Coral Stephens’ line of hand-woven carpets, curtains, throws and scatter cushions have long since been de rigueur for cultured homes. Artist William Kentridge recalls how, at just three years old, he noticed Coral Stephens’ mohair curtains in his parents’ Joburg home.
The bespoke woven decor fabric is worth its weight in gold (traded on the stock market) and has been dressing up international residences for decades, all the while made in the world’s smallest monarchy, the Kingdom of Eswatini.
Pretoria-born Coral Stephens set up the handweaving studio in Northern (then) Swaziland in the late 1940s. Since then, Coral Stephens Studio has been weaving bespoke decor fabrics while passing down skills through generations of weavers and dyers, where mothers and daughters have continued the artisanal craft, staying with the studio over the years.
In our digital era with the world at war, it’s reassuring that some 75 years later, the small studio in Piggs Peak is still producing hand-spun mohair, hand-dyed and made to order the same way as they have always been made. Some vintage patterns are still woven and the fabric retains the feel and spirit of a past era of luxury living.
Today Coral’s granddaughter-in-law, Murrae Stephens runs the business, guiding the thriving studio through the 21st century, experimenting with a glamorous colour palette, playing with texture and inspiring interior designers around the world.
One such designer, the London-based, worldwide-working Linda Boronkay, an interior designer known for her creative style of mixing texture and pattern uses Coral Stephens berry hues, deep red and mustard mohair curtains for her latest show home, located at the ‘last word in luxury living’, Whiteleys in Bayswater, London.
‘We really wanted to take every opportunity to create that kind of texture. These curtains have a beautiful lustre to them.’
Boronkay told the London Times earlier this month. In case you’re wondering, the high-end flat on the fifth floor of the former department store costs 11.5 million pounds fully dressed, including Coral Stephens custom curtains.