glasses and plates and I run things along the table at different heights. It’s important to make sure everybody can see each other across the table, so I don’t block the view with tall flowers or high candles. I just want to make any dinner as celebratory as possible because it makes people feel like it’s special.

One thing I’ve always done is name place cards. Then I keep them so that when people come back they have the same card they have had before - some were made by my children when they were younger so you have these 20-year-old place cards made with glitter glue. I love them. 

What's been your career highlight to date?

Well, the people at John Lewis are just sensational. So I think when you work on something like this collaboration and you work with such incredible people who have been at John Lewis for decades, that is a highlight. Everyone was onboard and excited about the ideas. Then when you actually get to see all the products together it’s a real 'pinch me' moment. What was in your head is now in front of you for people to buy. 

We've rounded up our favourite pieces below, but to see the whole collection click here.