After a career in theatre design, haute couture (working for Catherine Walker) and then a stint as an accessories designer, Sophie Barnard went back to the drawing board – quite literally – and back to her real passion, print. She has created beautiful hand-designed patterns that she then applies to a collection of loungewear and accessories, including these beautifully made silk eye masks (£35). They are currently available in seven different silk prints and all can be personalised with an embroidered monogram (from £20 per letter). Each Longstaff Longstaff mask is lightweight and blissfully comfortable, with a generous shape, pretty quilting and a gathered silk band to gently keep it in situ.
Barnard’s luscious prints echo her passion for the highly decorative English and Russian patterns of the late-19th and early-20th centuries – the rich illustrations of Ivan Bilibin and Léon Bakst, folk embroidery and the lush designs of William Morris. Her floral prints can be co-ordinated or mixed and matched – Barnard also makes silk robes (from £495), pyjamas (shirts £205, trousers £195, shorts £139), slips (from £295) and even notebooks (from £20). All materials are sourced and manufactured in the UK and she worked with shirtmaker Sean O’Flynn to perfect the cut of her pyjamas – the immaculate finish is testament to her thorough attention to detail.
